Essay: The Evolution of Social Networking Sites and Their Impact on Nigeria During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The evolution of social networking sites has turned the world into a global village connecting and engaging people into socializing on different social networking sites (Edosomwan, et., al 2011). According to Sasu, (2022), the ten most used social networking sites in Nigeria are Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, FB messenger, Twitter, Telegram, Linkedln, Tiktok, and Snapchat. According to Boyd and Ellison, (2007), social networking sites are web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public and semipublic profile within a bounded system, communicate with other users and view page details provided by those users. These practices differentiate social networking sites from other computer mediated communication as users create profiles, comment on friends posts which can be publicly viewed (Ahmad, 2011). According to Escobar et. al., (2018), there are two distinct users on social networking sites: the active and passive users. Active users are those who form interaction by sharing, posting content and engaging with others while passive users simply consume content without posting or commenting. It is estimated that, as of January 2021, there are about 33 million active social users which constitutes about 15.8% of its total estimated population of 206.1 million people, with Facebook, Google and WhatsApp being the most visited sites (Adeleke, 2021; Pontianus & Oruonye, 2021).
The potency of social networking sites lives in the ability to covey messages via pictures and videos as they are being unveiled. The ability to stream live events from every corner of the world also gives it the ability to mobilize vast population for a positive or negative discourse (Obi-Ani et al., 2020). According to Obi-Ani et al. (2020) these sites have played a very crucial role in crippling dictatorial regimes. Nonetheless, these outlets have been abused as the youth predominantly hide under its anonymity to defraud or relay false information.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020 confirmed a virus which was reported to have emerged from a province in China (Wuhan) in December 2019 a global pandemic (WHO, 2020). WHO formally declared the pandemic as Covid-19, which means Corona Virus Disease 2019. The world has by then seen other pandemics such as the Spanish Flu, Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu, HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and Swine Flu (WHO, 2020). The pandemic almost brought the entire activities around the globe to a halt with a lot of restrictions when preventive measures as recommended by WHO had to be imposed by various governments to stop the virus from spreading. The Europe, America, Asia and African countries were hard hit by the pandemic. Within the African context, this posed severe threat on every sector of an economy. The first victim of the virus in Nigeria was an Italian man who arrived in the country on the 25 February 2020. He was admitted to an Isolation Centre in Yaba Lagos after showing symptoms of the virus (NCDC 2020). Subsequently, the cases increased and, as at July 2020, almost 28,711 positive cases and 11,665 recuperated persons have been identified (NCDC, 2020). Inarguably, the Nigerian economy, in trying to curb the spread of pandemic instituted immediate lockdown of the major epicenters of Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja which remains the central business districts of the country; where there has been spike of coronavirus cases. Further, governors of various states of the country also took proactive measures by closing borders in a bid to mitigate the spread of the virus. Other measures include prohibition of mass gathering of people at churches, sports arenas and burials while schools were closed nationwide.
As the importance of social media is largely experienced for information engagement amongst the youth in Nigeria, its other relatively important contributions especially; before, during and after this crisis period does not miss out on any keen observer (Obi-Ani et al., 2020). Noteworthy is the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic thrived in social media, which saw a surge in adaptation mainly because of the restriction decisions like lockdowns, social distancing