USE 0F SOCIAL MEDIA AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR TENDENCIES AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OGOJA EDUCATION ZONE OF CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA.

The study investigated Use of Social Media and Deviant Behaviour Tendencies among Senior Secondary School Students in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. The rate of deviant behavior among secondary school students currently is very alarming, such as students going into cultism, pre-marital sex, smoking and drinking, vandalism, fighting, gossiping, aggressiveness, truancy, disrespect of constituted authorities and elders, stealing, examination malpractice, and destruction of school properties. One research questions was posed while one statements of hypotheses was formulated to guide the study. A survey research design, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were adopted. A total of 540 students constituted the research population sample, through stratified simple random simple random sampling. The research Use of Social Media Questionnaire (USMQ) and Deviant Behaviour Questionnire (DBQ) was use for data collection. 20 public secondary schools were randomly selected from the 76 public secondary schools representing 26% of the entire public secondary schools in the zone, the sample represents 10% of SS 1 students from the sample schools. The data obtained were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result revealed that, use of the social media influenced deviant behaviour tendencies. Based on these findings, recommendation were made, among which were, that parent should take more interest in the welfare of their children, more especially as it concerns the topic of friends they keep. Again, the provision of adequate personnel such as sociologist, psychologist, and vocational guidance counsellors in public secondary schools is necessary as to change the law-breakers into law abiders. In line with the findings, seminar and conference should be organized to educate students on the influence of social media on deviant behaviour tendencies and the danger in the society.