Introduction In our modern world today, where in everything seems to change instantly and technologies innovates in a blink of an eye, ways of communication also keeps up with the trend. From having snail mails, which takes so much time and effort to be sent, keeping friends updated to current news of everyday life was impossible, nowadays, that speaking to friends and relatives around the globe was just a click away and updating them is as easy as one, two, and three. It has become possible through the invention of different devices, services, and processes.
The most popular is what we call today as Social Networking Sites. Social Networking Sites are a web-based service that focuses on building and reflecting of social relations among people. It’s service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. (Marjo)It allows users to share ideas, activities, events and interests with in the individual networks (Wikipedia). It bridges the gap between people separated by seas, oceans, and continents.
This study focuses on the effects of being a member in social networking sites could have on student’s study habits. It is obvious that almost all individuals who use these types of services are students due to the fact that nowadays is the generation that computers and internets are not just wants but needs. Many studies about this has been made and currently on-going and the researchers yearns to contribute to better understanding and explanation of the issues arises about social networking sites especially when it comes to student’s study habits.
This study will attest whether social networking help student in their way of studying or not. Does it apply to all or only to a few students? What are the effects of it to their study habits? These questions will be answered at the end of the study. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Online Social Networking is the most popular hobby and the newest trend of communication (next to texting) among young adults with approximately 583 million users around the globe and over 19 million or 3. 27% are Filipino users.
The Philippines is actually considered as the “Text Capital of the World” for always being the first and the best in every new invention. In fact, the Philippines is the first to register in Facebook and always be next in line when a new cell phone was being launched in the market. (Carballo 2010) It was started in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe. com (1994) Geocites (1995) and Tripod. com (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other via personal web pages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive web space.
SixDeegrees. com was the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. It allows users to create profiles and list their friends, in year 1998 surfing the friends list has already been accessible. (mae) Some communities – such as Classmates. com – took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late 1990’s, user profiles became a central feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile list of “friends” and search for other user with similar interests.
New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s and many sites began to develop more advance features for users to find and manage friends. This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the emergence of Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was allowed by Myspace and LinkedIn a year later, and finally Bebo. Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites’ popularity, by 2005, MySpace was reportedly getting more page views than Google.
Facebook, launched in 2004, since become the largest social networking site in the world. (Wikipedia. com) Today, it is estimated that there are now 200 active sites using wide variety of social networking models. Most popular online social networking sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Twitter and the newest Facebook captures the interests of the Filipino youth. This online social networking site was created to help people communicate more efficiently with their family and other relatives anywhere in the friends, to strengthen ties with new acquaintances and to meet new people online.
Some people use these sites as a market place for business purposes wherein they can advertise, offer quality products and services online. Online Social Networking Sites like Facebook allows its users to create a private or semi-private profile wherein they can share information about them. It allows its users to share their experiences, upload recent photos and videos, share their stories and update other users about their current activities. It allows the users to exchange news and ideas about the current issues to keep them in touch with what is going on ‘out there’
Statement of the Problem The study aims to respond to this problem: “Does being a member in a social networking site affect the study habits of the students” 1. What are the profile of the responds according: a. Age b. Gender c. Section 2. Which of the following Social Networking Sites most visited by the respondents? FacebookFriendsterFormspring MySpaceYahoo MessengerMultiply TwitterTumblr 3. How often do the respondents visit their Social Networking accounts during school days? 4. What are the GOOD and BAD Effects of Social Networking to the study habits of the students? . Is there any negative/bad experience that the Social Networking affects the study habits of the students? 6. Is there any relevance in Social Networking to study habits? 7. How do they manage their time spending for studying and social networking sites? 8. Do they study and social networking at the same time? 9. Where do they spend most of there time? Study habits? Surfing the social networking sites? Significance of the Study The researchers believe that this study proves to be significant to the students as the users of online social networking.
They will benefit from this study by increasing their awareness and enable them to have a better understanding about the use of various online social networking sites. They will also benefit from this study by obtaining the basic information regarding the manner, habits and the importance of privacy settings of various online social networking sites. Through this study, they will help them to appreciate the benefits of engaging into online social networking and it will help them to increase their awareness about the terms and conditions or the disadvantages of being a member of online social networking sites.
This research study is also beneficial to all the persons who conducted this study by helping to obtain the necessary information about the topic and it will also help them enhance their knowledge of the advantage and disadvantage of having membership in any social networking sites. Through this research study, we can distinguish the impact of being a member in social networking sites in the study habits of each student.
