Social Media and Stress Among College Students Essay Example

their different years of study. The range can be based on the students or the interviewee answers to ten questions: whether they ever feel their lives are uncontrollable, overloaded or unpredictable. Other factors to be assessed includes, anxiety, stress, depression, substances use, alcohol and cigarette use. And the questions may ask “have you ever felt hopelessness in things? Have you ever felt lonely, sad, overwhelming anger, depressed and such? Ask if they ever intentionally bruised themselves or even attempted suicide (Zajacova et al. 2005). Followed by their medical history for instance if they have ever been diagnosed with depression and such.

Participants

(Yumba, 2010) Put it that to carry out an investigation it would always be necessary to define the target population. It will characterize the number of units to be analyzed. In this case, the target population includes the scholars at colleges, male and female in different years of study. The colleagues, parents, and friends could also be good sources of information having in mind that the case involves the social environment of the student. The target in this study would be college students of the age between twenty to twenty-five years of age with an average of twenty-three years age will vary with the student’s year of study. Since 98 percent of the college students use the social media, in this case, it would be necessary to use observation method. Observing their reaction when they spend their time on the electronic gardens as they usually do, one can tell their emotions (Yumba, 2010). However, the population is heterogeneous, and in research, one will only focus on a small unit about the relevant characteristics.

Procedures

One ought to

prepare the questionnaire to get ready for the survey. Get in contact with the administration get permission from the lecturers, in this case, to get in contact with the students for a few minutes after lectures, or still students could be expected to register for their orientation seminar. Briefly, introduces the topic to the students and the purpose of the research, this will increase the participation rate and also increase their openness and honesty when answering the questions. In each of the classes, the questionnaires could be distributed to the willing participants (Skipworth, 2011). The research could be more appropriate if conducted in the last few weeks of the semester. The participants can sign the informed consent forms before they can fill out the questionnaires. The inclusion of the student's social security numbers, college identification number and the learner's demographical information would make the research more accurate and reliable. The target number should include genders, both male and female, persons with disabilities, different sexually oriented persons, for example, gays, and strait persons, in addition to the various years of their studies. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) as a Statistical Method data means could then be used to analyze the collected data.

Measures

The researcher ought to consider the measures of security and the confidentiality of the information when such information as password and usernames of the individual's social media websites is accessed it may lead to cyber bullying, which in turn will bring more stress to the victim. Although not all of the social websites will require the credentials, for instance, youtube does not need any credentials for one to access (Zajacova et al. 2005). But the most

popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and such require one to key in the user name and the password. Because of the privacy purposes, it would be appropriate to keep them confidential, consent and confidentiality forming the ethos in such research.

Observation research method: in some sites such as facebook, twitter, and even youtube, the content is posted to the public, the information does not involve interaction with the subject to access it. Remember it is against the federal law to use to disclose the subjects responses outside the social sites and using the pictures or any other information at risk of criminals, and even civil liability. Though there is a major debate on the legal considerations, privacy protection, and website privacy guidelines when it comes to the social media users. However, users of such media as Facebook and LinkedIn can protect their profile through the setting options. The information required in the research must, therefore, consider these factors for the confidentiality of the student's information (Moreno et al. 2013).

Interactive analysis: this research study involves minors. There is going to be interaction and participation. Therefore, it would be necessary to obtain the parental consent for the research most delicate researches. Face to face may be stigmatizing at times especially to such young people who are impaired cognitively hence, it is advisable to approach the learners with care and tolerance (Zajacova et al. 2005).
All in all, the researcher should understand the confidentiality of such critical information and take the necessary measures to ensure the privacy of the student's information.

Data analysis

After gathering all the necessary information, it could then be categorized into positive, moderate and negative and

the tallied or frequencies and distributive data graphs and table made, the unnecessary information can be done with. The information could be analyzed according to gender and the different levels of study to allow for the comparison and contrasting. The freshmen, in this case, have more workload, many hours and pressure from friends forming the main causes of stress for them. Women are also more likely to have more stress when it comes to the social media due to constant conflicts with boyfriends and girlfriends in addition to the class workloads (Moreno et al. 2013). Every dependent and independent variables can be entered into logistic procedures that are regression. The data can now be analyzed using the statistical method, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze the data and the information gathered could be categorized into six levels as follows:-

Limitations

One of such limitations is that the study will be conducted on a few individuals in one in a few learning institution. The generalization of the results may not be accurate enough since people are not in the same environment; they have various motivational factors and are from different backgrounds. The social media is a worldwide network, and many people did not attend the institutions of higher learning. Therefore, the generalization of the result will not bring out the true reflection of the country. The use of questionnaires is not a reliable one since the information may be distorted or the person may give shady unreliable information due to influence from friends.

Conclusion

Study through different colleges, where the student varied in years in school, gender and age have made it clear that the use of the Internet and

the digital technology in particular or the social media are related to stress and higher levels of depression but despite the pressure brought over by the use of the social media, students still have other causes of depression which include, academic which involves the course overload, environmental and personal stress which involves the family and social factors. Freshmen at the colleges have to go through a lot of struggle before they can settle at the university or college.

The enrollment rate of in the United States post-secondary institutions has been on the rise recently. But, despite this, the school dropout rate is also high and remains a persistent problem especially among postgraduate students. Poor performance among the scholars is an indicative of difficulties in adapting to the system hence increasing the dropout rates. Minority groups’ students, immigrants, and the non-traditional college students have performed differently all through due to their differences in financial capability, level of stress or depression and time allocated to attending the lecture halls. Non-traditional students are those students who are financially stable and study part time.

References

• Yumba, W. (2010). Academic stress: A case of the undergraduate students.
• Skipworth, K. (2011). Relationship between perceived stress and depression in college students (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).
• Moreno, M. A., Goniu, N., Moreno, P. S., & Diekema, D. (2013). Ethics of social media research: common concerns and practical considerations. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(9), 708-713.
• Zajacova, A., Lynch, S. M., & Espenshade, T. J. (2005). Self-efficacy, stress, and academic success in college. Research in higher education, 46(6), 677-706.