Influence of internet use on socialization among the youth: a case of undergraduate students at University of Nairobi (UON)-main campus

Abstract

This research project report addressed the influence of internet use on socialization among the undergraduate students taking a target population of University Of Nairobi students in Main campus. The objectives for this study were to establish the influence of internet use on purposes, frequency and forms of internet use on socialization among the undergraduate students of university of Nairobi. The accessible population of the study was 15,000 from main campus. Data was collected from a sample of 384 students from the university via use of questionnaire and an interview guide as data collection tools. The data collected was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics. In particular excel SPSS and frequency tables were used. Results indicated that internet use may not have a negative effect on socialization as indicated in literature.

The findings uphold that internet users spend more time socializing with friends when compared to non - users. The forms of internet mostly used by University of Nairobi students are internet enabled cell phones followed by computer labs and cyber cafes. Internet enabled cell phones were preferred because of the portability, convenience and cost while computer labs was preferred because of accessibility and the fact that they are free. The social sites mostly used by both the undergraduate students were face book, electronic mail, yahoo messenger, twitter and Skype. Some of the recommendation for the university of Nairobi should exploit that more educational content are passed onto the students through the internet which will further pave way for e-learning.