THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ON ENGLISH WRITING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

The advent and use of social media in the field of education has undoubtedly brought about many advantages and disadvantages to students and the educational system. In the midst of the numerous advantages of social media usage to student’s academic performance, there is an outcry on its extreme effect on the students writing skills in English. The aim of this paper is to find out how social media affect the English writing pattern of students in the faculty of humanities and faculty of sciences in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education giving specific attention to misspelt words, the extreme use of substitutions, shorthand, and abbreviations in both formal and informal writing. A total population of 138 students’ workbooks from the two faculties were used as the study population and also 75 Facebook and 55 WhatsApp messages. A sample of 138 students’ workbooks were purposive selected and analyzed. Students general studies’ workbook, Facebook and WhatsApp were used as the research instrument for the study. The data was analyzed using frequency and percentage table. Findings of the study revealed that social media has greatly impacted on the writing skills of students in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education.  It was recommended that the students should  the effects of social media on their English writing skills and readjust in their level of usage.