CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION       Background to the Study

The information revolution is making significant impact in all spheres of our lives. It offers easy approach to methods and means of doing things. Massive transformation is experienced in terms of communication and interactions between individuals, organisations and groups of people all over the world. Our current means of communication and information sharing can never be compared to what it used to be some years back. In fact, it would sound mythical and incredible to envisage or forecast the likely existence or usage of the instant messaging or information sharing techniques we are enjoying today. This is due to the fact that some of the information sharing techniques available some few decades ago which included telegrams, postal services, landline telephone calls, etc. were relatively costly, quite cumbersome or time consuming, and also unreliable. Technological advancement, especially social media, is the order of the day and serves as an antidote to the challenges associated with the former means of communication and information sharing. Recent statistics indicate that over two-thirds (2/3), that is 66.7% of internet users and about one-third (1/3), 33.3% of the world’s population are social media sites users (Kemp, 2017a, b).

According to Leyrer-Jackson and Wilson (2018), social media are “websites and technological applications that allow its users to share content and/or to participate in social networking”. Social media has become ubiquitous, providing some means and enhancement of learning for users irrespective of time and location (Yang, 2006). Social media has impacted greatly how

organizations, institutions of higher learning, individuals and communities interact or engage each other. Social media are of six main types: “collaborative project (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010; Choe et al. 2016), blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter), content communities (e.g. YouTube), social networking platforms (e.g. Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), as well as virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life)”.

According to Bamigboye and Olusesan (2017), “Social Media activities include; bloggings, picture-sharing, v logs, wall-postings, e-mailing, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowd sourcing and voice over IP, to name a few”. “It is a platform used for communication through mobile phones, smart phones, palm tops and handheld devices, computers, tablet PCs, laptops, desktops, iPad, iPod, Blackberry and Android on social network sites as Facebook, Twitter, 2go, google+, flicker (Kietzmann, 2011)”. Blogging includes some of the popular social media sites making a lot of meaningful impact so far as professional and personal relationships are concerned. One of the major characteristics of the young generation of today is the creation of blogs, tools for transmitting files and sharing media, podcasts, wikis, etc. which has changed students’ interactions and relations with instructors and also pedagogical processes (Bharucha, 2018).

The youth of today are fond of taking digital images of themselves with their mobile devices called “selfies”. They are caught up with the craze of sharing memorable images of themselves. Capturing an image of one’s self guarantees a place in history for the individual especially when the individual is in a fashionable clothing or apparel, partaking in an exercise or occasion, in an interesting or historic environment, etc. Many also take selfies in the midst of accomplishing

some daunting tasks, in class, worship centres, among others. These images are mostly shared on social media (Shah and Tewari, 2016; Jain and Mavani, 2017).

As of October 2018, some of the famous social media sites with their respective active users were Facebook (2.23 billion), YouTube (1.90 billion), WhatsApp (1.50 billion), Facebook messenger (1.30 billion), WeChat (1.058 billion), Instagram (1 billion) active users, etc. (Statista, 2018). According to statistics of the world’s internet usage, there were 4,208,571,287 estimated internet users in the world, with 55.1% penetration rate as of 30th June, 2018. Also, Africa’s population in 2018 was estimated to be 1,287,914,329 of which 464,923,169 used the internet. The continent’s penetration rate was 36.1%. By December 31st 2017, Facebook users worldwide numbered 2,119,060,152 while that of Africa was 177,005,700. Users of internet in Ghana as of December 2017 were 10,110,000 with 34.3% internet penetration. Again, 4,900,000 out of the aggregate internet users in Ghana used Facebook (Internet World Statistics, 2018).

The National Communication Authority (NCA) of Ghana reported that subscribers of mobile data in Ghana has increased tremendously with a 75.54% penetration rate. As of the end of July 2018, mobile data subscriber base appreciated to 22,044,592 (NCA, 2018). The consequences of the statistics is that the number of people that subscribe to the internet and possess or use mobile devices will keep increasing, resulting in increase in mobile data subscription. That will in turn translate into more people joining the use of social media worldwide day by day.

1. 1. This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research work
2. 2. As a source for additional understanding of the subject.
3. 3. As a source for ideas for your own research work (if properly referenced).
4. 4. For PROPER paraphrasing (see your university definition of plagiarism and acceptable paraphrase)
5. 5. Direct citing (if referenced properly)
Thank you so much for your respect to the authors copyright.