Yousef Bani Melhem

Social Media and our life

12-06-2016 

Academic Writing Class

Abstract :

This paper discusses  using social media tools in TTU students lives. The paper is talking about different aspects of using social media  tools by TTU male and female students, stressing on general observations  about using social media tools, and specific hypotheses. Moreover, this paper is talking about the most frequent social media tools that have been used by TTU students, whether or not the TTU students using social media tools for social changes to stress some social problems, using social media in the class room or for doing the homework, and what the TTU male and female students do think about the social media tools have negative or positive effect on their life.

Social media and our life 

       Social media is very wide concept. According to an article in the Economic Times (2009), Shiva's book defined social media as communication on the internet that is "voluntary communication with people, community and society that matters to you” (para. 2), and the prevalence of the internet has provided greater opportunities for people to connect and even increased the desire to do so (The Economic Times, 2009). Moreover, according to Karadkar’s (2015) article, as said by Marshall McLuhan, a philosopher of communication theory, “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village" (para. 1).

      Social media has become a very crucial part in our life, even in students' lives, and in business companies, and it takes a very huge part of our social life. This paper aims to identify several aspects of using the social media. First is what male and female TTU student do think about  the negative effects perspective about social media. Second, this paper identifies the positive perspective of using the social media in our life and what male and female TTU student do think regarding of this aspect. Third, this paper explores the benefits of using social media for business purposes. Fourth, this paper highlights the health aspects of using social media. Finally, this paper discusses how society and the community are affected by social media, culturally, economically, and politically. We will try through these aspects to cover the most important issues of using social media and who is the most affected by them but mainly focusing on what male and female TTU student think nowadays.

            (Karadkar 2015) clarified the importance of using social media by quoting the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, who stated in his “Theory of Motivation” that the social need of beings is the third most important requirement after our physical needs - the third tier in his hierarchy of needs. Moreover, he said, our self-esteem comes after this social dependence. This is the main reason billions of people use social networking to stay connected, make friends and satisfy their social needs.

         A. Karadkar (2015) highlighted an example of using social media; as of 2015 the world’s largest social networking company, Facebook, had 1.49 billion active users, and the number of users is increasing every year. He mentioned results of a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, that 72 percent of high school and 78 percent of college students spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. We can see through these users the numbers of students who are part of the social media tools and networks.

       Actually, all of us agree on the benefits of using social media in most of our life aspects, but as anything has a positive and negative side, social media does as well. It depends on the aspect that we are using social media, the purpose of using social media, and what the age of users is as well.

Literature Review:

            The social media concept touches us every day with different aspects. As anything in our life has a negative side and positive side, social media does as well. The negative side of using social media has several points. The first one, in terms of the relationship, is, as Shiva (2009) said in his article, that social media starts its effect on the relationships in the family first, and he gave some numbers of average consumers; for example, consumers have 250 to 300 friends on different social media. Second, Shiva (2009) said the social media has an effect on the rest in general by comparing with the past. For example, the trust relates to whether or not the government is updating the people every day about important issues through social media. If so,  people will realize the lack of efficiency of the government, which means the trust relationship between the government and the people will be negatively affected. Third, in terms of using Facebook, which is one of the largest social media tools, Shlokinani (2012) stated in his article that people tend to feel jealous if they do not participate in the activity that their friends post. They would wonder why they were not invited and feel depressed about this event. Finally, as Shlokinani said, Facebook is too convenient for people. They interact with people through Facebook rather than face to face. In this situation, people would decrease their social abilities especially for young men who need to develop this skill.

            The positive side of using social media has several aspects as well. First, in terms of student life, Karadkar (2015) said in his article, the appearance of social media promotes the flow of information, and knowledge into different countries and then a so-called global village comes into the shape. Second, to be more specific of the impact of the student life and class room, J. Tomasjewski  (2012), in his article, “Study suggests of social media in the class room,” based on Dr. Richard’s (Harvard School of Education) and other researchers’ study, suggested that group study is more beneficial than the stereotyped teaching system. He said the social media can be an excellent resource for students to educate themselves by using various types of group messaging and sharing any topic with the world.

            In terms of using the social media for business, R. Holmes (2015), in his article, “Why businesses can’t survive without social media,” explained how shopping has become digital nowadays and consumers find it easier to go online. We have a lot of social networks that are involved in the worlds of business. 

            After all of that we need to highlight the health aspect of using social media as well. C. Gregoire (2015), in his article, probed the correlation between the deterioration of mental health among new generation people and the high usage of social media sites based on a comparative study conducted by Ottawa Public Health. In the current decade, the triumph of technology in communication increased the dependence on social sites among this new generation in such a way that it became part and parcel of their lives.

            Finally, of the social aspect of using social media, Morgan (2016), in her article, discussed the idea that social media is a forum which helps us connect to old friends and distant relatives we have lost touch with. Morgan (2016) asked the readers to do a self-introspection on how social media has impacted their lives. 

            To sum it up, I moved between those aspects to show you the several negative and positive  perspectives of using social media, and to show that the social media has become one of the basic life tools that we are using often.

Hypothesis:

1.      Through the survey, we will identify what social media tools TTU male and female students use most frequently, that helps to have a clear image about the purposes of using social media.

2.      Through this survey we will figure out how TTU female and male students see using social for making social changes and the difference between males and females for that issue.  

3.      We want to clarify that TTU female and male students think that social media helps them in their classes and classrooms and if it helps them with their homework.

4.      Through this survey we will figure out who is using social media frequently between male and female TTU students to help them to remember some issues in regards to their daily life activities.

5.      Through this survey will know that  TTU female and males students believe there are more positive effects than the negative effects.

Method:

We are an academic writing class assigned to make a research study about three subjects, social media, parental leave, and Black Lives Matter. We were divided into three groups for doing the research. We had to write an introduction about the subject, literature review, hypothesis, questions, method, results, discussion, and conclusion. Moreover, the whole class should write the survey that help us with our findings among of TTU male and female students. In terms of the paper design, each student had 5 hypotheses; we should find what TTU students think about those hypotheses, and participate with 5 questions for the survey, with the purpose of figuring out what TTU students think about these subjects. We agreed to go to the different places in TTU, like the library, student union, or our faculties’ buildings to have different opinions and perspectives regarding those subjects. Therefore, each student should get 13 surveys filled out, to have 300 hundred, to have enough data to conclude the findings which are depends on the hypotheses that we wrote before and  what the TTU students think about those subjects in general and specifically with certain questions that have been written by the academic writing students. We took into consideration that the gender balance is very important, so we had 150 surveys from males and 150 surveys from females from TTU male and female students. Therefore, in my part, social media, the main findings that I was looking for were which are the most frequently used social media tools that TTU males and females student were using by asking a question what is the frequent social media tool that used , and whether they were using social media for social change in their communities. Moreover, I wanted to know about what do the TTU male and female student do think about whether the social media was used by them in their classes and their classrooms, helping them with their homework and giving them positive progress in their educational process. I wanted to see the difference between the male and female students in using social media in terms of remembering their daily life activities and old memories. Finally, I wanted to see their opinions in terms of believing that social media has more positive effects than negative effects in their life in general.    

Those were the main findings in my part that I was looking for among the female and male TTU students. My questions were focused on what the most frequently used social media tools were, whether they were using social media for social changes, using social media for learning purposes in their classrooms or in their educational process, and whether they felt the social media had more a positive change than negative effects on their life in general.

In terms of these aspects, I wanted to figure out how the female and male TTU students thought about social media, and what the difference between males’ and females’ opinions regarding these aspects.

Results

This section in our survey had two parts. The first part was general results or observations; the second was specific results depending on the hypothesis. The general results or observations are summarized with different aspects. The first general result or observation is that TTU males and females students are using the social media networks daily on their academic or personal levels. The second result or observation is the TTU students are checking the new feeds on their accounts on social media networks. The third result or observation is that the TTU students are using different tools with different purposes; for example, using Snapchat for updating their friends with live events or their daily experience. The fourth result or observation is that not having accounts on different social media is socially unexpected, and viewed as not being connected with the world. Finally, free calls through voice or video are very popular for using the social media networks among TTU students, either males or females. 

The second part is that specific results depend on the hypotheses and the 295 surveys; half were males and half were females. Among TTU students, we found the following results. The first result depends on the first hypothesis. What is the most frequent social media tool which is used by TTU students? This question can lead us more to the purposes of using social media networks. Moreover, we found 39.66%  of the students were using Facebook from the sample that we take. We found 24.3% of the students were using Instagram, 17.3% of the students were using Twitter, 16.3% of the students were using other social media networks. Therefore, the most frequent social media network used is Facebook; we can see that the purpose of using it is for keeping updated on what people are doing and thinking, and their life status.

The second result, regarding the TTU students who believe that they are using social media for social change, 38% of the students report that sometimes they could use social media networks for social change; 23.3% of the students reported that using social for social change is always. 22.33% of the students think it is rarely, and 13.6% of the students never use social media for social change; the numbers showed us that TTU students are not using social media for social change or expressing their opinions through social media networks. Moreover, we noticed that most of the opinions about social problems that are shared through social media networks could not referred to  what people or students feel about the real feelings of students and people.  

The third result reports whether TTU students are using social media tools in the classroom or for their homework in their academic life. Once again, reporting attitudes of TTU students toward using social media in their life, at personal or academic level, we found that 53.3% of the TTU students are trying to avoid using social media in the classroom or for their homework. 21.3% of the students are using the social media during the class or for their homework but they think it is bad; 16.6% of the students do it and they think it is okay. 6% of the students are using social media during the class and their homework, and they always do that. Moreover, 53.3% of TTU students avoid using social media tools in their academic life; it means the main purpose of using social media is social networking more than other purposes. 

The fourth result, reporting TTU students’ feelings for regarding the effect, either negative or positive, of social media on their life, we found that 47.6% of the students think that the social media networks have a positive effect on their life, 35% of the students are not sure, and 15% of the students think that the social media networks have a negative impact on their life. Therefore, most TTU students think and believe that social media has a positive impact on their life.

In conclusion, we found that the most frequent social media tool used is Facebook amongst the students, 38% of the students could use the social media for social change, and 53.3% of the students are trying to avoid using the social media tools in classroom or for their homework. 47.6% of the students think that the social media networks have a positive impact on their life.   Those are main results of using social media by TTU females and males students that we found through the survey regarding social media in our life and students’ life as well. Moving from different aspects and testing what TTU females and males student do think about those aspects.

Discussion:

            Starting from the general results found regarding using social media in our life in general and students life in specific, social media tools or networks have become a very essential need, especially for the students; TTU males and females students are using social media networks as other students within different levels of schools. The purposes of using social media networks are different from level to level of schools and different from males and females. TTU male and female students are using different social media networks; it is very often observed during the class day of school the different purposes of using social media networks by TTU male and female students. We observed how common it is to have many accounts on the social media networks by TTU male and female students; but it is uncommon if you are not involved in this virtual world or keep yourself posted with your friends, news, shopping opportunities, and other information.

            Regarding our survey results depending on the hypothesis, the first hypothesis, we asked a question, is what is the most frequent social media tool which is used by TTU male and female students? We found that the most frequent social media tool that has been used is Facebook. Therefore, it may be Facebook is a very popular social media tool. Moreover, it may be Facebook is very easy to use for different purposes, keep in touch with friends, expressing about what do we have in our minds during the day, and for shopping or checking news as well.

            Regarding the TTU students who believe in using the social media tools for social change, the results showed us that TTU students, either male or female, sometimes could use social media tools for social change, but it is not a big percentage of TTU male and female student who are using social media tools for that purpose, but sometimes they may use it. It may be because social media tools are virtual world and social media tools have no effect on the social problems or challenges, even though TTU students could share their opinions about some social problems through social media tools, but in terms of social change this might be hard somehow.

Regarding using social media tools in the classroom or for their homework in their academic life. the results showed us that most TTU students are trying to avoid using social media tools for those purposes. It may be because they don’t trust social media resources for those purposes. Moreover, it may be using social media for academic purposes is not efficient enough, either for homework or in the classroom. Using social media tools for homework or in the classroom might be distracting resources for TTU male and female students, and not trusted resources either.

Regarding of the negative or positive  effect of social media tools, the results showed us that most TTU male and female students think that social media tools have a positive effect on their life. It may be social media tools keep TTU male and female students in touch with their friends news and their activities, easy shopping with good prices by saving time, effort, and money, and checking news every day from different resources and perspectives that might let TTU student explore different resources which helps them to be very close to the real situations regards of different issues whether socially, academically, and politically as well. 

To sum it up, we found those results regarding of different uses of social media tools by TTU male and female student through a survey by reaching out 295 students, half of them males and the other half  females. Moving from the most frequent tool that has been used by TTU students among social media tools, using social media tools for social change purpose by TTU male and female student and what they think about the efficiency of using social media tools for that purpose, using social media tools in the classroom  or for helping TTU male and female students by helping them do their homework, to if the social media tools have either negative or positive effect on their life at the two levels, academic and personal level. The results showed us different perspectives and outcomes of those areas regarding using the social media tools. We think social media tools nowadays play a crucial role in our lives, especially for TTU male and female students depending on the results that we found.

Conclusion:

            Social media has become one of the basic elements in students’ life.  Through a survey that answered by TTU male and female students regarding of using social media tools for different purposes and if the social media tools have an effect on their life, either positive or negative, TTU male and female students considered our paper by answering the survey and they were very cooperative by being objective and close to the reality. We found different results regarding what is the most frequent social media tool that has been used by TTU male and female students. We found that TTU students are using Facebook frequently more than other social media tools, and it can show us that they are using this social media tool for different purposes, keeping in touch with their friends and families, checking news, and shopping through Facebook. Regarding using social media tools for social change purposes, we found that most of TTU male and female students could be using social media tools for social change sometimes, not always depending on the results. Moreover, using social media in the classroom or for homework purpose, we found that TTU male and female students are trying to avoid that. Regarding the effect of using social media tools have either negative or positive effect, we found that most of TTU male and female student believe that social media tools have a positive effect on their life in general. Finally, we are thankful for all people’s opinions that helped us to present this survey and for sharing their beliefs regarding using social media tools with us in our  paper.   

Survey:

Demographic Questions:

1.      ___ Undergraduate   ____Graduate    ____ Faculty/Staff/Other

2.      ___ Male      ____Female

3.      Age ____ 18-22      ____ 23-28     ____ 29 or more

4.      Where are you from, originally?   ___ Texas    ___ USA, not TX      ___international

Survey Questions on Social Media

1- Do you use social media as a tool for social change? For example, sharing news, film, or an article that you think is important for promoting social awareness regarding an issue? 

___ Often        ___ Sometimes                        ___ Rarely       ____ Never     ___ N/A don’t know

2- How much do you think social media helps you to have a dialogue with the people you don't know?    `  ___ meet a lot of people I didn’t know      ___ sometimes    ___ doesn’t help/rarely   ___ N/A

3- Do you think social media has a positive impact on your social life or a negative impact?

___ positive                 ____ negative     ____ N/A, not sure, no impact       Why? 

4. How long do you use social media each day?

____ > 4 hrs/day         ___ >2 hrs/day            ____>1 hr/day ____ >1/2 hr/day     ____ <1/2 hr/day

5. Do you agree social media makes you happy?                                                                                                             ___ Yes a lot   ____ sometimes  ____ usually not     ____ N/A/don’t know

6. If you were allowed to use only one social media application what would it be?                                  ___ Facebook    ___ Snapchat     ___ LinkedIn    ___ Instagram      ___Twitter                                                 

___ Any other      ____________

7. Social media sites are nowadays extensively used for networking. Are you in favor of it?               ___ Yes        ___ No        ___ Maybe        ___  I don’t care

8. What is the social media tool you most frequently use every day?                                                              ___ Facebook        ___ Instagram   ___ Twitter     ___ other: __________________________________

9.  What is your passion for using social media applications?                                                                          ___ Checking news      ___ Making new friends      ___ Shopping    ___ Other: _______________________

10. Have you ever been worried about personal privacy being compromised in social media?      

 ___ Yes   ___ No      ___ A little

11. Do you think the government needs to protect the personal privacy in social media?              

___ Yes   ___ No       ___ It depends

12. Do you think social media is useful for expressing your opinion?  ___ Yes   ___ No      ___ It depends

13. Do you feel satisfied when you get “like” from your friends for what you post online?

___ Yes    ___ No     ___ Not sure   ___ N/A, Never use social media

14. When reading posts on social media, I would rather use simple “likes” and facial expressions to give posters feedback instead of detailed feelings and comments.

___ Yes    ___ No   ___ It depends    N/A, Never use social media

15. When socializing online, I find memories are easier to recall when social media posts previous photos and events to me.        ___ Agree    ___ Neutral    ___ Disagree    N/A, Never use social media

16. Do you think posting violent scenarios in social media sites should be allowed?

___ Yes     ____ No      _____ Not sure/N/A

17. What is your opinion about using social media during the class? (choose the best)

___ always do ___ do & think it’s ok ___ do but it’s bad      ___ try to avoid it

18. Do you think social media can be helpful for better studies?    ___ Yes     ____ No

If yes, how does it help?

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