Influence of Social Media Use on the Eating Behavior and Food Preferences of Undergraduate Students in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Abstract

This research evaluated the influence of social media use on the eating behaviors and food
preferences of undergraduate students in the University of Nigeria. Four objectives and two
hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive and correlational research designs was adopted
for the study for a population of 39,295 students. Multi-stage sampling technique was used
to select a sample of 368 students. Data was collected using structured questionnaires
validated by three experts. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean,
standard deviation, and chi-square. The result revealed that the majority (73.1%) of the
respondents make occasional use of social media applications with WhatsApp (96.2%),
YouTube (84.8%), Gmail (83.7%), Facebook (78.5%) and Instagram (72.8%) being used by
many of the students. The less common applications were Skype (10.6%), Tumblr (14.1%),
and Reddit (14.7%) among others. The respondents’ eating behaviours showed that more
than a third (35.1%) of them were emotional under eaters and those with hungry eating
behaviour were 26.6%. A greater proportion (26.6%) of the students preferred snacks, 26.1%
preferred dairy, 25.8% preferred fruits and very few (3.0%) preferred vegetables. Findings
further showed that the frequency of social media use was not significantly associated with
the eating behaviours and food preferences of the students. The study recommended that
the University authority should provide nutrition education that will foster a healthier
campus environment.