ACTUALIZING SOCIAL MEDIA AND CYBER INVOLVEMENT FOR CAPACITY BUILDING AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AMONG STUDENTS OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

This study ascertained ways of actualizing social media cyber involvement for capacity building and sustainable economic development among students of tertiary institutions in Delta State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 3,448 lecturers in 11 public tertiary institutions in Delta State. Using convenience sampling technique, 1724 lecturers were sampled. The instrument for data collection was a 35-item structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the items, which yielded reliability co-efficient values of 0.91, 0.94 and 0.83 for clusters B1 to B3. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Variance was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. . The findings of the study revealed that the respondents agreed that students engage in cybercrime through social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube amongst others and also agreed with the possible ways to educate students on the negative impact of involving in internet cybercrime which included creation of  awareness and education on legal consequences of cybercrime and digital ethics in tertiary institutions and finally agreed with ways to re-direct students on the positive impact of using internet for capacity building and economic sustainability. The study equally revealed significant influence of institution type on respondents’ ratings on the ways to re-direct students on the positive impact of using internet for capacity building and sustainable economic development. The study concluded that tertiary institution students in Delta State are engaging in cybercrime through internet cyberspace, despite the fact that they should be at the forefront enlightening other students and serving as a resource for offering control measures on the use of social media handles