Facebook Addiction?

Can you get addicted to Facebook? I do not usually spend a lot of time on the site, but I know people who do. It seems like it takes them over an hour to do even simple homework assignments because they are alternating doing their assignment with chatting and surfing around Facebook. I often wonder what compels them to spend so much time on Facebook wasting at least half of their time to do productive things over the course of the day. A few weeks ago, several of my friends and I took most of a Sunday afternoon to work on homework. We probably worked for at least 8 hours on various assignments. I probably had a legitimate 6 hours of homework, while the rest of them had significantly less, however they were also on Facebook for most of the time, which significantly lowered their productivity. I actually ended up finishing my homework before they did. What causes someone to go on Facebook every five minutes and check to see if someone has commented on their status? Even when doing homework, something that requires a very specific focus, people will interrupt it simply to check their wall. Some psychologists believe it to be 'intermittent reinforcement'. Anticipating getting poked by someone, or getting an unexpected bumper sticker from someone can create a psychological high, just like gambling. This sort of random reward, and more importantly, the possibility of such a high, seems to be hurting productivity. According to an Inc.com article: "For some, Facebook is gobbling up more of that time. A recent survey of more than 700 office workers in the United Kingdom found that employees spent at least 30 minutes on either Facebook or MySpace on a typical work day -- with two respondents saying they spent as much as three hours a day on the sites. Global Secure Systems, a U.K.-based IT security firm that conducted the survey, estimates these daily visits are costing employers several billion dollars a year in lost productivity." It seems clear that Facebook has both addictive properties and negative effects on productivity. These links agree with my initial story about homework on a Sunday afternoon. I am glad that I haven't fallen victim to the trap of Facebook, only going on regularly, and usually only to keep in touch with friends who aren't on campus. I remember hearing about a couple in Korea leaving their child at home for over a day to go play World of Warcraft and upon returning noticed their child was dead. How can you actually forget about your child for over 24 hours and not expect something bad to happen? This really goes to show the pull of the internet though. If you can leave and forget about your child for an entire day because you're playing an online game, then there has to be a serious attraction to that game. I get the same sense from Facebook too, however it just pulls a different demographic. I think Facebook tends to attract many more females than males, especially in the high school and college age demographics. I also think the Pew demographics we went over in class bear this claim out. While guys might spend an entire weekend playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live, girls might

spend 50 minutes out of every hour on Facebook over 10 or 12 hours of 'doing homework' on any particular weekend day. If there's one thing I've learned with multi-tasking and homework it's that it can't be done. You cannot be checking out other people's profiles, updating your status, and writing a term paper or studying for a test. If you change just one thing about your Facebook usage, stop pretending to multi-task with it, you can't, and your enjoyment of its use will be tainted by doing homework while using it, and the quality of your homework, as well as your interactions on Facebook will suffer.

http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/2171/1/Potential-Facebookaddiction/Page1.htmlhttp://www.inc.com/articles/2008/03/facebook.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bourne, P. A. (2005, March 15). A theoretical overview of academic performance. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://able2know.org/topic/47490-1

Bowman, J. (2009, September 8).Facebook in classroom, bad idea?. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/26/f-back-to-school-social- media.html Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html Cheong, I. (2009, April 14). Study shows college students who use Facebook may earn lower GPAs. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/study_shows_that_college_students_wh o_use_facebook_gets_lower_gpas_041420098383/ Chowdhry, A. (2009, April 14). Ohio State Researcher Aryn Karpinski Conducts Study Facebook has no negative effects on academic grade (2009, May 8). Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.healthlibrary.com/news2501.htm Freedman, T. (2009, February 29). Can social networking sites affect your ability to concentrate, communicate and feel empathy?. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://terryfreedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1474.php Good, R. (2007, November 9). Online Social Networking And Education: Study Reports On New Generations Social And Creative Interconnected Lifestyles. Retrieved October 13, 2009,

from http://www.masternewmedia.org/learning_educational_technologies/socialnetworking/social-networking-in-education-survey-on-new-generations-social-creativeand-interconnected-lifestyles-NSBA-20071109.htm

Impact on Education Social Networking (n.d.) Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/Impact+on+Education+SocialNetworking

Marklein, M.B. (2009, April 13). Facebook use linked to less textbook time. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-04-13-facebookgrades_N.htm#uslPageReturn McCarthy, C. (2009, April 15). Students Who Use Social Networking Site Spend Less Time On Schoolwork, Study Finds. Facebook Bad for the Brain? Retrieved October 13, 2009, from: http://cbs4denver.com/watercooler/facebook.student.performance.2.985396.html Mental Risk of Facebook teens (2008, July 3). Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7487723.stm

Ratner, J. (n.d.). Education, Family Background, Key Factors Determining Economic Mobility. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=44318 Rosenbloom, S. (2007, December 17). On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With the Data. The New York Times. Retrieved September, 15, 2009, form http://www.nytimes.com

The Northwestern University, Red Orbit (2009, May 8). Fresh Look At Facebook And Grades. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/1685390/fresh_look_at_facebook_and_grades/i ndex.html

Weiler, J. (2006, June). Social Networking Sites: Keeping Students Safe. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Membership/SIGs/SIG_Newsletter/Archiv es/200612/june4/SIG_News_June_2006_Social_Networking_Sites_Keeping_Students_S afe.htm

Willard, N. (2009, December 12). Schools and Online Social Networking. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtm

I. INTRODUCTION

Social networking websites are currently being used regularly my millions of people. The use of social networking sites has been widespread that they have not only caught the attention of academic and industry researchers worldwide but also us, in particular. Social networking sites are now being investigated by numerous social science researchers and an increasing number of academic commentators are becoming more and more interested in studying Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking services, because of their probable impact on society.

While the social networking sites have the same key aspects, the cultures and responses around them that become apparent are varied. Most sites help strangers connect with others based on shared personal interests, political and economic views, or simply recreational activities. Some sites accommodate distinct viewers, while others attract people based on similarities, such as common languages or shared racial, sexual, religious or nationality-based identities. Nonetheless, social networking sites have only one common goal. It is to encourage new ways to communicate and share information. Many students have been blaming various social networking sites for their steady decrease in grade point averages. This emergent phenomenon aroused us to look into social networking sites and why they affect fellow students academic performances. The target population for this research was defined as the students who form the major chunk of users of these social networking sites. This was done to have a better insight into the research as the target population was one of the most avid users of these sites and could provide exceptional responses. Even the understanding of the questionnaire was easy for them as theywere familiar with the sites and are quite clear about the reasons they use it for and the various problems that they now face because of the effects of using these social networking sites. The responses were collected by personal questioning. The responses were taken from

the students in the University of Santo Tomas s different colleges through survey forms. Other evidences showcased with this study were retrieved carefully from the web. A. OBJECTIVES The students intend to: Discuss the nature of social networking sites and low academic performance Provide data supporting the claim that social networking sites affect one s academic performance adversely Assess the contrasting evidences thoroughly and systematically. Determine the authenticity of the claim that the adverse effects of social networking sites are more imminent than the positive ones Associate findings to personal lives of adolescents and society in general B. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study aims to explain the importance of the proper usage of social networking sites. It aims to point out particularly adverse effects it poses to people s daily lives. These sites

evidently have a lot of positive effects, but their also have their share of negative impact. In order to provide much help, this study would like to give enlightenment to the said phenomena. We would like to provide, through this term paper, information about the impact of these sites to society that would hopefully lead to a realization of their own standing in terms of SNS addiction. We also would like to give a certain form of guidance to those who are delved in situations aforementioned. Lastly, we would like to provide evidences that would solidify the support on controlling the usage of social networking sites, thus reducing the risk of assimilating such addicting activities.

C. DEFINITION OF TERMS

In order to understand clearly the subject matter, we define the following key concepts: social networking sites, and academic performance, as they are essential to fully comprehend the issue in focus.

Social networking sites are social network services that focus on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers

II. THE NATURE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND LOW ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES Social networking sites as web-based services that allow individuals to: (1) construct a

public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. For the past years, social networking has been very popular for people worldwide. Social networking is a great form of entertainment. It is like going to a new school, on your first day you have no friends but as days pass you will meet new friends and eventually you ll form

groups or circle of friends. At first, you don t have much interest in your new school but when you begin to learn and enjoy more about your school, you will be happy to spend much of your time in school with your friends, teachers and etc. It is open for all kinds of people, all ages, and all races. A purpose of social networking is we meet people, maybe people we met before like old classmates or schoolmate or new people from different races and countries, we just have same interests with.

While the term "social network site" is used to describe this phenomenon, the term "social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC).

On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To

emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites."

The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self- description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook widely used worldwide; MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America; Nexopia (mostly in Canada);Bebo, Hi5, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Decayenne, Tagged, XING; Badoo and Skyrock in parts of

E urope; and Friendster, Mixi, Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and Areapal in India. For teens in this generation, social networking has become sort of an addiction. A

teenager has a facebook account. She opens her account daily to check new updates. She spends hours checking new updates until she realizes she has more important things to do like school works she has missed doing because of signing in into a social network service. This is an example of a teen being addicted to such social networks. To prove social networking can be an addiction, the researchers made a survey to test whether social networking could be a hindrance to a good performance in school. The survey made got answers that yes, some people are willing to

spend more time being online on these social network services than to spend time studying and working up on school works. This is sad to hear because with all the advantages social