PERCEPTION OF NKPOR RESIDENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE ON DRESS PATTERN OF YOUTHS IN NKPOR COMMUNITY OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

This study sought the perception of Nkpor residents on social media influence on dress pattern of youths in Nkpor community, Idemili North LGA, Anambra State, Nigeria. Using the survey method, a sample of 363 was studied. Among the objectives was to discover what category of social media personalities youths in Nkpor associate with for their choice of dressing pattern as well as ascertain the level of exposure of youths in Nkpor to the dress pattern in the social media. Hypothesis was tested and the result showed that there is likely a link between social media personalities and the dress pattern of youths in Nkpor, Anambra State. Again, the X2 calculated 226.28 > 9.488 showed that there is a statistical relationship between the level of exposure of youths to social media and their dress pattern in Nkpor, Anambra State. Other findings indicated that the youths in Nkpor pattern their dress style mostly after celebrities', especially those celebrities that are in their age ranges; while Facebook and Whatsapp feature more prominently among the social media platforms used by the youths in Nkpor to source for latest news on latest fashion; it was gathered that the respondents increase their chances of social media influence by exposing themselves to a variety of social media platforms as netizens. The study concluded that the social media exerts an undeniable influence on the dress pattern of youths in Nkpor, Anambra State, and by inference, a global phenomenon. The study recommended that a third world country like Nigeria should have measures to checkmate the influx of foreign contents through social media platforms to check the erosion of local culture. As youths copy social media characters and personalities in their dress pattern, emphasis should be placed on the ones with decent dress patterns such as television news presenters