Social Network Infusion Model in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

This study identified the Social Media that were most commonly used by students of tertiary institutions across south-western Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect information about the Social Media that were adopted by students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The results of the study showed that social media adopted were: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, WeChat, ResearchGate, Academia and Line; the most commonly used social media included: Facebook, SnapChat, Twitter and Instagram by at least 55% of the students while ResearchGate, Line, Academia, WeChat and LinkedIn accessed only when there were notifications. The results also showed that the earliest adopted social media included: Facebook in 2007 with 1 user, Twitter in 2009 with 3 users, Instagram and WhatsApp in 2010 with 1 and 8 users respectively. The impact of social media showed that at least 67% of the students suggested it had good impacts on their productivity and functionality as students. This study concluded that among the identified social media, about 55% of students agreed that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, LinkedIn, Line and ResearchGate were more presently in use. This study showed that using a polynomial model of degree m, the total number of students of higher institutions adopting social media from the year of adoption can be estimated based on the value of the number of years after social media adoption, n (in years).