CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
For many around the globe communications have turned the entire world into a global village through the internet, electronic media and portals. The social networking sites have become one of the most popular ways for people to be better informed, enlightened, exchange messages and keep abreast with almost all of the electronic educated student or youth.
In the ancient days, teens spent hairs alone in their rooms or with close friends playing outside their houses, trying different outfits and modeling around the corner. Now, social networking could be seen as a way of describing the display of everyday practices of social interaction that have played a crucial role in enabling people to communicate on a platform.
Furthermore, social networking sites has becomes a global phenomenon in the past few years. What started out as a hobby for some computer literate people has become a social norms and way of life for people around the globe (Boyd 2007).
Social networking is the social relation among people who share interest, activities and background connections for users to interact over the internet. Living stone and Brake (2010). In their opinion said ‘social networking site like much else on the internet representing a moving target for researchers and policy makers’.
Presently around the world, the use of social networking has enabled networking around the world very simple, students in particular have made browsing social networking sites a daily practices and has reduced the way most student stay connected to their academic activities as many prefer to chat online while many think that social networking has no effects on their academic achievement. These made the researchers to study the habits of students and carefully look into the effect of social networking and how they affect the academic achievement of senior secondary school student in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
1.2              STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In Nigeria, people tend to do what are trending activities especially the student, they are the first who adopt was things particularly in social networking sites.
Since the advent of social media sites in the 1990s. it is assumed in some quarters that the academic achievement of student is facing a lot of neglect and challenges. There is a deviations distraction and divided attention between social networking activities and their academic work.
The sites have led to the biggest problems in our academic environment in which average student spend 9 (nine) house a week on social networking sites (Willard 2009). Also, it is observed that student devote more attention to social media than they do their studies. Therefore, the question this study is out to answer is; what are the effect of social networking and how do they affect the academic achievement of senior secondary students in Abeokuta, Ogun State.