Effects of social networking sites usage on psychological well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian universities

This study examined social networking sites usage on psychological well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities. Descriptive survey design was adopted, stratified sampling technique was used to select 6 universities and simple random sampling technique was used to select 736 participates. An adapted questionnaire on the sub-ject matter was used for data collection; the instrument was validated through face and content validity and Test re-test method of reliability was adopted yielded .6.8. Results showed that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates’ Psychological well-being, X 2 (736) = 442.736 , p=.000; there was also a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates’ moral well-being X 2 (736) =344.965; social well-being X 2 (736)=91.269; intellectual well-being X 2 (736)=212.288, p=.000; and emotional well-being X 2 (736)=125.603 p=.000 at P ˂ 0.05. Based on these findings, it was recommended that social networking sites should be properly used by undergraduates in order enhance their psychological wellbeing.


Introduction
Information is an essential means of human functioning, it also a channel of transmitting and transforming ideas among every individual. People communicate with one another in order to share ideas, disseminate information, persuade and facilitate connections. The engagement of individuals in using social networking sites has become very rampant and famous globally (Olasinde, 2014). Meanwhile, the role of social networking sites in the development of every individual cannot be undermined; it plays a vital role in enhancing human psychological wellbeing. Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Whatsapp, Videogames, among others have been considered as integral parts of human over all well-being. These sites are deeply ingrained into individuals' daily life activities most especially youths. It has been established by several findings as at the time of conducting this study that roughly 85% youths spend most of their time visiting social networking sites. Social networking has become extremely popular in our recent society, something we cannot reject but accept and it is commonly used by youths in this current generational trend.
Social Network sites are web-based services allowing individuals to construct a semi-public or public profile in a bounded system. Spending maximum the time on them, social networking sites are used to communicate with people who are friends or connected through the social network sharing same mind-set or same interest and views. Social networking sites are not only popular in providing a platform for chatting, sharing scraps, videos, picture, etc., but also for discussing social issues. Quantitative studies also converge with this finding that youths mostly use social network services to interact with friends and not to meet strangers (Agosto & Abbas, 2010). Social networking sites provide numerous interactive platforms based on the objectives of the founders. For instance, social, political, education, economic, sports, romantic and religious platform (Helen, et, al, 2014). The social networking sites by their nature are means of orienting, enlightening, educating, informing, entertaining and inflaming the audience or general public. The ability of social networking sites has become an unfold tool for communication and exchange of ideas, helping individuals and organizations with just causes to reach a phenomenally vast audience that could hitherto not be reached by traditional or local media (Onomo, 2012).
Social networking sites enable the users to have better communication and understanding with other people in building social relationship, sharing information, and knowledge related to the needs and activities in the real-life situation. Youths and adolescents spend most of their time interacting on social networks in their social life. The most important objective of using social networking sites is to develop social relationship and human psychological well-being. More importantly, the use of social networking sites by youths happens at the same time turning their self identity, sexual, physical, social, moral development and psychological well-being. The sites have immensely improved individuals social and emotional lives and thus which have a great influence on their development process (Eida, 2015). In the same vein, social networking sites also provide a supportive environment for the users to explore romance, friendship and social status and provide them the opportunity to share and discuss their must teal testes, knowledge and experience of television and movies, video games among other aspects of their cultural values (Ito, eta, al, 2008).

Literature
In Nigeria, the number of social network users is on the high rate. According to social bakers, a Facebook statistics site, Nigeria rated 35 th in the world in the number of Facebook users. According to the site, Facebook has an estimate of over 4 million Nigeria users, with the males dominating 65% while the females have 33% domination (Helen Charles & Jenifer, 2014). Various findings revolved that social media networking platforms provides greater learning and social interaction opportunities that improve people psychological well-being. It makes those who may otherwise be introverts to be confident and skillful. Conversely, social networking sites are 'hijacking childhood" by diverting attention and concentration of adolescents from what will improve and enhance their psychological well-being. Similarly, social networking sites are making today's adolescents narcissistic, prone to phobia and anxiety, depression and other anti-social and immoral behaviours (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008cited in Ashiekpe & Majaye, 2017. According to Ashiekpe and Mateye (2017), social networking sites are the new channels of knowledge acquisition, participation, involvement, affiliation, interaction and collaboration among youths. Visiting the sites has been considered as a usual activity which in turns equally benefited the users by facilitating and improving effective communication, interaction, entertainment and technical skills among others (Olasinde, 2014). Social development involves learning the values, knowledge and skills that enable an individual to relate to others efficiently and effectively and also contribute in positive ways to family, school, and community. This kind of learning is passed on to individuals directly by those who care for and teach them, as well indirectly through social relationships within the family or with friends, and through children participation in the culture around them. Through their relationships with others and their growing awareness of social values and expectations, individuals build a sense of who they are and the social roles available to them. As individual develops socially, they both respond to the influences around them and play an active part in shaping their relationships.
The information and communication technology has overshadowed traditional ways and practices of socializing youths specifically in urban settings. Traditionally, the family and the entire society play a vital role in inculcating moral value in adolescents and ensuring that they become responsible citizens. More so, rituals, Myths, omens and taboos are put in place to ascertain and ensure that moral values were maintained, sustained and honored. These cultural values are applied, for example, in teaching youths the meaning and significance of marriage as well as the importance of keeping their sexual purity until the time they get married, so this socialization is part and parcel of the indigenous African Education (Godfrey & Nisbert, 2014).
According to Matsika (2012), indigenous education helps to read and interpret their experiences with societal customs and values. The education culminated in holistic knowledge which is not compartmentalized into theoretical and practical intellectual and emotional, secular and sacred or materialist and spiritual forms (Matsika, 2012in Godfrey & Nisbert, 2014. In another words, the availability of information and communication technology has invariably presented an external point of control in such a way that local or urban adolescents' morals, attitudes and reactions are being shepherded by foreigners. Social networking which students' access through numerous e-learning resources has provided a yardstick or platform for them to buy into or acquire some morally detrimental moral ideas. Rukuni (2007) associated that Europe's moral libertinism which predominates social networking has exerted external pressure and control on the behaviour and attitude of the students.
Similarly, Psychological Well-being is considered in this context as the after-mart effect of social networking sites for the fact that engagement of individuals in the sites can result to either positive or negative psychological well-being. Well-being is described as the ability to perform and function, efficiently, effectively, and actively over the social, moral, intellectual, physical emotional, spiritual, and environmental aspects of health as the case may be (Gerring & Zimburdo, 2002). According to Kallay and Rus, (2013) psychological well-being embedded two dimensions: hedonic and eudemonic well-being. Hedonic well-being in other words implies subjective well-being which addresses the maximization of subjective happiness, pleasure and life satisfaction, while eudemonic well-being implies psychological well-being which explains the significance of living within ones values and accomplishing potential.
Various empirical studies and their findings on social networking sites and Psychological wellbeing had been reviewed to guide this study. There are divergent findings on social networking sites usage and Psychological well-being for instance, Kim and Lee (2011) found positive effect of social networking sites on Psychological well-being. In other worlds, there is positive effect of the number of Facebook friends and positive self-presentation on Face book on subjective wellbeing. In the same vein, Nabi, Prestin and So (2013) study revealed that the number of Facebook friends was positively attributed with perceived social support which in turn, reduced stress and physical illness, and increased psychological well-being. Valkenburg, Peter and Schouten (2006) found that interaction between friend networking sites use and well-being was dependent on the content of the interaction and communication that is the level to which their interaction and communication with other fellow on social networking sites was either positive or negative. Their results shown that positive feedback and life satisfaction were positively related, it also revealed that more positive feedback was attributed with higher levels of social self-esteem. Wang, Jackson, Gaskin, and Wang (2014) found a significant positive relationship between life satisfaction and use of social networking sites for social communication but not between life satisfaction and use of social networking sites for social entertainment. Burke and Kraut (2016) found that general Facebook communication was not associated with changes in psychological well-being over three months. They found that receiving communication from strong ties was related with higher well-being however, communication from weak ties was not related with psychological well-being. They also found that viewing user-broadcasted information was not significantly associated with a better sense of psychological well-being. Kross et, al. (2013) found that greater frequency of use of social networking sites was associated with lower level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction that is psychological well-being. Matsika (2012) who found that there is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on students' moral development, he explained that the availability of information and communication technology has invariably presented an external point of control in such a way that local or urban youths' morals, attitudes and reactions are being shepherded by foreigners.
Social Networking sites which adolescent students' access through numerous e-learning resources, has provided a yardstick or platform for them to buy into or acquire some morally detrimental moral ideas. To this end, it is being reported from the responses in this study not to be beneficial to moral development. Boyd (2008) who found that usage of social networking sites significantly predicts social development of adolescents. He explained that social networking sites revealed important information about how adolescents and youths are interacting with one another in the information age. He further stated that there are many reasons why adolescents and youths use social networking sites. The most prominent purpose is to stay in touch with friends and relatives. Similarly, Valkenburg and Peter (2006) found that usage of social networking sites significantly predicts social development of adolescents. He explained that social networks are a form of interactive entertainment. Thus, internet communication leads to an increase in closeness with friends, which increases psychosocial and psychological well-being of people. Most importantly, there is a connection between increased social networking sites usage and deteriorated mental health. Contrariwise, the most active social networking sites users have a predominantly high risk for developing mental health cases, making this connection particularly concerning (Amelia, 2014). Umbarson and Montez (2010) found that adults who are more socially connected with social networking sites and friends are healthier mentally and live longer than their more isolated counterparts.
In the same vein, Maulik et, al. (2011) revealed that those with increased social support from social networking sites and friends suffered less from mental health problems after a traumatic life event because of stress reduction function of the social support. In relation to social networking sites usage and emotional wellbeing Livingstone (2008) found positive effects of social networking sites usage and emotional well-being. He explained further that self-presentation in social networking sites develops identity and trust in others which is also beneficial to the emotional health of youths. He explained further that if positive interactions are observed on individual's profile pages then those interactions can make a youth more acceptable by others. An instance, if a youth posts something meaningful and reasonable about his second person and the third person sees it, then the third person might go to start hanging out with or like the first and the second persons better. Therefore, the first person has boosted himself through the nice information posted about other and the second person is liked by virtue of the nice things posted about him (Livingstone, 2008).
Additionally, Boyd (2015) asserted that because social networking sites are seen as a means to form identity and socialize with others, then the positive interaction that are taking place only assist to boost youth's emotional health. Contrariwise, Speneer (2018) found that the more time an individual spent on social media the more likely they were experienced a negative impact on their relationships. Emotional well-being also mediated the relationship between time spent using social media and the quality of that user's relationships. This implies that the more time a person spent on social media the more likely their emotional wellbeing declined which negatively impacted their relationships. Seo et, al. (2016) revealed that cell phone dependency, and by extension social media usage, led to decreased attention and increased depression which negatively impacted their social relationships. Cell phone addiction also contributed to declining self-esteem and emotional well-being.

Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this study is to examine social networking sites usage and their effects on psychological well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities Specifically, the study sought to examine: • Social networking sites usage and their effects on moral well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities • Social networking sites usage and their effects on social well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities • Social networking sites usage and their effects on intellectual well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities • Social networking sites usage and their effects on emotional well-being of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities

Scope of the Study
This study examined social networking sites usage and their effects on psychological wellbeing of undergraduates in Nigerian Universities. The study was limited to North Central geopolitical zone in Nigeria. The population for this study consisted of all undergraduates' students in six states in North Central, Nigeria including Federal Capital Territory Abuja; Kwara State; Kogi State; Niger State; Plateue State; Benue State; and Nasarawa State. The target population for this study was all social sciences undergraduates in the selected universities in the region. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select the respondents from each university. Seven hundred and thirty-six (736) undergraduates participated in the study. An instrument titled social networking sites and psychological well-being was used to elicit information from the respondents.

Research hypotheses
Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested to sharpen the focus of the study • There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' psychological well being • There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' moral well being • There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' social well being • There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' intellectual well being • There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' emotional well being

Research design
The research design employed in this study was a descriptive survey design. The descriptive survey research adopted in this study allowed for the sampling of large number of respondents. Thus, the survey method was considered most appropriate here as it gave ample opportunity for getting spontaneous reactions of the sample for eventual interpretation and analysis of phenomenon relating to the focus of this study. Importantly, it enabled the researcher to obtain data that helped described the effects of social networking sites usage on psychological well-being of undergraduates in Nigeria universities.

Population
The population for this study consisted of all undergraduates in North-Central Nigeria. While the target population for this study was all social sciences undergraduates in the selected universities in North-Central, Nigeria. Target population is the entire group that is of interest to the researcher with the purpose to undertake the study (Orodho, 2014). The study sample consisted of seven hundred and thirty-six (736) undergraduates selected across the six (6) selected universities in the zone.

Sample and sapling techniques
Stratified random sampling technique was used to select six universities across the zone; the justification for the selection of six universities was based on the fact that there are six states in North-central geo-political zone including Federal Capital Territory. In each state, one university was selected to make the findings of the study generalizable to all universities in Nigeria specifically, North-central geo-political zone. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select the respondents from each university. In line with this, Sambo (2008) posited that the best procedure for selecting a sample from an unequal population is the proportionate sampling technique.

Instrumentation
In this study, the collection of data was carried out with the use of researcher's self-developed questionnaire on social networking sites usage and Psychological well-being. It consisted of (40) items reflecting the four major aspects of psychological well-being examined in this study, thus, moral, social, intellectual, and emotional well-being. The instrument was scored on a modified five-point Likert-type scale as shown A Strongly Agree= 5, B. Agree=4, C. Undecided=3, D. Disagree=2 and E. Strongly Disagree=1.The instrument contained two sections: A and B. Section A contained demographic data of the respondents and this includes: gender, school type, and parents' socio-economic status while section B contained items on the questionnaire. The instrument was validated by experts in educational test and measurement through face and content validity. Test re-test method of reliability was adopted and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics yielded .6.8.

Data collection
Data collection is one of the crucial pillars in conducting research. In carrying out this research, an introductory letter was collected by the researcher from the Head of the researcher's institution. The researcher visited the selected six universities for the purpose of administering the instruments. Permission was sought from the authorities concerned in the selected universities. The instrument was administered to the respondents (undergraduates) by the researcher with the assistance of four trained research assistants.

Data analysis techniques
The formulated hypotheses were tested with the use Chi-square statistical analysis through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software at 0.05 level of significance.

Discussion and conclusion
HO1: There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' psychological well being  Table 1 shows that the calculated Cal. X 2 -value is 442.736 with calculated significance of 0.00 computed at critical alpha level of significance 0.05. Since the calculated significance (0.00) is lower than the critical alpha level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis is therefore rejected and restated that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' Psychological well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' Psychological well-being.  Table 2 shows that the calculated Cal. X 2 -value is 344.965 with calculated significance of 0.00 computed at critical alpha level of significance 0.05. Since the calculated significance (0.00) is lower than the critical alpha level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis is therefore rejected and restated that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' moral well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' moral well-being.  Table 3 shows that the calculated Cal. X 2 -value is 91.269 with calculated significance of 0.00 computed at critical alpha level of significance 0.05. Since the calculated significance (0.00) is lower than the critical alpha level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis is therefore rejected and restated that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' social well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' social well-being.  Table 4 shows that the calculated Cal. X 2 -value is 212.288 with calculated significance of 0.00 computed at critical alpha level of significance 0.05. Since the calculated significance (0.00) is lower than the critical alpha level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis is therefore rejected and restated that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' intellectual well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' intellectual well-being.  Table 5 shows that the calculated Cal. X 2 -value is 125.603 with calculated significance of 0.00 computed at critical alpha level of significance 0.05. Since the calculated significance (0.00) is lower than the critical alpha level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis is therefore rejected and restated that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' emotional well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' emotional well-being.

HO5: There is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' emotional well being
The study revealed that there was a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' Psychological well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had positive significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' Psychological well-being. This finding corroborates the findings of Kim and Lee (2011) who found that there is a positive effect social networking sites on Psychological well-being. In other worlds, there is positive effect of the number of Facebook friends and positive self-presentation on Face book on subjective well-being. In the same vein, Nabi, Prestin and So (2013) found that the number of Facebook friends was positively attributed with perceived social support which in turn, reduced stress and physical illness, and increased psychological well-being. Contrariwise, Kraut (2016) found that general Facebook communication was not associated with changes in psychological well-being over three months. They found that receiving communication from strong ties was related with higher well-being. However, communication from weak ties was not related with psychological well-being. They also found that viewing user-broadcasted information was not significantly associated with a better sense of psychological well-being. Kross et al., (2013) found that greater frequency of use of social networking sites was associated with lower level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction that is psychological well-being.
There was also a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' moral well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had positive significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' moral well-being. The finding of this study is in contrary to the finding of Matsika (2012) who found that there is no significant effect of social networking sites usage on students' moral development (well-being), he explained that the availability of information and communication technology has invariably presented an external point of control in such a way that local or urban adolescents' morals, attitudes and reactions are being shepherded by foreigners. Social Networking sites which adolescent students' access through numerous e-learning resources, has provided a yardstick or platform for them to buy into or acquire some morally detrimental moral ideas. To this end, it is being reported from the responses in this study not to be beneficial to moral development.
There is a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' social wellbeing. This implies that social networking sites usage had positive significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' social well-being. The finding of this study corroborates the finding of Boyd (2008) who found that usage of social networking sites significantly predicts social development of adolescents. He explained that social networking sites revealed important information about how youths are interacting with one another in the information age. He further stated that there are many reasons why youths use social networking sites. The most prominent purpose is to stay in touch with friends and relatives. Similarly, Valkenburg and Peter (2009) found that usage of social networking sites significantly predicts social development of adolescents. They explained that social networks are a form of interactive entertainment. Thus, internet communication leads to an increase in closeness with friends, which increases human psychological well-being.
There is a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' intellectual well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' intellectual well-being. This finding is consistent with the finding of Umbarson and Montez (2010) who found that adults who are more socially connected with social networking sites and friends are healthier mentally and live longer than their more isolated counterparts. In the same vein, Maulik et, al. (2011) revealed that those with increased social support from social networking sites and friends suffered less from mental health problems after a traumatic life event because of stress reduction function of the social support. Amelia (2014) found that there is a connection between increased social networking sites usage and deteriorated mental health. Contrariwise, young adults, the most active social networking sites user, have a predominantly high risk for developing mental health cases, making this connection particularly concerning.
There is a significant effect of social networking sites usage on undergraduates' emotional well-being. This implies that social networking sites usage had positive significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' emotional well-being. This finding corroborated with the finding of Livingstone (2008) who found a positive effect of social networking sites usage on emotional wellbeing. He asserted that self-presentation in social networking sites develops identity and trust in others which is also beneficial to the emotional health of youths. He explained further that if positive interactions are observed on individual's profile pages then those interactions can make a youth more acceptable by others. An instance, if a youth posts something meaningful and reasonable about his second person and the third person sees it, then the third person might go to start hanging out with or like the first and the second persons better. Therefore, the first person has boosted himself through the nice information posted about other and the second person is liked by virtue of the nice things posted about him (Livingstone, 2008). Additionally, Boyd (2015) asserted that because social networking sites are seen as a means to form identity and socialize with others, then the positive interaction that are taking place only assist to boost youths emotional health. Contrariwise, Speneer (2018) found that the more time an individual spent on social media the more likely they were experience a negative impact on their relationships. Emotional wellbeing also mediated the relationship between time spent using social media and the quality of that user's relationships. This implies that the more time a person spent on social media the more likely their emotional well-being declined which then negatively impacted their relationships. Seo et, al. (2016) revealed that cell phone dependency, and by extension social media usage, led to decreased attention and increased depression which negatively impacted their social relationships. Cell phone addiction also contributed to declining self-esteem and emotional well-being. This study therefore concludes that that social networking sites usage had significant effect on Nigerian undergraduates' Psychological well-being; moral well-being; social well-being; intellectual wellbeing; and emotional well-being.

Contributions of the research findings to the field of application and literature
It is believed that the findings of this study assist undergraduates' students in Nigeria universities to be aware of both positive and negative effects of social networking sites usage on their psychological well-being. The findings of this study will also assist the universities teachers to know the significance and the effects of social networking sites on students' psychological wellbeing. This will enable them to assist and guide those students on the need to make use of the good aspect of social networking sites in order to facilitate and improve their well-being. The outcome of study will afford the school counselors and psychologists to exhibit their professional skills through the guidance, mentoring, advice and orientation given to students on how to judiciously use social networking sites as to influence their life positively. More importantly, the findings of this study will assist further researchers in the same field or area of study; this can serve as a guide for further improvement to be done on their future researches. In the same vein, the findings of this study will contribute and add values to the existing knowledge in the field of social sciences and specifically in the field of psychology. The findings of this study will provide useful information to the school administration, stakeholders in education and the government on the effects of social networking sites on undergraduates' psychological well-being.

Recommendations
In view of the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: 1. That undergraduates in Nigerian Universities should improve the usage of social networking sites for the development of their overall well-being, specifically, social and moral, intellectual and emotional well-being; 2. It is also recommended that undergraduates should be given proper orientation on how to positively and judiciously utilize the sites in order have positive effects on their psychological well-being.
3. This study recommended that government, school administrators and all relevant stakeholders should develop a policy and curriculum that mediates technology with social moral, mental and emotional education.