Adolescents’ Social Networking and Self-Concept in Public Mixed Day Secondary Schools in Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya

Self-concept among adolescents is dynamic because of the struggle to find true identity while maintaining social acceptability. Social media may be seen as a social laboratory providing freedom to experiment with different presentations of self. The study examined the relationship between selected social networking sites (WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram) and the adolescents’ self-concept in public mixed day secondary schools in Kajiado County, Kajiado North Sub-county Kenya. An embedded mixed methods research design was employed to enable the researcher establish the relationship between the selected Social Networking Sites and self-concept among adolescents. Simple random sampling was employed to the selected 4 schools for this study. Probability sampling technique was used to select a sample of 265 respondents from the 4 selected secondary schools as sample size for the study. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings indicated that Facebook was the most preferred social media site among the adolescents. The self-concept level among the adolescents was at a moderate level indicating that the adolescents are aware of their self. The study found a negative weak correlation between WhatsApp and self-concept among adolescent; a negative weak correlation between Facebook and self-concept among adolescents and a negative weak correlation between Instagram and self-concept among adolescents. Self-concept among the selected respondents was not significantly affected by the selected social media applications. The study recommends harnessing of social media platforms as a socializing tool among adolescents since no significant correlation was found between social media and self-concept of adolescents despite the existing ban of use of mobile phones among this population in Kenya.