Dissertation on "Impacts of Facebook on Young Generation"

Dissertation 40 pages (10896 words) Sources: 150

[EXCERPT] . . . .

young generation (Chapter one and two)

INRODUCTION

Over the last five years, the phenomenon of social networking has emerged that the technology has not only become accepted as part of our normal lives, but also as important necessities which most people cannot do without (Boyd 2006, p. 78). Over that period, the growth of the social network has been unprecedented from the niche communities to the mass online activity where millions of users in the internet get engaged in both during leisure time but also at work time. Some of the popular ones include Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Orkut among others which give the individual the capability to present themselves and develop connections with their friends and families (Ahn and Jeong 2007, p. 839). The orientation of these sites is varied and they can be towards romantic relationship e.g. original Friendster.com objective; context which is work related e.g. linkedIn.co; making connection with the people who share the same interests like politics and music e.g. MySpace; connect the population of college student e.g. original Facebook incarnation. These sites may also be used to make connection with people that the participants already know or meet other new people. This study will mostly focus on the impacts of the social networks on the teens with the main focus being placed on Facebook. The users of Facebook are allowed to present themselves through an online profile that is usually created by filling in a form the important demographical and location information. They then can accumulate friends by adding them or the friends adding them, and comments can thus be posted by these friends on the user's pages which is usually referred to as the wall. Depending on the common interests of the Facebook members, they can then join groups which are virtual see what is common among the classes and learn the hobbies, musical tastes, interests and status of romantic relationship of their friends through the profiles.

For researchers interested in the affordances and the impact of Facebook, its indeed a rich site with high influence due to the high usage patterns in the world and the technological capabilities which makes the online and offline connection to be bridged. Because Facebook originally served a community which was bound, i.e. The college students, it is believed that the offline to online trend is understudied and is represented by Facebook. The usage of the Facebook is higher currently than other social media and its even termed as an addiction to the teens. Indeed its impact is multifaceted as it has the positive impacts like helping the members keep in touch with close friends some of whom are distant and also meet new people. Because of its time consuming nature, the social networks has been viewed to also have negative impacts like affecting the grades in the schools although this is also a controversial issue. This study will analyze the impact of the social media and in particular that of Facebook to the teens.

1.2

Problem Statement

The problem statement for this study is to find out the impact of Facebook on young generation. For the past few years, the popularity of the social networking sites has shot up especially among the teens that are considered more technology savvy than their older counterparts. The influence of the social networking sites is far reaching with most people who aren't yet members being coerced to join by their friends who have joined. This has led to high membership especially for Facebook which has been growing steadily for the past few years. The influence of these sites is therefore remarkable and its spreads even to the offline social and economical realms. Some parents and educationists have raised concern with regard to the use of the sites by the teens and in particular the effect the site has on the education of the teenagers. The other concerns also include the age-appropriate exposure of its use and access and the behaviours of the teenagers online that might influence their character offline. Internet safety and privacy issues always come into the discussions of the Facebook use by the teenagers. Even so the sites are indeed a good tool which when utilized properly can help the teenagers make the best of what they have. They allow for sharing of special moments through photos, staying connected through messaging and staying updated through the news feeds. This study will try to analyze the impact that the social networking sites have on the teenagers.

1.3

Objective of the Study

1.3.1

General Objective

To identify the social and academic impact of Facebook on young generation

1.3.2

Specific objectives

The specific objectives of the study are to:

I. To establish how the usage of facebook varies with the age and sex among the young generation.

II. To find out how the membership of facebook varies with age degree of usage of Facebook by the young generation.

III. To find out the different ways of using social networking sites by the young generation

IV. To find out the frequency of usage of Facebook by the young generation.

V. To discover the usefulness of Facebook in friendship management.

VI. To find out the positive impacts of Facebook to the young generation.

VII. To find out the impact of Facebook to the education of the young generation users.

1.4

Research Questions

The research questions for this study are

I. Does Facebook help its members stay connected or keeps them apart?

II. What is the difference of frequency usage among the different age and sex of members?

III. Is there significant relationship between the time consumed on facebook and the academic performance?

IV. Is the amount of information available on the profiles of the users put them in offline risks?

V. Is the increase of Facebook membership of the young generation dependent on peer influence of the individuals who are already members to non-members?

VI. What is the frequency of usage of the Facebook site by the young generation?

VII. Is there any positive impact of Facebook to the relationships with their friends in the offline environment?

1.5

Hypothesis of the study

There is a significant impact of the social networking sites on the young generation. Use of Facebook has influenced the offline relationships by helping keeping them connected.

1.6

Importance of the study

This study is of importance because its outcome will be useful in understanding the social and educational effects of the social networking sites to the young generations hence be able to address the different concerns that have been raised. Because recently the use of the Facebook by the young generation has increased greatly concerns regarding the age appropriateness, security and privacy and the effect of Facebook on the academic performance of the student users have come up. Again the positive impacts of Facebook will also be understood from the findings of the study. The outcome will therefore be useful to the parents, educators and the policy makers in knowing how to handle the social networking sites engagements.

The study will also educate and provide important information to future scholars who will study or research on similar issues.

1.7

Scope and justification of the study

With the enormous growth of the social networking sites and in particular Facebook recently, its influence is far reaching beyond the online realm. Its impact has been able to affect the normal relationships by acting as a tool which helps in the connection of the individuals and also helping people from disparate parts of the world with varying cultures, education and background to meet. Even so the impact hasn't just been positive but there are also some negative impacts as well. The understanding of these impacts is therefore important so as to know how to deal with them.

The study will involve a target population of the young generation of which the outcome will be expected to be reflective of the general population. The study will be limited to the young generation referred to this study as those aged 12-24.The study is conducted through online questionnaires which will provided by the online survey hosting company. The users will be directed to the web address where their responses will be recorded.

1.8

Limitations of the study

1.8.1

Accessibility of data

Respondents may not be willing to provide information since they will not be sure where it will end to. These are due to privacy concern which the respondents might object to. The young respondents might also be not willing to provide the information because of the concern of the paedophiles that usually use the information to lure them in the social networks.

1.8.2 Time constraint

Time will be major limitations to the study this study because the respondents might not be willing to respond to all the questions because they might consider it time consuming.

1.8.3 Financial constraint

The number of the Facebook members is very high and the researcher would have preferred to carry out a study on all of them but this… READ MORE

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