The Impact of Social Media Usage on Young Adults

In the current error, social media has become one of the major forms of communication. Trends are showing that nearly half the world population is connected to the internet in Asia, Africa, and European countries. Digital satellites and replacing the analog ones have also largely increased over the years. Social media networks usage varies from different countries, continent and there demographic, some other social media growth is more than the others considering their usage and the popularity among the people of the world (Digital marketing Ramblings n.d). According to Pew Research statistics (n.d), the number of internet users worldwide are 4.021 billion, social media users 3.196 billion and finally; the number of mobile users 5.135 billion. Web traffic remains the largest favored mobile with 54% followed by desktop closely with 43%. European countries and America have the largest internet penetration than any other places in the world with a 74% to 94% (Pew Research internet project and).  Amount of time used in social media has increased over time and other interactions with offline trends like games and music have gone significantly lower. Users identify themselves by the time they spent on social networks. The researcher will examine the most popular sites like Facebook and Instagram, their popularity and their impact on human lives today. Research will draw information from different sites and people themselves by administering questionnaires and conducting interviews. There are both negative and positive consequences incurred in the increased popularity of social networks, some are increased business transaction and opportunities and on the negative side, we find hacking and online bullying (Davis 654).

Facebook is one of the most popular, and most used social networks in the world despite the negative criticism over the years, they have over 2 billion users all over the world and hold the majority of users. Google and YouTube follow second with also a lot of users compared to a Facebook Instagram platform which is not commonly visited. Everyone wants to be associated with the largest and fastest growing network for various reasons one of them being marketing and business advertisement, at this level Facebook still top-up at the table closely followed by Instagram. Branding of goods and personality is also another important aspect of social networks and the best social network for branding is Instagram and YouTube. Which is the most engaging social network? Engaging with the audience is the paramount objective of the users and mostly the marketing personnel’s, Facebook followed by the snapshot are the most engaging. E-commerce is also an increasing trend whereby one gets to buy goods from online and be delivered to your doorstep, the statistics show that there are 1.6 billion e-commerce users around the world. E-commerce is mostly linked with social networks hence makes interaction between users and sellers more lively.

Finally, Facebook is one of the largest single dominating social network currently in the world. According to statistics, the increased popularity is brought by their fast feedback towards there users and better user interface and safer. Statistics will help us know how social networks have influenced the society at large and how to use that opportunity to know how well to utilize the social network. The study will advance how people conduct themselves in social networks, how they conduct business and how they interact with each other.

Significance of the study

By studying social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr we get to answers all the main questions asked below in the study objectives. People get to know more about social interaction among the people and the validation each person seeks online. Research will also open up the existing gap between the online life and the offline of people identity. Feedbacks are expected from the three major social networks in which data shall be collected.

Objectives of the study

Ø To find out whether people use social media to attract or offer likes, followers and comments.

Ø To establish whether people use social media for information and advocacy.

Ø To find out if social media is an essential element in people’s lives.

Research Hypothesis

Here are hypotheses the study seeks to answer:

H1: Do people mainly use social media to attract or offer likes, followers, and comments?

H2: Do people use social media for information and advocacy purposes?

H3: Is social media an essential element of people's lives?

Users also use like and dislike in measuring their validation within social networks. The null hypothesis of this study is that user validation does not affect their daily lives and how they interact with other people while offline. Hypotheses of the study will be through a positive correlation between the following variables, feeling good, interest and age. Participants will be chosen due to their influence in the social network at large, they brought the aspect of validation into the light whereby one can know the difference in each variable.

II. Literature Review

Literature review section provides various studies and research conducted by other researchers in regard to social networks and how they have contributed to the society at large. The study will mostly concentrate on people interactions and social validation; it is also concerned with the main question which is life ratings. Do we rate ourselves according to how people see us or comment on our social network platforms? Finally, what is the role of the society in dealing with the trending of the social networks over the years?.

Tosun (775) classifies the social networks in different terms, business, race, geographical location, religion, and politics. Tosun considers all these aspects as major areas that affect or drive the social networks of which they are not wrong about that.

Social Interaction Online

Interactions between people are the reason behind the large growth of the social network, the urge of the people to know each other and interact. Computer-mediated communication (CMS) examples emails, texting instant messaging and blogging and among others have become a major source of influence in our society today. According to Wang (49), there are four aspects of social interactions, which are: time, place, anonymity and physical appearance, for an instance each individual control on how, when and what to say and to communicate at a particular time (Wang 40). Various blogging sites that give the opportunity for one to be able to express their personality and be able to find people who are like-minded and hence form communities of like-minded people. Tumblr (n.d) is such a good example where users are allowed to speak out their mind concerning various issues like politics, personal life, thoughts, sharing their social issues and many more, it allows the users to be able to express their feelings completely and its compared to the other people in the same network, this helps a lot in understanding each other and mostly those we are interacting with at that network (Ellison, Nicole, Charles and Cliff 1146).

The study is concerned with social validation and its effect on the society at large. Enli, Gunn Sara, and Nancy Thumim (n.d) define social validation as the ability of oneself to be able to communicate or express themselves within a particular group of people to which they belong to. Researchers also noted that when a group mentality changes one individual way of thinking this is seen when one makes a particular decision because the other group members have agreed upon that conclusion. According to the first Facebook president, Facebook is a social validation loop where one is limited in things like the comment like, and dislike. Enli, Gunn Sara, and Nancy Thumim (n.d), looked at one thing in a particular face to face interaction with people and its effects. He further looked at personal interaction where he said that one performance is based on the two parties involved. People build a certain personality in which people associate them with, the role of each party involved change from time to time and their performance is evaluated accordingly. Sometimes people do not present who they are really been, they display a different image in the social networks and later they go back to their private life where they become whom they are really been.

Nowadays, people spend most of their time on social networks hence creates addiction. Addiction to social networks have been a major topic in recent days, whereby you find both adults, children and mostly affected are the teenagers. Tosun (774), addiction to internet has become a major concern to because it has caused a lot of problems like suicidal tendency, withdrawal, low esteem and many other issues which have created a bigger problem than good. According to research conducted by Tosun (776), there are six core elements of addiction, they are mainly tolerance, withdrawal, relapse, mood modification, and external consequences. A good example of Instagram or Facebook whereby one posts a picture but does not get enough likes so they decide to post another picture and it also suffers the same setback and this creates a circle whereby one keeps posting and posting waiting for validation which is not given at the end of the day a study by Dr. Pampimol Wipulakorn (Enli, Gunn Sara, and Nancy Thumim 126).

People who get few likes are the most social networks addicts because they tend to look for validation which is not forthcoming (Enli, Gunn Sara, and Nancy Thumim 124). A survey was conducted on November 2014 until April 2015 it was conducted among 2198 students who gave various reasons why they use the social networks. One of the major reasons was loneliness and frequency of daily use of the social networks (Guegeun, Nicholas and Celine 383). Lin (175) conducted research that concluded that people who are addicted to social networks find it hard to pursue the normal relationship with other people in the real world. Addiction is a social disorder which includes compulsive internet use, self-declared addicts, and lack of self-esteem, depression and attention deficit (Ellison, Nicole, Charles and Cliff 1148).

Race is a major concern in the topic of validation in the social networks whereby people tend to identify themselves with a certain race of people, by doing these people tend to bring a very awful picture in the social media. Though the current generation of young people tend to believe in a different ideology of all people are equal and freedom of expression and access to information (Lin 175). When one looks at the social interaction of young people there are no major differences among races but a major discrepancy is seen in elderly people. People with different ideologies and perspective cannot co-exist in the same network because a network requires people with the same ideologies and thinking for better and good communication. Women are affected mostly in a social network because they are discriminated because of their gender and opinions and this trend is the one that is displayed on the real world. When one does further research you realize that black women fall way below white women because a black woman idea cannot be supported by a white woman not because they are women but because they are black (American Psychiatric Publishing n.d).

A study by Skues (2415) shows that women utilize social networks more than men in many aspects, one being promoting of oneself and personal relationships among other things. Women solve most of their day to day problems using social media as compared to men. For instance, when one wants a healthy diet or is a facing a skin problem the first thing the woman shall do is to go online and look for answers. By this, they contribute largely in the growth of social networks. Business community has found a way on how to maximize their profit using the social networks, they predict patterns and usage of social network and come up with conclusion which is mostly true.  For example, you find that a Facebook user is more likely to buy a certain good than an Instagram user and by doing this they know where their target population lies. People associate themselves with the brands they love and this gives the business people good statistics of how many people love a certain product.

III. Research Methodology

Data Collection

All data was collected through a method of snowball sampling and convenience; a survey monkey was also prepared so as to ask questions to online users of the three major networks. Participant were allowed to answer the question as they wished, by doing this they ensured that they express their feelings and what their desires are well and clear in the interview questions. Additionally, it reflects on how they feel about the use of social network and its impact on each of their individual lives (Elison 1143).

The information was collected at Seton Hall University.  Targeted group was within a range of age group (18-29).  Survey was to be conducted between a groups of (50 – 80) people in the university. Majority of students used this social network as part of their social lives so it was very essential to conduct a survey of students. Responses were great and out of 60 interviewed students, 58 students answered the questions fully as asked and this account for a 99% success rate in that interview conducted. Researcher’s questions came from the three major networks whereby the researcher extracted most frequently discussed topics on the networks. The questions were shared among the students, those who follow them or those whom they followed, this ensured that the survey was conducted within different groups and also similar groups of people. Participating students were allowed to ask questions and air their comments in a real-time communication forum. Finally, the instructions and the purpose of the survey were laid out down clearly too all participants.

Demographic

When conducting a survey, one has to consider various issues like distribution of various participant, in this study 94% of participant was using Facebook, 78% of them were using Instagram and 50% were using Tumblr (n.d) .Those who were using all three social networks were 58% and those using both Facebook and Instagram were 70% and those using Instagram and Tumblr were 60% finally those who were using both Facebook and Tumblr were 57%. The study considered races, 8% of the students were Africans, 12% were Asians, 70% were Europeans finally the other 10% had no specific race. Researcher also considered the undergraduate students who comprised 40% of the study and master’s students 20% and the PhD students were 20% too. Researcher considered the government-sponsored and self-sponsored student who were 40 % and 60% respectively (van den Eijnden 478).

Measures

 Variables in this study are time, age, feeling good and interest, it was measured independently and the researcher used the participant feedback. Independent variable includes time spent on social networks and other networks ((Skues 2414). Dependent variable is like age, feeling good and interest. Some variables are also controlled by demographics which are race, education, and marital status.

Independent variable of time, it measured the time one spent in the social network, (1-3) hrs. (4_8) hrs. Finally, (8-12) hrs. When one chooses the amount of time used in a social network, a next question pops up to ask if the participant love the topic (yes) or (no) if either of the answers the participant gives reasons why they choose that particular choice. Finally, we asked whether the participant agree or disagree with the following statistics that have been provided by the previous studies by asking as follows [1] agree [2] disagree [3] strongly agree [4] strongly disagree.

 Dependent variable like age bracket they choose ranging (18-20) and (20-29) of which we will be able to know the age of each participant.  Feeling good, the researcher provided it what percentage and the researcher left it as an open-ended question which will range from 0 to 100%, also in terms of interest. Researcher used open-ended questions. In the final part the researcher also asked again do you agree or disagree with the study (agree) (disagree) (strongly agree) or (strongly disagree).

The demographic factor of race was represented as follows; [01] Asian [02] African [03] European and others [04], which comprise of mixed races. The educational level was represented as follows; [01]1 year of study [02] graduate [03]2 year of study [04] Ph.D. The marital status of the participant of the participant which was represented as follows [a]married [b] single [c] divorced [d] dating [e] engaged all the following are nominal measures. Last question was, was the interview friendly was is engaging or was it poor it was coded like this in percentage [0-9] very poor [10-30] poor [40-50] fair [50-70] good [70-90] very good.  Interview questions that were used in this study were very successful according to the results corrected. Data collected was presented in various tables. The first table represent independent variable like time, it shows what each participant amount of time they spend in their social networks platforms, and the second one is for dependent variable and finally for demographic variables where they mentioned their races. Each person was asked all the same questions with no exception and they were recorded as answered and tabulated as shown in the tables below. Education level was also recorded, the marital status of each participant. The researcher established the relationship between some of the variables and all was also put down in a record. All these variables are the core basis of supporting our hypothesis based on the feedback that we were given by the participant.

Table 1.0

Some social media results of how they agree or disagree on various factors.

Frequencies

(n)

Mean

Percentages

(%)

St.

Dev.

Reflection/Similarity(DV)

2.3

2.0

4.7

Strongly Disagree

9

6.0

Strongly agree

10

9.0

Disagree

12

8.0

Agree

18

50.0

Somehow agree

21

23

Somehow disagree

44

12

Table 2.0

The shows random ages of participants.

Frequencies

(n)

Mean

Percentages

(%)

St.

Dev.

AGE

1.7

2.3

18-20

35

55

20-29

25

45

Table 3.0

The tables show the time spent by each participant.

Frequencies

(n)

Mean

Percentages

(%)

St.

Dev.

TIME

1.4

3.3

1-3

10

90

3-6

20

5

7-9

30

5

Table 4.0

The table shows the amount of interest each participant had on the topic.

Frequencies

(n)

Mean

Percentages

(%)

St.

Dev.

INTREST

2.4

4.3

Agree

5

10

Strongly agree

10

15

Disagree

5

12

Strongly disagree

4

18

Somehow agree

6

25

Somehow disagree

30

30

Table 5.0

The following table represent the data collected about users feeling good mood.

Frequencies

(n)

Mean

Percentages

(%)

St.

Dev.

Feeling Good

1.5

2.3

Agree

10

1

Strongly agree

5

1.5

Disagree

5

12

Strongly disagree

5

28

Somehow agree

30

25

Somehow disagree

10

30

Table 2.0 shows that participants ranging from [18-20] were in larger numbers than those ranging from [21-29] whose number was lower. The figures show that the number of users increases with reduction in the age bracket. So more teenager’s uses this social sites than the young adults according to the above record as supported by a research done by Guéguen and Céline (378)

Table 3.0 shows the amount of time each participant spent in the social networks. In the table we are shown that most people spend 1to 3 hours which is a significant number because it's 90% of the participant as supported by a study done by Tosun (1512). The figure shows the level of addiction in which people are into. In table 5.0, illustration on how people either feel good about the topic or feel not good shown. Participants have expressed their different opinions majority somehow disagree with the research. Majorly, it was contributed by multiple facts at hand, but some agreed very strongly with the topic at hand (Markey, Wells and Markey 123).

 Analysis

Table 2.0 gives the results of the third hypothesis. That is, is social media an important aspect of human life. Based on the feedback given social media plays a very high and critical role in human life because it keeps them entertained and busy all the time and this helps in avoiding boredom and idleness. According to Geck (110) all people no matter their age need the social media for various reasons, interaction, news and also entertainment. As shown in the table the independent variable such as time significantly influence the social network life of an individual, whereby you find those who spent more time on social media tends to become addicts than those who spend less time are not addicted. Statistics drawn from the time whereby those people who tend to spend more time tend to seek validation because of the small percentage of likes or followers (Instagram n.d).

The results did not support hypothesis one, that is, do people mainly use social media to attract or offer likes, followers, and comments? Here, statistics showed that many people disagree with this hypothesis with the higher percentage being the people aged ranging (18-20), only a smaller percentage agreed with the hypothesis as in line with the study done by Pantic (654). The idea of impression can also be seen on table 5.0 were feeling good about the topic is voted low by most users, this shows that most users don’t want to discuss some sensitive topics like the online addiction (Sociology n.d). Participants showed that there is the great difference between online self and offline self.

On the second hypothesis, do people use social media for information and advocacy purposes? Several participants supported that notion because the largest portion supported the idea. People have different ways they use the social network for, the people age from (20-29) mostly used a social network to gain current information and advocacy as corresponding to a study done by Muscanell, Nicole and Rosanna (108).

 Conclusion, Limitations, and Suggestions for Future Research

In this final chapter, the limitations of the study will be addressed along with future possible research. Null hypothesis was accepted after the collection of the statistical data, there was some relationship noted between an independent variable and dependent variable though not such significant in this study. There were various limitations involved during the research, some of the participants found it offensive answering the question about race and it caused a lot of commotion among the participant. Some of the questions were not answered they were left blank so those papers were exempted from the statistics. Gender balance was also a problem, the study required both gender involvement but it was not possible to hit the required number (Muscanell, Nicole and Rosanna (111).

 Online survey is faced by some challenges whereby the participant doesn’t take it very seriously and just answer so as to fill the spaces, again since there are no monetary values when one answers the question so they just answer. Participants sometimes answer the question without any consideration and just answer with a lot with biased, the best way is to read the questions and read them carefully internalize and answer them thoughtful.

The large limitation of this study is the way of data collection considering the data that was being collected, the method most suitable was quantitative whereby they apply close and personal conducted interviews where you get to pick the views straight from the participant. It would have led to better understanding of the participant feelings and emotions. Having such information could have led to the better conclusion and quality data collected, the survey was also a onetime thing that did not give the participant chance to be able to express themselves more.

The study concluded that there was no significant relationship between variables, so for future research to come up with a better research methodology that shows how well are the variables related to each other and how one affects the other. Another direction for future research is to incorporate more theoretical models in the study. The next or future study should allow the participant to have more time to be able to express themselves and to add more they can use the recommended method of face to face interview for more close and personal interviews.

Works Cited

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American Psychiatric Publishing.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013.

Davis, Katie. "Tensions of identity in a networked era: Young people’s perspectives on the risks and rewards of online self-expression." New Media & Society 14.4 (2012): 634-651.

Digital Market Ramblings. “How Many People use 416 of the Top Social Media, Apps and Tools?” Expanded Ramblings, 2014.Online Source.

Ellison, Nicole B., Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe. "The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites." Journal of computer-mediated communication 12.4 (2007): 1143-1168.

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Geck, Caroline. "The generation Z connection: Teaching information literacy to the newest net generation." Toward a 21st-Century School Library Media Program 235 (2007): 2007.

Guéguen, Nicolas, and Céline Jacob. "Solicitation by e-mail and solicitor's status: A field study of social influence on the web." CyberPsychology & Behavior 5.4 (2002): 377-383.

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Lin, Jih-Hsuan. "The role of attachment style in Facebook use and social capital: Evidence from university students and a national sample." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 18.3 (2015): 173-180.

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Appendix

A. Survey.

B.

Informed Consent.

A. Survey Questions

1. What is your age in years? ______

2. What is your gender?

MALE

FEMALE

OTHERS

3. What is your race?

European

Asian

African

Multi-racial

4. What is your relationship status?

Married

Engaged

Single

Dating

5. What is your highest education level?

1st

year

2nd

year

3rd

year

4th

year

Masters

PhD

6. Which social network do you use?

Facebook

Instagram

Tumblr

7. How much time do you spend on online?

1-3 hrs.

5-8hrs

3-5hrs

8-9hrs

B. Informed Consent

EXPLAINING OF PROCEDURES: The procedures of answering all the questions must be explained in detailed to avoid misleading the questions.

PARTICIPANT SELECTION: A certain criteria was used to choose those who were to participate on the study.

PURPOSE: the main purpose of the study, was to study social network validation and how it affects various things in our lives.