INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON MARITAL HARMONY IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

Abstract

The paper examined the use of social networking sites and its influence on marital harmony among spouses in the South-South zone of Nigerian. The study was guided by four research objectives that were converted to research questions. The survey research design was used for the study with the questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. A total of 385 couples were sampled for the study using multi-stage sampling technique. In the analysis of data for the study, simple percentages were used while data were presented in tables. The study found that the Facebook was the most used SNS. The duration of use of SNS was found to be between 2-4 hours. The result also showed that the use of SNS negatively impact on marital status in the area of love, conflict, ambivalence and maintenance. Overall, the use of SNS was found to serve as a breeding ground for infidelity and divorce. The study therefore recommended, among others, that spouses should be most open in terms been able to express feelings of marital dissatisfactions and concern and should seek marital counselling or professional where need be.