https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5261-9871
Figures & data
Table 1. The demography indicates that 76.9% of the respondents are male while 23.1% are female students
Table 2. The finding indicates that, 80.6% of the respondents are between the ages of 18–25, while 14.8% range between the ages of 26–35, and only 4.6% are between the ages of 36–45. Hence, none of the respondents exceeds 45 years. This shows that social media users are mostly youths
Table 3. The result of the study revealed that the students are capable of detecting fake news on social media, with 52.8%, and 28.7% checking the sources of news content posted on social media
Table 4. Similarly, 30.6% and 50.0% strongly agree and agree that they check the date of the news story to make sure the story is relevant and up to date, and only 3.7% do not care to check the veracity of the news consumed on social
Table 5. In the same vein, the results also revealed that the respondents preferred consuming news on social media platforms as 25.0% and 57.4% agreed and strongly agrees to have preferred to consuming news on social media
Table 6. The result revealed that the respondents most of them subscribe to more than as social media platform and it also reveals that the respondents are heavy social media users as 28.7% of them use the platforms for more than a 5 hours daily, 6.5% and 19.4% navigate across social media for 3–4 and 23 hours daily respectively
Table 7. The result shows that 40.7% of the respondents agreed while 29.6% strongly agreed that there is misleading information on social media, only 5.6% disagree, while 3.7% strongly disagree. A 20.4% of the respondents did not decide
Table 8. The table suggests that 37.0% agree and 18.5% strongly agree, coronavirus was prepared in a laboratory to target certain countries. While 18.5% Disagree and 3.7% strongly disagree. A 22.2% remain undecided
Table 9. The table above indicates that 47.2% agreed and 27.8% strongly agreed with Coronavirus really exists, while, 8.3% disagreed and 16.7% remained neutral. However, not a single respondent strongly disagrees
Table 10. The results indicate that 39.8% strongly and 37.0% agreed to have been washing their hands regularly with soap and alcohol base substances to avoid contracting COVID-19. While 6.5% disagreed and 0.9% strongly disagreed with the statement about hand washing
Table 11. The table indicates that 47.2% and 35.2% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed, respectively, that staying at home and avoiding crowded places to cushion the spread of COVID-19. While 2.8% disagreed and strongly disagreed 0.9% do not take the required precautionary. A 13.9% of the respondents did not indicate their position
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. The study is a quantitative method whereby data were generated using primary sources and the data can be found in the study. The study used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyse the data.