DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2022.v10i07.008

Pages: 370-376

Education is the pivot and tool for individual and national development. Therefore, it is important to ensure that learners in school are educated with quality and with minimal distractions. Unfortunately, social media has become one of the biggest sources of distraction for learners everywhere. Learners who have limited parental or school monitoring, such as those who attend public day secondary schools in urban environments, tend to suffer most from the use of social media. Therefore, the study examined the extent of social media usage among students in public day secondary schools in Eldoret urban, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study used ex-post facto (causal comparative research design). The target population was 5,720 students of Form 4 and Form 3 from 22 public day secondary schools. Only 7 public day secondary schools were selected using stratified random sampling technique. The sample size consisted of 182 participants selected accordingly (140 students and 42 teachers). The study used structured questionnaires for data collation. Data was handled using descriptive statistics and presented using charts, graphs and tables. The results showed that the students used the major social network sites such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Google. Students mainly used these platforms for socializing activities rather than academic purposes. The students used platforms for chatting, making friends and for entertainment purposes. It is recommended that the schools, in collaboration with the parents, should develop media platforms for the students that could incorporate academic features to assist in drawing learners’ focus from non-scholarly activities. The study provides insight for parents, teachers and those responsible for learners to know the nature of activities that learners undertake on social media. The research also provides data or information that can be used for in education, especially on the issues of digital ...........