Body Research.docx

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Computer and internet have gained a central importance in human life and social media had a prominent role in this picture. Besides easy, cheap and fast access to information through computers and the internet, the expansion of the communication network is one of the factors that lead individuals to use social media. Social media has become indispensable part of the daily life. Although there are many useful applications of social media, the excessive use of medium led to personal, social and occupational problems. With these problems, it began to lead Social Media Addiction, which describe as a new kind of addiction. Social Media Addiction is a term used to describe situation where a user spends too much time on social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) such that it negatively affects other aspects of his or her daily life like school, work, or relationships with others (Walker,2011). According to Pavlicek (2013), a social media addict can considered as one with an urge to be use social media excessively. For instance, engaging activities like “frequently checking status updates and post or “stalking” the profiles of other users for many hours” and this behavior or habit conflicts with his or her everyday responsibilities such as family, school, work or other social obligations. Social media addiction is a relevant problem that will even get worse in future due to the rapid development of technologies. People spend more time in the internet and social networking sites.

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Hence, this paper is an attempt to understand Social Media Addiction. This study aims to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among selected students specifically the Programming students of ACLC NAGA s/y 2018-2019. This study aims to provide suggestions on possible actions to prevent addiction.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study aimed to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among Programming students of ACLC-NAGA, especially it sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of: a. Age b. Gender 2. Which social media accounts do programming students of ACLC use the most? 3. How frequent do selected programming student of ACLC-NAGA uses social media? OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The main objective of the study was to find whether selected Programming students of ACLC-NAGA are addicted to social media and the level of their addiction. The following objectives are guided the study: 1. To identify the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of: a. Age b. Gender 2. To determine the social media accounts do programming students of ACLC use the most. 3. To know how frequent does a selected Programming student of ACLC-NAGA uses social media.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The findings of the study deemed beneficial to the students particularly to the Programming students of ACLC-NAGA and to the following: Students. The research aims to help the students to be aware of Social Media Addiction Teachers. This research aims to help teachers to guide and give students a proper attention at the same time on how to prevent social media addiction. Parents. This study aims to help parents to know their child profile on social media and the treatments they can give to prevent the said issue. School. This research aims to help the school to know how many students, range of ages and as well as each student level of social media addiction and the action taken to eliminate the said issue.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION This research sought to find out the level of addiction to social media among selected Programming students of ACLC-NAGA s/y 2018-2019. This study limits only to 100 students out of 284 students of Programming who are currently enrolled. Only those Programming students are allow to participate in the research. This research conducted from July to October 2018 at fourth floor Nagaland E-mall.

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Definition of Terms Social Media: Internet based application or sites used for social networking. Social media addiction: Excessive use and dependency on social media for gratifications that it interferes with other activities in a person’s life. Extrovert: gain energy from other people. Extroverts actually find their energy is sapped when they spend too much time alone. They recharge by being social. Introvert: (those of us with introverted tendencies) tend to recharge by spending time alone. They lose energy from being around people for long periods of time, particularly large crowds. FOMO (Fear of missing out): fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend time since "you can imagine how things could be different". Anxiety: is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worrying. Twitter is an online social networking micro-blogging site that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets" (Twitter Inc.) Skype is a telecommunications application software product that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls from computers, tablets, and mobile devices via the Internet to other devices or telephones/smartphones. Users can also send instant messages, exchange files and images, send video messages, and create conference calls (Wikipedia).

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Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter (Wikipedia). Facebook is an online social networking service which allows users to create a profile, add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users can join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, etc. and categorize their friends into lists such as "People from Work" or "Close Friends". (facebook.com) Messenger is a free mobile messaging app used for instant messaging, sharing photos, videos, audio recordings and for group chats. This is separate app to Facebook. However, user’s profile can be set using their Facebook account or a telephone number. (webwise).

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature that is directly linked to the current study. Review of related literature has to do with the identification and analysis of past studies or in general, documents contain information related to the research problem of the study to carry out. The review usually describes, sum up, assesses and explain related literature and it also helps in choosing a theory to back the research and helps define the nature of the study to be undertaken. Social media use There are many reasons why students use social media. Nyland (2007) identified the five motives of using social media as “meeting new people, entertainment, maintaining relationships, social events and media creation.” These motives are among common engagement of university students who use social media as findings of some studies show. A study carried out in University of Education Winneba in 2013 identified that students use social media for “connecting old friends and family members, finding new friends, obtaining or sharing learning materials, receiving update of events, posting information and whiling away time. Li & Chung (2006) state that the “Internet in itself is not addictive: instead the social functions, self- expressions, communication and building of personal ties on the Internet are what is addictive.”

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Nicole (2007) students and teenagers have especially recognized these social media to be able to contact their peers, share information, reinvent their personas and display their social live. In another research conducted by Shana (2012) it was as certain that students use platforms mainly for chatting and making friends.” Omekwu et al (2014) the objectives of the study was to find out the different categories of social media sites. Undergraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka use to find out the extent to which they use it to examine why they use social media, to find out what gratification they get from using it, to find the risks involved in social networking and to offer solution to deal with such risks. The researcher surveyed a sample of 150 undergraduate students and data collected using a questionnaire. Respondents selected using the simple random sampling technique. Findings of the study revealed that almost all students use social media to interact with friends, connect with their classmates for studies online, for discussing national issues and entertainment. In another study carried out by Appeanti & Danso (2003) titled “Students’ Use Media in Higher Education in Ghana,” they examined social media use among university students using an online survey. Three hundred and eleven sandwich students in the University of Education, Winneba randomly sampled to participate in the study. Their findings showed that majority of the students were aware of the existence of social media and they use it for various reasons such as connecting with family members and old friends, making new friends, sharing or getting learning materials, getting updates on events, sharing information and whiling away time.

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Guy (2012) a study found out that 90% of college students visit social media sites in a regular basis using desktop computers, laptops, e-readers, tablets and cellphone to actively engage in social networking, text messaging, blogging, content sharing, online learning and much more daily. Social Media Addiction According to Pamaoukaghion (2010), Social Media Addiction was first known as psychological disorder around the world, also internet addiction lead to social media addiction. Facebook is the one of the most famous visited social network website. There are many levels of social network addiction, some of the levels are for emotional low selfconfidence and scared be exposed personally. According to his study from the University of Athens, psychiatrists discuss about a woman who lost her job because of being online on a social media. The discussion was about the situation of the women that it could be a sign of social media addiction. According to Cheever (2009), there are five signs that may signal one has type of social media addiction. 1.) When one is sleeping late at night spending time on social networks, 2.) When a person spends more than an hour in social media sites, 3.) When one disregards work including school work, 4.) And also being stressed when you start your day without even using social media and the last and one of the most popular sign that you are really became addicted in social media is when you start to break your schedule and focuses your mind only in social media. Although this information may find very normal to some people or may sound alarming to their daily living.

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Dau (2015) also investigated the social media addiction among the students of tertiary institutions in Northern Nigeria and the level at which the students are addicted. The findings from the study showed the majority of the respondents are all popular social media platforms with Facebook having the largest number of users. He also found that majority of the respondents use these social media platforms mainly for social needs such as friendship and dating. Young et al. (2000) when we examine the symptoms of social media addiction in young people, degradation of functionality becomes to be the most defining characteristic. Namely, decrease in academic success, reduced work performance, inability to fulfill responsibilities towards family and disruption in psychosocial functions are the most important symptoms of addiction. Also, thinking of and desire for the Internet, virtual environments and social media platforms throughout the day, unable to be free of them and the feeling of loneliness and restlessness evoked by lack of social media are among other symptoms. Some indicators of addiction in young people include considering social media as a way of escape from personal problems, being unable to adapt to social life and withdrawal into themselves when away from social media, insomnia, weight gain due to decreased activity level, disorders like irregular eating habits and being unable to prevent themselves from entering social media sites although they know all these undesirable effects. Al-Menayes (2015) a study aimed to examine the dimensions of social media addiction in University students in Kuwait. The study based on the Internet addiction scale developed by Young in 1996 from which questionnaires were designed and distributed to 1327 undergraduate students. The researcher employed the cross sectional survey 10

methodology. Findings from the data collected showed that social media addiction has three (3) independent dimensions, i.e. the users experience with social media, time spent using social media and satisfaction derived from them. He also found that social media addiction was a negative predicator of academic performance as measured by a student’s GPA. Proybylski et al (2013) mobile social media offer a large number of experience from a psychological viewpoint each with powerful features that can lead to problem behavior. For example, the extrovert might spend much time on Facebook, compulsively checking their profile to see the number of “likes” their posts received. For others, with a narcissistic inclination, Instagram may prove to be an addictive medium for them to display themselves to others with “selfies”. Social anxiety can also fuel social media addiction. The fear of missing out (FOMO) can be the main reason for frequent social media uses regard loss of time of a day at the expense of other activities. In another study, Alabi (2012) sought to find out the level of Facebook Addiction among selection of Nigerian University Undergraduates. The study surveyed the level of addiction to Facebook among selected undergraduate students of these universities. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used in selecting 1000 undergraduate students from four universities in South-western Nigeria- two private institutions and the other two; public. Data was collected using the Facebook Addiction Symptoms Scale (FASS) in the form of a questionnaire. The findings from the study revealed a low level of addiction particularly among universities undergraduates in private universities mainly due to internet access.

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All the above literature reviewed suggest that social media addiction exists however, most of the studies that have been carried out on social media addiction have used mostly Facebook in its analysis and not much has been done with other social media sites. The review also revealed the various scales for measuring addiction to internet and certain social media platforms and have used in measuring addiction in other studies in other parts of the world. It should be possible to develop similar addiction measures for analyzing other social media sites or other general instruments.

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Several theories have used to interpret the use of social media and its outcomes. Determining the concepts of this research the study comes up with two theories: the Uses and Gratification Theory (U &G) and the Media System Dependency Theory (MSD). These two together assume that users of media rely on it to fulfil specific needs and in the process develop preoccupations with it and will therefore help explain the level of social media addiction among Programming students of the ACLC-NAGA. In the following paragraph are the theories that support our studies. Uses and Gratification Theory McQuail (2005), the Uses and Gratification theory generally seen as a theory that is closely linked to research on media effects. It is an approach to gaining insight on how and why people look for particular media to satisfy particular needs. An American sociologist Elihu Katz introduced the theory of uses and gratification in 1959 in an article in which he explained that communication research was near extinction because researchers only focused on the effects the media had on people. He therefore suggested that researchers focus rather on how media is used (Severin & Tankard, 2001). McQuail (2005), states that the theory “seeks to explain the uses of media and the satisfactions derived from them in terms of motives and self-perceived needs of audience members.” As active influencers of the effect media has on them, users of media identify, choose and retain media messages.

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According to Ruggerio (2000), internet users choose activities online that satisfy needs like “entertainment, information and social interaction.’ Uses and Gratification theory therefore shows an affirmative relationship between the choice of using social media and the gratification of it. Based on this, the researcher chose to apply this theory to study the use and level of social media addiction among programming students of AMA Computer Learning Center (ACLC). Media Systems Dependency Theory The Media Systems Dependency Theory proposed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DE Fleur in 1976 in an article that sought to describe why media could have cognitive, affective and behavioral effects on different people in different way. Media Systems Dependency theory regards audience as an active part in the communication process. The theory posits that individual have a goal when choosing the media they use and are active in the making of this decision. It also suggest that the more a person relies on a specific media to satisfy his or her needs, the more the media will become significant to him/her ( Encyclopedia of communication theory, 2009). This therefore shows an affirmative connection between need for gratification and dependency. According to LaRose & Eastin (2002), internet addictions are generally “habits” that are initiated when the “gratification sought”, starts to have an effect on users, which may lead to preoccupation with it. With repetitive use and engagement in favorite online activities, a habitual behavior may triggered with little or no intention or addictions.

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Digital media have developed and has become an essential part of people’s lives. With the growth of social media in recent times and its frequent use by many, over- dependency on it for media needs by students may be a probable cause of addiction to it. The Media Dependency theory has used as the theoretical basis for some studies of the Internet such as Jung et al (2001) and Dhavan et al (2001) and can therefore help explain findings of this study.

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THE LEVEL OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AMONG SELECTED PROGRAMMING STUDENTS OF ACLCNAGA S/Y 2018-2019

USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY ELIHU KATZ (1959) -helps to explain the many and varied reasons why consumer used and like social media -the uses and gratification for using social media are social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility, expressions of opinions, confidence utility, information sharing and surveillance and watching of others.

MEDIA SYSTEMS DEPENDENCY THEORY BALL-ROKEAH & DEFLEUR (1976) -It said that the more a person relies on a specific media to satisfy his or her needs, the more the media will become significant to him or her -social media addiction are generally “habits” that are initiated when the gratification sought”, starts to have an effect on users which may lead to preoccupation with it.

Figure 1. Theoretical Framework of the Study 16

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The research paradigm illustrates the conceptual framework of the study shows the relationships of the input, process and output of the topic. This framework embodies the specific direction by which the research will have undertaken by describing the relationship between the specific variables identified in the study. The input shows the questions that seek to answer which includes the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age and gender, the social media accounts do programming students of ACLC use the most and how frequent they use social media. To enable to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among programming students of ACLC Naga. The process on the other hand show the research being conducted through defining the problems of the research first and gathered required data relevant to the research from respondents through answering the questionnaires. The output as the result, will indicate the general view of the situation, to determine the level of social media addiction and defined the outcome of the study and give justification to the research

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

PROCESS

INPUT The



demographic profile of

the

respondents

in

terms of:

OUTPUT  

Survey

Blog Seminars

questionnaire



Gathered

a. Age required data

b. Gender 

The social media accounts

do

Analysis

and

interpretation

programming students



of

of Data

ACLC use the most 

The

frequency

of

the

respondents uses social media

Figure 2.Conceptual Framework of the Study

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter examines in detail the methodology used in carrying on the study. It covers the following aspects: Research Design, Respondents of the Study, Research Locale, Sampling Technique, Instrumentation, Data Collection Method, and Statistical Method. The researcher has discussed these aspects by highlighting the reasons why some techniques selected for the research design. Research Design The study employed the quantitative methodology of research under which is descriptive survey was used to investigate the phenomenon of social media addiction among Programming student of ACLC Naga. According to Orodho (2013), a study that seeks to acquire information by interviewing of administering a questionnaire to respondents is a descriptive survey.

Respondents of the Study The respondents of the study is programming students of ACLC NAGA. Since the chosen population could not observed because of factors such as time limitation and financial constraints, a section of population selected as a sample from the entire population to represent the whole. A sample derived from the population. For this study, the sample sized is 100, made up of programming students from Grade 11 and Grade 12.

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Research Locale The study will be conduct at Ama Computer Learning Center (ACLC). The respondents interviewed to their respective classroom. The researchers chose the place of implementation because it give the researchers the needed information for people with social media accounts especially programming students. The study will be conduct in the first semester of the academic year 2018-2019.

Sampling Techniques Probability sampling was use for this study and under this method; the Stratified sampling technique was use to divide students into strata after which the simple random sampling was used to select participants in the survey. Under the stratified sampling technique, all members of the population are puts into strata and a specific number subsequently drawn from each stratum to represent the whole. In the case of this study, the stratum represents each grade in the ACLC Naga namely the Grade 11 and Grade 12. This means that, out of every Grade, a specific number of respondents selected to participate in the study. This was gives all the subsets of the sample frame equal probabilities of selection

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Instrumentation For this study, data was collected through self-administered questionnaires made up of 20 questions in two section; A and B where Section A covered Personal information of the respondents and Section B covered questions under social media use and internet Addiction test. The questionnaire partly modelled after the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) developed by Kimberly Young to enable the researcher test the level of addiction among programming students. It consists of 20 items that measures mild, moderate and severe levels of Internet Addiction. However, the researcher did not use all the 20 items. The scale has tested for validity and reliability in different parts of the world in studies carried out by Ferraro, G. et al., (2007) & Khazaal, Y. et al. (2008). The IAT was chosen because social media is a subtype of the internet (Turel, O. & Serenko, A., (2010) and the items it has for measuring addiction covers all sites unlike the other scales that have been modelled for specific sites like the Facebook Addiction Symptoms Scale ( FASS) and Facebook Addiction Test ( FAT) for Facebook. For this study, the researcher used 13 out of the 20 items from the IAT due to the relevance of the items to respondents and because of its relativity to the setting of the study. Each of the 13 items answered using a scale:

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0= Not applicable 1= Rarely 2= Occasionally 3=Frequently 4=Often 5= Always

To find the level of addiction to social media among programming students, individual score for each item on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), which was administer to each respondents as part of the questionnaire, were summed up and the total score for each respondents was grouped according to the range of points in which they fall. Scores ranged between: 0-14 points: None 15-29 points: Mild 30-59 points: Moderate 60-80 points: Severe

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Data Collection Method The Survey method is employ in collecting quantitative data in the study. Consent from teachers was obtained prior to visiting the classrooms. In this setting, students were informed of the purpose of filling out the survey and turning it in was deemed as having their consent and that participation was voluntary. They also aware that there was no penalty for choosing not to participate. After explaining the procedure, the survey questionnaire were distributed. Administration of the questionnaire took approximately 10 minutes. The principal investigator stood at the front of the classroom and all the completed survey were placed by the student into an envelope. This sample type was chosen for convenience so as to obtain as diverse a sample of possible.

Statistical Method Data obtained from the field inputted into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20, which is a software designed for analysis of social science research data into frequencies and percentages. To help present the data in the form of tables and charts, which then analyze based on the research questions and later, discussed to arrive at conclusions.

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CHAPTER IV FINDINGS

This chapter presents the findings of the data collected from 100 Programming students of the ACLC Naga to find out their usage of social media and the test their level of addiction to it. A 20 items questionnaire was administered to respondents and a 100% response rate was achieved. Using frequency tables and charts, the research questions and objectives of the study have been discussed below in detail. Findings related to statement of the problem Social media use among programming students of ACLC Naga SOP.1 What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of? a. Age b. Gender Table 1. Demographic Profile of the Respondents

AGE f

%

14-16 years old

13

13%

17-19 years old

83

83%

20 years old and above

4

4%

TOTAL

100

100%

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Table 2. Demographic Profile of the Respondents in terms of Gender

GENDER f

%

Female

48

48%

Male

46

46%

Lesbian

3

3%

Gay

2

2%

Bisexual

1

1%

TOTAL

100

100%

As it can be observed from Table 1. Majority of the respondents who filled out the questionnaire are fall between the ages of 17-19 years old while only thirteenth of them are between the ages of 14-16 years old and the remaining four of them are fall in the ages of 20 years old and above. In the Table 2, forty eight percent (48%) of the respondents who filled out the questionnaire are female while forty six percent (46%) are male respondents. And the remaining six percent was divided into lesbian (3%), gay (2%) and bisexual (1%). The researcher found out that majority of social media users in Programming students of ACLC Naga are female and fall between the ages of 17-19 years old.

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SOP.2. Which social media accounts do programming students of ACLC-Naga use the most? Figure 3. Number of Social Media accounts do the respondents have

Number of Social Media Accounts One 20% Four more accounts 30%,

One Two Three

Three 21%

Two, 29%

Four more accounts

f=100 Majority of the respondents have 4 and more social media accounts and 29% of them said they have only two social media accounts. Other (21%) said they have three social media accounts while the remaining 20% said they have only one social media accounts.

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Figure 4. Social media accounts use the most

Social Media Accounts use the most

69% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 16%

20%

9% 10%

3%

2%

Others

Skype

1%

0% Facebook

Messenger

Twitter

Instagram

f=100

More than half of the respondents said they use Facebook on a regular basis followed by and the Messenger which has sixteenth percent of the respondents using it regularly. A ninth percent of the respondents said they use twitter regularly and the three percent other said it was other social media accounts which were not included in the list provide choose from they used more often. Two percent respondent choose Skype as the social media accounts they use the most while the remaining one percent who responded to the question mentioned Instagram they used more often.

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SOP.3 How frequent do a selected programming students of ACLC-Naga use social media?

TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA 35%

29%

30%

25%

23% 20%

20% 16% 15% 12% 10%

5%

0% Less than an hour

One hour

Two hours

Three hours

Four more hours

Figure 5. Average time spent on Social Media f=100

Figure 5 shows the time respondents spend on social media daily. A majority of the respondents (29%) said they spend four or more hours on social media daily. Other respondents (23%) said they spent two hours on social media a day, another 20% said they spend one hour on social media daily. Less than an hour is spent on social media by 16% of the respondents daily while the remaining 12% said they spent three hours on social media a day.

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As reviewed in related literature earlier, a study by Al-Menayes (2015) identified time spent using social media as one of the dimensions of social media addiction because it was clearly linked to all the identified factors of the phenomenon. This implies that, the more time spent on social media, the higher probability for social media addiction to exist. As the results have shown that majority of the Programming students of ACLC-Naga spend more than four hours daily on social media therefore it further supports other findings from this study that show the existence of social media addiction among programming students. Figure.6 Reasons for using social media respondents are subscribed to.

Reasons for using Social Media 40.00%

36.50%

35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 17.30%

20.00%

16.80%

16.20%

15.00%

13.20%

10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Entertainment

Meeting People

Social Events

Create media content and share opinions

Maintain relationship

f=197 Variables for this question were derived from Nyland’s (2007) five motives for which people use social media. The five motives are entertainment, creating media content and sharing opinions, meeting new people, for social events and maintaining relationships.

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The results shows that majority of the respondents use their social media account for entertainment, followed by 17.30% who use social media for meeting new people while 16.80% of them said they use social media for social events. Other respondents (16.20%) said they use social media for creating media content and sharing opinions and the remaining 13.20% said they use it to maintain relationships. From the data, majority of Programming students of ACLC Naga use social media for entertainment more than any other reasons for using social media. Figure 7. Issues discussed on social media

Issues discussed on Social Media Governance 1% 5%

Economics

11%

Others

12%

Sports

26%

Personal Issues

45%

Entertainment 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Series 1

f=100 Respondents were asked what they mostly discussed on the social media accounts they are subscribed to. Most of the respondents said they discussed issues pertaining to entertainment followed by their personal issues and then sports. Eleventh percent (11%) of the respondents said they discussed other issues like memes, academics and general issues.

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Fifth of them said they gave attention to issues concerning economics while one percent of them said their interest was on the governance. Internet Addiction Test This section analyses the 13 items derived from the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly Young used in this study. These 13 items are questions that were based on what studies have shown to be the factors that determine whether one is addicted to internet use or in the case of this study, social media or not. There are six factors that determine addiction and they include: Salience, Excessive use, neglect of responsibilities, anticipation, Neglect of social life and lack of self-control. Answer to the question were in the form of a 5- point Likert scale and respondents selected their responses to each question based on the one that best applied to the frequency of the behavior described in the question. Table 3. How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

0

0%

RARELY

23

23%

OCCASIONALLY

25

25%

FREQUENTLY

22

22%

OFTEN

17

17%

ALWAYS

13

13%

100

100%

Total

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A quarter of the respondents said they occasionally stay online longer than they intend to, while 23% of them admitted to rarely stay online longer than they intended to. Frequently, 22% of them stay online longer than they intended to and another 17% said they often stay online longer than they intend to when they log on. Other respondents (13%) said they always stay online longer than they intended while there’s no one said that the question does not apply to them. Table 4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?

RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE RARELY OCCASIONALLY FREQUENTLY

10 23 28 21

10% 23% 28% 21%

OFTEN

16

16%

ALWAYS

2

2%

Total

100

100%

When asked how often respondents form new relationships with fellow online users, 28% of the respondents said that happened occasionally and 23% said they rarely form new relationships with other users, 21% said they frequently did, while 16% said it was often the case. Some other 10% of the respondents said the question did not apply to them and the remaining 2% of the respondents said they always form new relationships with other online users.

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Table 5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?

RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

12

12%

RARELY

22

22%

OCCASIONALLY

22

22%

FREQUENTLY

24

24%

OFTEN

15

15%

ALWAYS

5

5%

Total

100

100%

Majority of the respondents (24%) said people in their lives frequently complained about the time they spend online, 22% of them said people rarely complained about the amount of time they spend online and another 22% said that people occasionally complained about the amount of time they spend online. Others (15%) said it was often the case, 12% respondents however said this did not apply to them but the remaining 5% said there was always a complaint about the time they spend using social media.

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Table 6. How often do your grades suffer because of the amount of time you spend online? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

21

21%

RARELY

25

25%

OCCASIONALLY

25

25%

FREQUENTLY

17

17%

OFTEN

9

9%

ALWAYS

3

3%

Total

100

100%

According to Table 6, 25% of the respondents said their grades are rarely affected by the amount of time they spend online. Another 25% said their grades occasionally affected. Twenty one percent (21%) said their grades are never affected by the amount of time they spent online, another 17% said it was frequently affected and 9% said it was often the case. The remaining 3% said their grades were always affected by the number of time they spent online.

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Table 7. How often do you check your social media accounts before something else you need to do? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

2

2%

RARELY

18

18%

OCCASIONALLY

33

33%

FREQUENTLY

17

17%

OFTEN

18

18%

ALWAYS

12

12%

Total

100

100%

From the table above it can be said that 33% respondents said they occasionally check their social media accounts before something else they needed to do while 18% said they rarely did. Another 18% said they did that often while 17% of the respondents too said they frequently checked their accounts before doing else they needed to do and 12% said they did that all the time while the remaining 2% of the respondents said it did not apply to them.

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Table 8. How do you often do you block disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the social media? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

15

15%

RARELY

18

18%

OCCASIONALLY

26

26%

FREQUENTLY

22

22%

OFTEN

13

13%

ALWAYS

6

6%

Total

100

100%

The table shows that 26% respondents occasionally block disturbing thoughts about their life with soothing thoughts of social media while 22% said they frequently did. Eighteen percent respondents said they rarely blocked disturbing thoughts with social media, others (15%) said this did not applicable to them. While 13% of them said they often did and the remaining 6% of them said that was the case all the time.

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Table 9. How often do you fear that life without social media would be boring, empty and joyless? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

11

11%

RARELY

20

20%

OCCASIONALLY

20

20%

FREQUENTLY

17

17%

OFTEN

15

15%

ALWAYS

17

17%

Total

100

100%

It can be deduced from this table that, apart from 20% each said they rarely and occasionally feared life without social media would be boring, empty and joyless, 17% of the respondents said they frequently felt that way and another 17% of them said they always feared while 15% of them said they often feared that would happen. And the remaining 11% said that they did not far that life without social media would be boring, empty and joyless.

37

Table 10. How often do you lose sleep due to late night social media use? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

12

12%

RARELY

22

22%

OCCASIONALLY

19

19%

FREQUENTLY

19

19%

OFTEN

18

18%

ALWAYS

10

10%

Total

100

100%

This table shows responses participants gave when they were asked how often they lost sleep due to using social media at the night. A few of the respondents (10%) said they always lost sleeping time due to late night social media use while 12% of them said they never lost sleeping due to late night social media use and 18% of them said they often lost sleep. Others (19%) said they occasionally lost sleep and another 19% said they frequently did and the remaining 22% said they rarely lost sleep due to using social media at the night.

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Table 11. How often do you fantasize about being online? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

7

7%

RARELY

24

24%

OCCASIONALLY

24

24%

FREQUENTLY

25

25%

OFTEN

13

13%

ALWAYS

7

7%

Total

100

100%

Table 11 shows that quarter of the respondents said they frequently fantasize about being online while 24% said they rarely fantasized about being online and another group of 24% said they occasionally fantasized about being online while 13% said they often did. Seven percent of the respondents said they never fantasized about being online while another 7% said they fantasized about being online all the time.

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Table 12. How often do you find yourself saying ‘just a few minutes” when online? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

10

10%

RARELY

20

20%

OCCASIONALLY

20

20%

FREQUENTLY

20

20%

OFTEN

14

14%

ALWAYS

16

16%

Total

100

100%

This table shows, twenty percent each said they rarely, occasionally and frequently experienced this while 16% of them said it always happen. Another 14% said they often said that and the remaining 10% said it does not apply to them.

40

Table 13. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

8

8%

RARELY

27

27%

OCCASIONALLY

33

33%

FREQUENTLY

15

15%

OFTEN

9

9%

ALWAYS

8

8%

100

100%

Total

Respondents were asked how often they try to cut down the amount of time they spend online and fail and their responses revealed that majority of them (33%) occasionally failed in trying to cut down the amount of time they spend online while 27% of them rarely failed. Also 15% said they failed frequently while 9% of them said they often failed. Very few of them (8%) said they never failed in their quest as they said it did not apply to them and another 8% said they always failed in attempting to cut down the amount of time they spend online.

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Table 14. How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

14

14%

RARELY

20

20%

OCCASIONALLY

25

25%

FREQUENTLY

20

20%

OFTEN

14

14%

ALWAYS

7

7%

Total

100

100%

A quarter of respondents said they occasionally choose to spend more time online over going out with others while fifth of each of the total number of respondents said they rarely and frequently did. However, 14% of the respondents said they never choose to spend more time online over going out and another 14% said they often choose to spent time online instead of going out with others and the remaining 7% of respondents said they always to choose to spend more time online over going out with others.

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Table 15. How often do you feel depressed, moody or nervous when you are offline, which goes away once you are back online? RESPONSE

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

NOT APPLICABLE

22

22%

RARELY

18

18%

OCCASIONALLY

17

17%

FREQUENTLY

23

23%

OFTEN

12

12%

ALWAYS

8

8%

Total

100

100%

Majority of the respondents (23%) said they frequently feel depressed, moody or nervous when offline, which goes away once they are back online while 22% of them said feeling depressed, moody or nervous when offline did not apply to them. However, 18% of the respondents said they felt that way rarely, 17% of the respondents experienced those feeling occasionally, 12% often and the remaining 8% accepting they felt depressed, moody or nervous when offline, which goes away once they are back online.

43

Level of Social Media Addiction Scores for each respondent’s answer to the 13 items of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) included in the questionnaire were summed up and grouped in a range of points. The scores were ranged as follows: 0-14 points: None 15-29 points: Mild 30-59 points: Moderate 60-80 points: Severe The percentage for each group was calculated and the results are represented in the chart below. Figure 8: Level of addiction to social media accounts

LEVEL OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION None Mild

Moderate 50% None 14%

Moderate

Severe 1%

Severe

Mild 35%

f=100

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Figure 8 shows the various levels at which students are addicted to Social media. Although all the respondents sampled for this study use social media, not all of them are addicted to social media. The study revealed that 14% of the respondents obtained scores below any of the levels of addiction and can therefore not addicted to social media. A majority (50%) of student obtained scores that placed them at a moderate level of addiction while 35% obtained scores that fall within the mildly addicted range. Only one of the respondents can be said to be severely addicted to social media scoring 60 points which falls within the severe level of addiction. These findings confirm the existence of the social media addiction phenomenon among programming students of AMA Computer Learning Center Naga although it is not an alarming level. Summary This chapter presented the results of the information gathered from the survey conducted among 100 programming students of ACLC Naga. The study found that Facebook is the most subscribed to and most used social media in ACLC. It also found that majority of the students to these platforms for entertainment which also makes up the issues most discussed on these platforms by programming students. Findings also showed the existence of social media addiction among programming students at different levels with majority being at the moderate level and just 1% being severely addicted.

45

CHAPTER V DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This chapter discusses the findings in the preceding chapter and draws on the theoretical framework used in the study and related literature which was reviewed in Chapter 2, as well as the objectives of the study to enable the researcher draw conclusions and make recommendations for future studies. This study sought to find out the level of social media addiction among programming students of ACLC Naga. The sample frame was made up of 100 programming students and a 100% response rate was achieved and answers provided by respondents to questionnaires they were given are summarized according to the objectives of the study. Summary of Key Findings and Discussion The discussion of the findings of this study will be done in connection to the research objectives, theoretical framework and the literature that were reviewed in chapter two. To this end, this subsection seeks to establish how the findings reflect the assumptions and principle that underpin the Uses and Gratification and the Media Systems Dependency theories. The first objective was to identify the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of: Age and Gender. The study revealed that majority of social media users in programming students fall between the ages of 17-19 years old and majority is female. The second objectives sought to determine the social media accounts do programming students of ACLC Naga use the most. The study revealed that majority of the respondents are subscribed to more than one social media accounts. Facebook was 46

identified as the most use social media accounts among the programming students. This was followed by Messenger, Twitter, other social media accounts such as Google+, WeChat, Snapchat and LinkedIn, Skype and Instagram in that order. The findings from this study ties in with the study by Dau (2015) which showed that the majority of the respondents use almost all popular social media accounts and he identified Facebook as having largest number of users, this study confirmed Facebook as the most popular and most use social media accounts. The findings also show that Facebook is the most regularly used social media accounts although almost all the respondents had alternatives. This finding is an agreement with the postulations of the Uses and Gratification theory which explains that there is a motive behind audiences’ choice and use of media. According to the theory, media consumers are at liberty to choose from a variety of channels, specifically one that fully meets their needs although they have many alternatives and social media certainly offers a wide range of platforms for the audience to choose from. Findings also confirm assertions by the Media Systems Dependency Theory which posits that the more a medium fulfils the needs of a user the more dependent he/she is on that media therefore programming students use Facebook more regularly than any other social media accounts because it satisfies their reason for using social media more. Each of these social media accounts has its strength and specialized functions, hence the selection of one platform is an indication of what the audience want to use the medium for, which confirms assertions by the theorists of the Uses and Gratification theory that users look for a media source that satisfies their needs although they may have

47

alternative choices. This means the users turns to the particular social media accounts that meets their expectations which in this case is Facebook. The extent to which the social media account is able to deliver and meet the expectation of the user determines the degree of dependency on that social media accounts. Finding also show that all the reasons for which respondents choose to join and use social media can be satisfied by Facebook which majority of respondents also chose as their most regularly social media accounts. This analysis ties in with the postulation of media systems dependency theory which states that the more the media will become important to him/her. The third objective sought to know how frequent does a programming student of ACLC Naga uses social media. The finding revealed that majority of programming students of ACLC Naga spend 4 and more hours on social media daily. This further confirms the existence of addiction to these sites among students as time they spent on social media has been identified as a dimension of addiction in the study by Al-Menayes (2015) with results of another study carried out by the University of Derby in the UK which shows that users who spend an average of 3.6 hours a day on social media are classified as addicted. Also, responses to one of the question asked in the IAT (How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” online?) showed majority of students spent more time than intended using social media and had difficulty in trying to cut down the amount of time they spent online. This confirms two of the six factors (excessive use and lack of self-control) that determine the existence of addiction mentioned earlier in chapter 4.

48

This finding specifically relates to the basic assumption of the media system dependency theory. This theory is anchored on audience’s dependence on media for their needs to be met. From the study findings, social media addiction is present but not at its optimal level. It can therefore, be inferred that the sampled population are dependent on social media because of needs they want met when using platforms. The last and the main objective was to find the level of social media addiction among programming students of ACLC Naga. Generally, finding confirmed the existence of social media addiction phenomenon among programming students of ACLC Naga and also showed that addiction existed at different levels i.e. mild, moderate and severe level of addiction. At the mild level are average users who use their social media accounts a bit too long but have control over their usage. At the moderate level, the user may experience occasional or frequent problems because of their use of the media while at the severe level, social media usage causes major problems in some aspects of the user’s life like poor academic performance in the case of student. Findings also showed that 85% of the respondents were moderately and mildly addicted while only 1% was severely addicted. However, findings also showed that 14% of the respondent were not within any of the various levels of addiction. The findings also revealed students use their social media accounts for entertainment, meeting people, and social events, create media content and share opinions and maintain relationship in descending order. This findings confirms the research finding by Dau (2015), Omekwu et al (2014) and Appeanti & Danso (2003) that majority of the respondents use these social media accounts mainly for social purposes. All these studies found that majority of the respondents use these social media platforms mainly for social 49

needs such as friendship, maintaining and forming new relationships with the most dominant being entertainment as most of them said they joined social media because of entertainment and the issues they discussed most on these platforms is about entertainment.

Conclusion The study has shown that programming students of AMA Computer Learning Center are active users of social media. The study shows majority of the respondent’s falls between the 14-16 years old and female. The findings also revealed that the most popular social media accounts use by programming students of ACLC is Facebook with almost all respondents subscribing to it and using it on a regular basis. Majority of the programming students of ACLC Naga spend more 4 hours daily on social media. Importantly, the study confirmed the existence of social media addiction among programming students though not an alarming rate. It revealed that the most of them are moderate and mildly addicted with only one person who is severely addicted. This an indication that ACLC has not been left out of the effects of advancement in technologies like the internet although compared to other places where similar studies have been carried out. Al-Menayes (2015) found in his study that students with higher social media addiction rate have poorer academic records than who are either moderately addicted or not addicted. The same can be deduced from findings this study. Although, the current study did not set out establish a correlation between social media addiction and academic performance, the study focused on students and this is an important issue that concerns them and must therefore be looked at. One of the question as part of the items which were

50

used to test for addiction (How often do your grades suffer because of the amount of time you spend online?) had majority of respondents saying their grades were occasionally affected by their use of social media. This majority fall within the mild and moderate level of addiction. However, the respondent who fell within the severe level of addiction said his grades always suffered as a result of using social media. It therefore backs to the result of Al- Menayes’ study. Finding show there is relatively low addiction to social media among programming students of ACLC Naga, hence, it can be deduced that excessive social media use does affect academic performance. Although addiction to social media is not yet an optimal level at among programming students, like all other addictions negatively affect the aspects of life, this could be a cause for concern and attention must therefore be given to the phenomenon so as to prevent negative impact especially to the academic performance of the students.

51

Limitation Firstly, this study was limited with a number of people sampled for the study. The sample size was limited to only 100 programming students which is a very significant number considering the general population of Programming student of the school due to time constrain. This affected the generalization of the findings. Future studies should study a larger number to further asses the phenomenon to know the actual situation and impact so that it can be addressed appropriately. Secondly, the method used in conducting the study limited only in terms of findings. Survey was the only research techniques that was used to identify the existence of social media addiction among programming students. This method only succeed in scratching the surface of the phenomenon without in depth analysis into the impact of the addiction on students’ academic performance and other aspects of their lives. Future studies must complement the survey research method with either an interview on focus group discussion. This will enable the researcher to gather extensive data for effective conclusion and firm understanding of the social media addiction phenomenon.

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APPENDIX B SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Name (Optional): Dear respondent, We are the Grade 12-ABM student of ACLC-Naga conducting research on “The Level of Social Media addiction among Programming students of ACLC NAGA s/y20182019” in partial fulfilment for Practical Research II. We will be most grateful if you will answer the questions to the best of your ability. Your responses will be treated confidentially and used only for academic purposes. Your participation is greatly appreciated. Instruction: Please fill the spaces provided. Mark [√] where applicable and specify where necessary I. Personal information

1. Age:

___14-16

2. Gender: ___Male

____17-19

____Female

___20 above

____Lesbian

____Gay

___Bisexual

___Transgender

3. Number of social media Accounts:

__1

___2

___3

___4 and more

53

4. Which of the following social media sites do you use on regular basis? __Skype

__ Facebook

__ Instagram

__ Messenger

__Twitter __other specify_____________

5. Why did you join these social media platforms? ( tick as many reasons as you do on social media) __ Entertainment

__Meeting people

__ Maintain

relationship __Social events

__Create media content and share opinions

6. On average, how much time do you spend on social media daily? __ Less than an hour __Three hour’s

___ one hour

__ two hours

__ four more hours

7. What issues do you mostly discuss on your social media platforms? __Personal issues

__Entertainment

__Governance

__Economics

__Sports

__ others, specify _____

54

II. Rate yourself from 0-5.

0 1 2 3 4 5 Not Rarely Occasionally Frequently Often Always QUESTIONS Applicable 8. How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended? 9. How often do you form new relationships with

fellow

online users? 10. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you

spend

online? 11. How often do your grades or school

work

suffer because

55

of the amount of

time

you

spend online? 12. How often do you check your social

media

account(s) before something else that you need to do? 13. How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet? 14. How often do you fear that life without the Internet would

56

be

boring,

empty,

and

joyless? 15. How often do you lose sleep due

to

night

latesocial

media use? 16. How often do you

fantasize

about

being

online? 17. How often do you

find

yourself saying “just

a

few

more minutes” when online? 18. How often do you try to cut down

the

amount of time

57

you

spend

online and fail? 19. How often do you choose to spend

more

time

online

over going out with others? 20. How often do you

feel

depressed, moody

or

nervous when you are offline, which

goes

away once you are

back

online?

Signature of the Respondent

58

APPENDIX 3 Original Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly Young The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is the first validated test for Internet Addiction to measure Internet use in terms of mild, moderate, to several levels of addiction. Based upon the following five-point Likert scale, select the response that best represents the frequency of the behavior described in the following 20-item questionnaire. 0 = Not Applicable 1 = Rarely 2 = Occasionally 3 = Frequently 4 = Often 5 = Always 1. ___How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended? 2. ___How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time online? 3. ___How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your partner? 4. ___How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users? 5. ___How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?

59

6. ___How often do your grades or school work suffer because of the amount of time you spend online? 7. ___How often do you check your e-mail before something else that you need to do? 8. ___How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet? 9. ___How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you do online? 10. ___How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet? 11. ___How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go online again? 12. ___How often do you fear that life without the Internet would be boring, empty, and joyless? 13. ___How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are online? 14. ___How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins? 15. ___How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when off-line, or fantasize about being online? 16. ___How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” when online? 17. ___How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail? 18. ___How often do you try to hide how long you’ve been online? 19. ___How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others? 60

20. ___How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are off-line, which goes away once you are back online?

After all the questions have been answered, add the numbers for each response to obtain a final score. The higher the score, the greater the level of addiction and creation of problems resultant from such Internet usage. The severity impairment index is as follows: NONE 0 – 30 points MILD 31- 49 points: You are an average online user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage. MODERATE 50 -79 points: You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life. SEVERE 80 – 100 points: Your Internet usage is causing significant problems in your life. You should evaluate the impact of the Internet on your life and address the problems directly caused by your Internet usage.

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Reference: Akua Adoasi Otu (2015).Long Essay: Social Media Addiction among Students of the University of Ghana Retrieved from http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Alabi, O.F. (2013). A Survey of Facebook Addiction Level among Selected Nigerian University Undergraduates. New Media and Mass Communication. Vol. 10 pp. 70 – 80 Al-Menayes. J.J. (2015). Dimensions of Social Media Addiction among University Students in Kuwait. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 4, No. 1, 2015, pp. 23-28. Doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.14 Appeanti, W.O. & Danso, E. D. (2013). Students’ Use of Social Media in Higher

Education

in

Ghana.

Retrieved

from

www.academia.edu/8545466/Students_Use_Of_Social_Media_In_Higher_E ducation_In_Ghana Dau, B. (2015). Social Computing: A Study Assessing the Impacts of Social Network Addiction among the Students in Northern Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and Management Sciences (IJHMS). Volume 3, Issue 1 ISSN 2320–4044 (Online)

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LaRose, R. & Eastin, M. S. (2002). A Social Cognitive Explanation of Internet Uses and Gratifications: Toward a New Theory of Media Attendance. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, volume 43(3), pp. 358 – 377 Li, S. M. & Chung, T. M. (2006). Internet function and internet addictive behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 22(6) pp. 1067–1071. McQuail, D. (2005). Mass Communication Theories. London: SAGE. Nyland, R. C. (2007). Jesus is My Friend: Religiosity as a Mediating Factor in Internet Social

Networking

Use.

Retrieved

from

www.psu.edu:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.168.4424&rep=rep1&type=pdf Nyland, R. C. (2007). The Gratification Niches of Internet Social Networking, E-mail and Face-to Face Communication. IT & Society, Volume 1 Issue 4. Omekwu, C. O, Eke, H.N. & Odoh, N.J (2014). The Use of Social Networking Sites among the Undergraduate Students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). Paper 1195. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1195 Przybylski, A., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. and V. Gladwell (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 29, pp. 1841-1848.

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Ruggerio, T. E. (2000). Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. Mass Communication & Society, Volume 3 Issues 1. Saravannel, P. (1992). Research Methodology. 3rd Ed. New Delhi: Kitab Mohab Severin, W. J. & Tankard, J. W. (2001). Communication Theories: Origins, Methods, and Uses in the Mass Media. London: Longman.

Stat Trek (n.d.). Sample Size: Stratified Random Samples. Retrieved from http://stattrek.com/sample-size/stratified-sample.aspx

Young,

K.

(2009).

Internet

Addiction

Test.

Retrieved

from

http://www.netaddiction.com/internetaddiction-test/

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