Social Media Usage Amongst University of Botswana First Year Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Despite extensive literature about social media usage among tertiary students, little is reported about Botswana's context. This study therefore seeks to investigate the extent of social media adoption among University of Botswana (UB) first year students. The study adapted a questionnaire that has been developed and tested for the measurement of social media usage in India. Students who registered for Information and Computing Skills Fundamentals II (ICT122) in five faculties in UB during the academic year 2021/22 participated in the study. The findings show that WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram were the most commonly used applications. Social media was mostly used for entertainment purposes followed by academic use. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of dimensions of social media use of first year undergraduate students across the various faculties and students background in relation to location and type of secondary education. Furthermore, in general students faced some constraints with social media use, although overall it was moderate.