Social media usage and academic performance in secondary schools, Kenya

The study surveyed the impact of social media on students’ academic performance in public day secondary schools. The study was conducted in Kisii County; Kenya where 1132 respondents, (students, teachers and principals) participated in the study. Researcher used mixed method research design. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to obtain the sample of the study. The objectives of the study were: to established whether secondary school students were aware of any social media places, to establish which social media sites were frequented by students in public day secondary schools and find out the influence of social media on students’ academic performance in public day secondary schools. The outcomes revealed that majority of students in day secondary school were aware and access social media sites with majority of them spending an average of over two hours per day. The most frequented social sites being What’s Up and Facebook and teachers, students and principal strongly agreed that access of social media sites by high school students has affected negatively their academic and language usage.