Effects of Social Networking to Students Essay Example

Could you imagine the number of all the students logging in to these social networking sites, everyday? That would be millions of students logging in social networking sites. Why students are interested on these sites? Social networking sites typically offer many features and those features are positively the reason why many students are interested in checking out these sites. One of the general features of SNS is rofiles.

A profile contains all the information about the person plus their photos, videos, applications that they use and comments/messages posted by other persons. Well, SNS also offers special features like for example, Facebook has social games like Restaurant City and Pet Society. It is evident that many students greatly rely on these sites in order to interact with their friends and other people whether they know them or not. Being dependent to these sites promotes online friendships which are not good since they might encounter people that are suspicious in behavior.

These sites hinder face-to-face friendship but many students reason out that they use SNS in order to communicate conveniently with their faraway friends.Students’ usage of social networking sites provides long-lasting insights to identity construction, social behavior and peer-to-peer interaction therefore studies such as this arises that found out the real perspective of students about social life.

Social networking sites have added entirely new meanings to interpersonal interaction and community. It is the interplay between internet and real life communication and its subsequent effect on interpersonal relationships.

Popular social networking websites such as Facebook have bundled many of the internet communication standards such as e-mail, forums, and instant messaging into one resource. However, its usage has become a staple activity in

a young adult’s life. While it varies slightly among gender and race groups, overall, young adults (highschool students) who have internet access use Facebook regularly for some type of social contact. With this mass assimilation into daily life, it has already begun to change the way in which interpersonal relationships are defined.

It is one of the, if not the top medium for young adults to “scope out” and “research” potential partners. With Facebook playing a large role in many romantic relationships, it’s important to see how this will continue to shape interpersonal communication in the future. The importance of this research proposal is to look at how Facebook is an extension of real life. This aims to discover how far Facebook is used to define, cultivate, and maintain real life interpersonal romantic relationships.

Through looking at 8 previous research on Facebook, online romantic relationships, and disclosure hrough internet communication, we will see what direction research needs to go to find valid conclusions on the interplay of real life and Facebook in the development of interpersonal romantic relationships. Internet based communication has been incorporated into the development of interpersonal relationships. Likewise, as popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook have cropped up over the years, affecting the way in which people communication, so has limited research on the social mediums. It was found that 28% of the students in the study had been deceptive in their internet communication.

The students were found to do this through both direct communication using the wall post and private message features as well as indirectly by the viewing of others profiles. While Facebook is used to cultivate old and new relationships, it

is also used by students in romantic relationships to display and check the status and commitment of their relationship. When people write and develop their profile, choose their profile picture, and publicly write on other user’s Facebook “walls,” Research has shown that when college aged males posted information about culturally negative moral ehaviors (partying, sexism, etc. ) that they were participating in on other users “walls. ” their perceived attractiveness went up.

However, when females did it, their attractiveness went down. In the area of romantic relationships, no Facebook research has looked at how much real life interaction is required before a potential romantic partner is not seen as a “stalker” or in any kind of negative light. Since internet usage is directly related to psychological well-being, relationships, and the identity of 9 self, it is of interest to note that there is a positive relationship between easures of internet usage and loneliness. No research has looked into how lonely or desperate a Facebook user is when trying to find a potential romantic partner. Matsuba’s research has shown that real life relationships are looked at as more “real” in the negative and positive dimensions of personal qualities, while internet only relationships were less extreme. If real life relationships are seen as more “real” and Facebook is an online medium of communication for those real life relationships, then research needs to look at how far Facebook defines the romantic relationships.

Research has found that those who use the internet to create and maintain a secondary romantic relationship in addiction to a real life one showed higher levels of relational certainty and high expectations of future interaction with their

online partners. It’s also been found that time spent online and positive views of the internet lead to a more favorable view of online romantic relationships. Therefore, there’s a possibility that personal romantic beliefs are used more for a conventional relationship than an online-only relationship. While these studies have little relevance to the ultivation of a real life romantic relationship through Facebook, it is important to see the connections and disconnects between real life and internet life. This needs to be developed further to see how much Facebook is used in the initial stages of romantic relational development compared to usage when the partners have a highly developed real life relationship. Some study found individuals who reported high levels of social and/or dating anxiety were not more likely to use the internet to make online relationships than those who reported lower levels of social or dating anxiety.

However, the research did 10 show that certain online media (particularly webcams) are more likely to be used by people with social and dating anxiety symptoms, than those with less. This could play into new research about whether certain features of Facebook are used more so in romantic relational development by social and dating anxious than other features. According to Web Credible social networks provide encouragement and support; establish identity with others and fulfill the need to feel included; provide the outlet for some people to establish their need for recognition, ocial status, control or leadership; provide the necessary control over aspects of lives for those who don't want to be leaders; help establish friends, relationships and the opportunity to interact with others. Conversely, introverted adolescents used online communication

to compensate for their lacking of certain social skills. However, along with these characteristics came a stronger motivation to talk online, resulting in more online based friendships. It is interesting to note that the introverts use the internet to compensate for their lack of social skills

The studies show how important a user’s perception of internet communication affects their levels of self disclosure. Interpersonal trust is found online through how many the users perceive the other person to be telling the truth. However, with Facebook interaction, things could be different. Research needs to look into how knowing someone directly could directly affect the way in which disclosure, empathy, and trust is built through Facebook. We also see an entirely new set of internet based non-verbal forming.

While there have been numerous studies on internet based communication concerning romantic relationships, self disclosure, and social 11 networking, this research proposal takes it a step further to look at the social utility of Facebook and the subsequent interplay of real life and on-line life in defining interpersonal romantic relationships.

According to Vitak (2008), there are some reasons why an individual uses asocial networking site. The first reason is for them to meet strangers and become friends with them. This type of relationship is what we call a weak interpersonal relationship.

The majority of respondents of her research paper (57%) said they were initially introduced to those “friends” through mutual friends, which increases the likelihood of such relationships developing into strong ties. On the other hand, responses to a separate question overwhelmingly support the hypothesis. While a significant portion or respondents said they have at least a few online-online friends, 85% said they

do not communicate with the majority of their online-only friends, and just one respondent said that he/she considered those friends as a strong tie.

Through social networking sites like facebook, the user tends to maintain his weak interpersonal relationship with his online friends because of an easy communication. He can use private messaging, chat rooms, and other method of communicating provided by the website. On the other hand, a strong interpersonal relationship with his offline friends needs time and effort to be maintained. Distance between two users that can change an offline relationship into online relationship is also a reason why an individual uses SNSs. Nearly wo-thirds (65%) of respondents said the majority of their friends have a 12 Facebook account, which suggests that many students use the site to stay in touch with their offline friends.

Keeping in touch with friends remains the primary reason for site usage across both years in school and gender. Furthermore, approximately one-third (31%) of respondents with friends who do not have a Facebook account say they would be closer to those friends if they were on the site, and 87% of respondents said they had never xperienced negative consequences in their offline relationships due to content in their Facebook profiles, which suggests that most respondents benefit from using the site. With the use of private messaging and chat rooms of this site, students can communicate and maintain a healthy relationship with their friends from far places with ease that takes only a few seconds to complete it. Social Networking Sites also have negative effects in offline relationships. Something found in the site can lead to misinterpretation for some people.

Because of

online messaging or comments that are visible to everyone in the friends list of a user, an offline relationship can be affected or destroyed due to fights that will happen. For example, a jealous boyfriend saw a comment from a mysterious boy posted on the wall of his girlfriend that says intimate words, because of this, the relationship between the girl and his boyfriend can be broken. Another negative effect is, because of posting comments on the wall of a user became much easier, it will also be effortless for other people to spread rumors and gossips that can destroy a life of an ndividual. As a larger percentage of communication moves into the digital arena, we will see a general weakening of ties between people.

This weakening will 13 be less pervasive among a person’s closest circle of friends and more obvious among lesser friends, as digital communication will become the primary mode of communication in these relationships. This related studies and concepts helped in determining the influence of social networking sites on the interpersonal relationship of students in Sta. Teresa College of the school year 2011-2012.

This supported and validated or eversed the ideas of Matsuba and Golder (2006), and Vitak (2008). There were some studies conducted that dealt with social networking and its effects towards teenagers in different aspects. Interpersonal relationship, particularly that of high school students in Sta. Teresa College, isn't one of those aspects, although some of the aforementioned studies have tackled somewhat similar aspects to that of the one being studied on by the researchers.