The Role of Social Networking Sites - Research Paper Example

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BY UNDERGRADUATES: A CASE STUDY ON ESSEX UNIVERSITY Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 Context and background to research 2 Literature review 3 Research methodology 6 Results/outcomes of the study 7 Conclusion 16 INTRODUCTION Context and background to research Network sites that are socially structured are growing in popularity at a faster rate within the public domain and in interpersonal communication in learning institutions. According to Ryan (2011), social network sites are defined as interactive modern means of communication where folks share ideas, pictures, experiences, and connect with each other, and also share interesting information. Boyd and Ellison (2007) described it as “web based services that allow individuals to build a profile in a bounded system, to articulate a list of connection and traversal view of their connection list that are constructed in the system.” Information and technology bequeath the present society with numerous interactive segments with the help of internet and gadgets of communication. Numerous interactive segments are provided by the social network sites depending on the motives of their founders. There are for example business, academics, sports, political, social, religion, and romantic platforms. It can be said that these sites are in position to entertain, inform, educate, and to create very strong feelings on their followers. Ever since they started, social sites such as twitter, Skype, MySpace, and Facebooks, among others have reportedly become ‘attention-grabbers’ for majority of those who use them as they have taken them as part and parcel of their day to day routine (Pedrycz, W., & Chen, S.-M. 2014). Presently there are numerous sites with varying features geared to suit their followers’ interests, and can be accessed through gadgets that have internet access. The general aim of this research was to ascertain the role of social networking sites by undergraduates of Essex University and hence the main reasons for conducting this study were: i. To ascertain the numerous segments of social network sites ii. To find out the benefits of using these sites iii. To determine the level of social network sites usage by undergraduate students iv. To determine if there is need to integrate social media with learning platforms. Literature review Basically social network sites are online services or platforms that aim at reflecting and building people’s relationship socially those for instance that have or share common activities and interests. The fame of social network sites increases as each second unfolds. They have become important tool of communication to their users and because of this trend learning institutions are now increasing using them to interact with learners as well as member of the teaching staff. Because of their continued use of social network sites drastic steps are being outlined by institutions to enlighten their students on social network sites usage and most so psychological dangers, legal issues, socio-economic and privacy issues. It also encourages students to live together and in harmony, bringing workload and additional responsibility, and collaborating and sharing which may appear to be forced and inflexible to some students (Naidu, 2005). In his studies, Gross (2004), argued that students don’t only utilize social network sites for leisure only but also for deliberations on important issues, for finding jobs, for online learning, sharing crucial information, for finding friends among others. Contrary to what many people think that students only use social networking sites to occupy their free time only and that they have nothing important to do with their free time does not hold, since many students use the social network sites to learn. For example almost all social network sites do have the ‘like page’ e.g. faceebook where one can post academic materials that can be use by people who have access to those various sites (Madge, Meek, Wellens, and Hooley,2009) Social network sites can be categorized depending on user’s areas of interest. Some social network sites do have niche focuses that are tight and only serve certain groups of folks. This categorization of sites rotate around dating, hobbies, sports, entrepreneurship, education, culture, romance and many others ( Benson, V., & Morgan, S. J. 2014). Social network sites do have numerous advantages, for instance they helps in complementing education and enhance learning results in universities and schools. This is made possible by encouraging a healthy relation between the teacher and the students who socializes with one another via the social network sites e.g. facebook where the teacher may post assignment on his/her page for the students to access the assignment, and with the healthy interaction between the teacher and the students, the students will gain confidence in the teacher and they will be motivated more to learn thus their results will definitely improve (Joosten, T. 2012). A another benefit associated with social network sites is that they enhance the way people interact with each other in the society, school, workplace, and all over the world via the use of social network sites e.g. facebook, twitter, where people meet online and socialize with each other and share a lot of ideas, information, among other things that they tend to have a common interest in (Naidu, 2005). A previous study done by Idakwo (2011) found that social media usage among the youths has really increased. The research investigated how the youths normally use the social media. From the title of the study it is beyond reasonable doubt that majority of undergraduates fall here thus it will be of importance and relevant to this research study. Some of the things that he did find are that many youths use facebook more than any other channel of social network sites as an alternative mode of communication. And apart from communication, the undergraduates also use social network sites to interact and socialize with their fellow colleagues. Another relevant research study conducted by Vincent, Adekoyo, and Ogunde (2010) at Abeokuta Agricultural University of Nigeria, and their research topic was ‘diffusion of innovation in social network sites among university students.’ In their findings, one of their main results proved that majority of the undergraduates had already used social media prior to the adoption of using them. This implies that most of them do actually know what they are using having evaluated it before deciding if to use them or not. This examination adopted media system dependency (MSD) theory for purposes of clarity. Baran (2009) argued that media system dependency theory (MSD) is of the assumption that if a person needs are frequently met by the media, then the media will hugely affect the life of an of an individual, because in one way or another the media will always has a big influence on people and as a result they always tend to define the life of an most so in the social aspect (Mary and Arthur, 2014). Strong questions can be asked as to what do people use media for and why do they use it? The theory maintains and recognizes various needs prompt audience to use media. Hence the focus is that, there are benefits that make people use media and thus these channels can ultimately meet their needs then audience will continuously use and depend on them. Research methodology The study design for this research was descriptive survey. The design was meant to ascertain facts with regard to a phenomenon that is in existence. Descriptive survey entails data sampling in a systematic examination to explain and describe what is non-existence or existing status of a phenomenon presently investigated. The reason for employing this method is because the intention of the research is to get the respondents’ opinion on social media among the undergraduates of Essex University. A sample size of 50 students representing the entire undergraduate population of Essex University was taken. (Babbie, E. R. 2013) stated that simple random sampling is a method of obtaining a sample out of the population so that every member is accorded independent and equal chance of the possibility of being chosen as a representative. The main tool that was used to obtain information from the respondents was questionnaires that were self formulated and was entitled the use of social network sites among undergraduates of Essex University. Results/outcomes of the study From the results obtained it was noted that majority of the respondents spend between 5 to 7 hours per day on the internet. This finding affirms that indeed social network sites have become an integral part of life as it was mentioned in the studies conducted by (Meyer, 2012). From the results obtained above, it was noted that majority of the undergraduates do use social network sites more than once in a day, confirming that most undergraduates do spend most of their time on the internet (International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning, & Li, K. C. 2012) From the information obtained above, many respondents were of the opinion that the current online learning platform needed to be improved, which also confirms that the students were not satisfied with the current online learning platform and that a lot needed to be done for the purpose of student satisfaction (Elliot and Shin, 2002) From the result obtained above, it was noted that most students use social network to communicate with the university, to know and meet people, and also to help one fit into the university life, confirming the importance of social network sites to the students (Bargh and Mckeuna, 2004) From the result obtained above, it was noted that most undergraduates’ preferred using social network while studying, which affirm the importance of social network sites with respect to study and the role that they play in education (Joosten, T. 2012). From the results obtained above, majority of the respondents were of the opinion that social media should be integrated with learning platforms, which also adds more weight to the to the objective of the research that indeed social media is important to the undergraduates since it enhance education thus it should be integrated with learning platforms (Mallia, G. 2014). Conclusion From the results it is true that mostly all undergraduates are using the social network sites, the fame of these sites and their roles have also been covered as well as the various segments of social media and the danger they pose and how it can be mitigated, and the various reasons for their uses has also been ascertained. Lastly from the outcome of the research, the researcher finds reason as to why many scholars say that technology can be used in different ways to benefit the people and at the same time it can also cause harm. Students thus should be cautious before they adopt any technology. The research that approve that there is a correlation between social network sites and education. References Babbie, E. R. (2013). The practice of social research. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Baran, S.J (2009). ‘Introduction to mass communication’: media literacy and culture (6th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Bargh J A, McKeuna KYA (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology 2004 Benson, V., & Morgan, S. J. (2014). ‘Cutting-edge technologies and social media use in higher education.’ Boyd, D. M., Ellison B.N (2007) Social Networking Sites: definition of history and scholarship: journal of computer-mediated communication, 13 (1) (2007) Elliot, K. M and Shin, D (2002). ‘Students satisfaction’: An alternative approach to assessing this important concept. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 24(2) Foloronso, O, Vincent, R. O, Adekoyo, A. F and Adewela, O. O (2010).’ Diffusion of Innovation in Social Networking Sites among University Students.’ In International Journal of Computer Science and Security (IJCSS) (4) 3 Gross, E (2004) Adolescent Internet Use: what we expect, when teens report. In Journal of Applied Development Psychology 25 (6) Idakwo, L (2011) The use of media among Nigerian youths. Retrieved from: http//www.slideshare.net/goldlami/the-use-of-social-media-among-nigeria-youths2. Accessed on December 17, 2011 International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning, & Li, K. C. (2012). ‘Engaging learners through emerging technologies’: International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning, ICT 2012, Hong Kong, China, July 4-6, 2012. Proceedings. Berlin: Springer. Joosten, T. (2012). Social media for educators: ‘Strategies and best practices.’ San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McAnany, E. G. (2012). Saving the world:’ A brief history of communication for development and social change’. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Madge, C.M., Meeks J., Wellens, J., and Hooley, T (2009) Facebook, social integration and informal learning at University. ‘It is more of socializing and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work.’ Learning Media and Technology Mary Beth Oliver and Arthur, A. Raney (2014). Media and Social Life. Routladge: New York Mallia, G. (2014). The social classroom: ‘Integrating social network use in education.’ Meyer, J. (2012). Making friends: The art of social networking in life and online. New York: Rosen Pub. Naidu, S (2005) Learning and teaching with technology: Principles and practices. Oxon, UK: Routledge Falmer Pedrycz, W., & Chen, S.-M. (2014). Social Networks: A Framework of Computational Intelligence. Cham: Springer. Pelet, J. E. (2014). ‘E-learning 2.0 technologies and web applications in higher education.’ Ryan, P. K. (2011). Social networking. New York: Rosen Central. . Appendix Read More