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report, social media, impacts on interpersonal communication, grade B. Social media is more and more developed, however, it has two sides. Both sides have its impact on interpersonal communication. questionnaire survey was conducted by HUST SOFL students in 2019.
The Impact of Social Media on Interpersonal Communication? Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine Social Media use among college students and how it impacts on interpersonal communication and their self-concept In this study, the college students were required to complete a questionnaire on how Social Media impact interpersonal communication Fifty percent of participants were first and second year students and the rest were third and final year students, studying at Hanoi University of Science and Technology These findings provide implications for future researches on how Social Media impacts on interpersonal communication I INTRODUCTION Rationale 1.1 Statement of the problem Social media has become a completely omnipresent phenomenon in modern society over the last decade This is often organized as a sign that people can still connect with each other more than ever before, but in truth, the whole picture about social media may be considerably more complicated than that People use many social media sites such as Facebook, Zalo, and Instagram to create and sustain relationships with each other (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) These social media sites allow users to create accounts and personal profiles while connecting with other users, and they can also upload photos, post status or whatever at any time, comment or send messages to whomever they want as well In particular, college students have advantage of the technology trend when using Social Media, and they are most likely to use Social Media that enable them to post photos and video ( McCord et al., 2015) It can be seen that problems related to the Internet, in which social media is one of the issues that researcher is interested in research in terms of behavior However, the research works have not yet concretized the acts used for students, also on the theoretical level Especially when explaining human behaviors when used and especially the effects of social media use on personal activities, as well as on societies that have not received much attention from society Recently, some gloomy news related to the effects of social media were leaked such as a gang of students fought and struggled together fiercely owing to simply disagreements about a small issue on social networks, causing unintended consequences; or a singer was responsible for posting a abetted status on social media that he would reward 20 million Vietnam dong for someone giving a drunk father a thick ear Conversely, there were also news as many students had learned multilingual by themselves when using social networks All of the above demonstrate indicate that, if improper use, social media will have astonishing negative effects and many generations might lose trust in social media Addressing this problem will have practical benefits for college students and contribute to understanding of this widespread issue On the basis of theoretical research and the current status of social networking behavior of Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) students, the thesis proposes some recommendations to help students use social networks more appropriately to communicate effectively 1.2 Significance of the study This area of research is vital because sociality is a fundamental subject in technology and information era As this era of Social Media grows incredibly, it is important to understand the effects of Social Media Social Media sites offer a simple way to connect with friends and receive peer feedback, as well, this may influence interpersonal communication Concretely, the comments that people use on Facebook to reply to each other should have more symbolic importance than lower effort stylized communication, such as “likes” that are also regarded as feedback or replies ( Burke & Kraut, 2016) Social media makes it simpler to communicate with multiple people at one time This study will contribute to the improvement of positive effects of social media, and foster new ways to properly use social media on college students' communication The outcomes to be considered consist of the following: bring into play the active side of "virtual" society to promote "real" one, instruct to use right ways social media in interpersonal communication Aims of the study The research is conducted with the two main objectives The aim of the study is to understand the factors that influence interpersonal communication of social media Besides the above main factors, evaluating relationship between the effects of social media and college students’ communication with the others The purpose of this study was about to find the aspects of social media already influences interpersonal communication Scope of the study This study is limited only to the students of Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), who use social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Their ages range from 18 to 21 years old This study will mainly identify and assess different factors that affect the interpersonal communication of social media Also, this study yearn to identify the issues related to the relations of social media with interpersonal communication and how social media affect interpersonal communication and the problem that may come into future Methodology 4.1 Research question From the problem stated as well as the purpose of the study, the researcher raises some research questions which will be later clarified in the study: a What is the extent of usage of social media to communicate? b What are the negative and positive impacts of Social Media on students’ interpersonal communication? c And college students self-realize these factors of social media affect their interpersonal communication? 4.2 Population and sampling The study was deployed on randomly 150 respondents regardless of gender or educational level, with ages between 18 up to 21 years old, all of them studying in HUST ( SOFL) and have access to social media connection It was used a self-administered questionnaire which was developed based on the review of the literature Qualitative methods will be used to gain in-depth insight into the impacts of social media on interpersonal communication This data will be contextualized with a review of recent literature on the social media's effects on interpersonal communication to analyze II LITERATURE REVIEW The Social Media has an enormous and profound influence on our lives Especially for students, it’s influence is reflected in the way of clothing, behavior, and thought The concept of Social Media is a top priority for many business today Social Media has become a convenient internet way to netizens identify in which companies can use profitable applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter Despite this interest, there seems to be a very limited understanding of the exact terminology of Social Media According to Wright and Hinson (2009), 61 percent of respondents supposed the development of Social Media had changed the way their organizations communicate The common point of all Social Media sites is that we can discuss, comment, vote, or connect with many people at the same time The widespread usage of social media without intentional thought has been causing many consequences in modern life, and also creating a wave of debate surrounding this issue, in which of the argument of direct communication and indirect one through social media sites I start by describing the concept of Social Media Based on this definition, I then provide the classification of Social Media, a group of applications currently placed under general terms into more specific categories according to characteristics such as social news, social sharing, social networks, and social bookmarking Besides, my research also indicates some effects of social media on college students such as students’ efficiencies, grades, and communication According to Gillin (2009), social media not only have ended the age of one-way messaging but also pressure on businesses to engage constituents in unprecedented ways Social media is computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts and information through the construction of virtual networks and communities By design, internet-based social media and provide users with faster electronic communication of content Content includes personal information, documents, videos and photos (Dollarhide, 2019) Wikipedia (2019), Merriam-Webster defined "social media" as "forms of electronic communication such as websites for social networking and microblogging through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents Social media may take the types of a variety of tech-enabled activities These activities include photo sharing, blogging, social gaming, social networks, video sharing, business networks, virtual worlds, reviews and much more Even governments and politicians utilize social media to engage with constituents and voters (Dollarhide, 2019) Kakkar (2018) classified social media into these key categories: Social networks, media sharing networks, discussion forums, bookmarking & content curation networks, consumer review networks, blogging & publishing networks, social shopping networks, and interest-based networks With the availability of many social media sites, clearly that some receive much more web traffic than others With the emergence with diverse features and rich sources of information, social media has allowed users to receive, share and select effective information Information is transmitted over time and space obstacles, over the distance between generations From the advantages that it brings, social networks have had the effect of changing many old habits and forming new manifestations including thoughts, lifestyle, culture, and etc in surprisingly large part of users College students have took advantages the benefits of social media such as using it in studying, communicating and finding career opportunities Moreover, students, through social networks, may actively collaborate with each other into wide groups of people with similar interests, hobbies, and aspirations and then proceed with meaningful actions such as organizing charitable activities on Tet holidays, helping street children, or organizing healthy cultural activities; additionally, many groups share the hobby of traveling combining charity work in remote upland areas Not only that, many students from different universities across the country have set up websites to help each other to study English or specialized subjects This is one of the valuable tools to help students improve learning efficiency, and sharing knowledge and materials However, besides the positive aspects, the use of social media also causes negative impacts on students Social media has led many students to neglect their studies and participate in extra-curricular activities The amount of time students spend on their self-study decreases on account of a large amount of online time Social media also pose a real risk when private information, content, or images are posted online to share with others which accidentally be abused and used by bad people for unpleasant purposes All of these issues have a negative impact on the lives and learning of students III IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION Participants and procedures The surveys (N = 130) were distributed to undergraduate students at School of Foreign Language (SOFL) of HUST in first term 2019 Surveys were covered in classroom and common areas, and online Most of the respondents (90%) were female and all of them were 19 – 21 years old In which, freshmen consisted of 20% of the sample, 37% were sophomores, 19% juniors, and 23% seniors ( see Table 1) The survey comprised thirteen questions ( not included personal information) which asked about the extent of using social media, social media’s impacts on college students’ interpersonal communication, and their self-realizing about these impacts The first five questions asked them to identify the influences of social media on interpersonal communication The next six questions asked them about the impacting factors of these influences The final two question asked whether or not they self-realize the influences of social media on interpersonal communication Demographics RQ1 What is the extent of usage of social media to communicate? Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to conduct the analysis To measure the extent of usage of social media, five questions were used The questions were as follows: 1) Do you use any forms of social networking sites on the internet to communicate with others, 2) What social networking sites you use and mostly use to communicate, 3) How many hours per day you spend visiting social media sites, 4) How often you communicate with others using social media sites per week, 5) How you communicate with others through social media sites Overall, all participants used social media sites to communicate with others, and most (65%) respondents reported that they spend – 15 hours each day using social media sites (see Table 1) Gender Male Female 10 90 19 - 21 22+ 100 Age Use social media Yes 100 No Hours per day on social media < hours – hours – 10 hours 37 11 – 15 hours 20 16 – 20 hours 18 > 20 hours 11 All numbers are percent Table Demographics and summary information The second question was asked them to identify their most used social media to communicate Response options included Facebook, Messenger, ZALO, Instagram, Viber, Google, Skype, YouTube and others such as Snapchat Participants reported using Facebook page the most (100%), followed by Messenger ( 96%), ZALO ( 78%), and Google ( 67%) The least used social networking sites were Viber ( 8%) and Snapchat (9%) ( see Table 2) Social media sites Facebook Messenger ZALO Instagram Viber Google Skype YouTube Others ( Snapchat) Number 130 125 102 85 10 87 25 54 12 Percentage (%) 100 96 78 65 67 19 42 Table Social media sites were used to communicate Frequency of usage social media shown that most students tried to visit a social media site several times a week, especially at the weekend Hence, social media appears to be an insufficient tool to communicate with college students Half (60%) of the respondents reported they managed to have time to online every day, and in which of participants, 52% spent more time to online at the weekend ( Table 2) 23 percent who spent spare time to angle for surfing, 15 percent reported they went to online once or twice per week, and eleven percent using social media to communicate three or four times per week The frequency of using social media to communicate per week I always manage to have time to online every 51 day – times per week 15 Whenever I have spare time, I always angle for 23 surfing – times per week 11 I spend more time to online at the 52 weekend All numbers are percent Table The frequency of online time and gender differences The fifth question was asked the way students communicate through social media sites Students used a variety of ways to communicate with their friends on social media sites Sending private messages was the most common way to communicate (89%), but students posted status, photos or videos as well The way students communicate through social media sites Posting status Posting photos/ videos Sending private messages Calling videos Livestreaming Percentage (%) Table The way students communicate through social media sites 64 67 89 76 42 RQ2 What are the negative and positive factors of Social Media on students’ interpersonal communication? To measure the negative and positive impacts of Social Media on students’ interpersonal communication, six questions were used The questions were as follows: 1) Has using social media sites made keeping in contact with other easier, 2) What you think about the level of convenience as communicating through social media, 3) Do you have more friends on social media sites as compared to real life, 4) What benefits you see clearly from social media sites in terms of communication, 5) Are you in case that you chat with your partners at real life through SNS instead of communicating face to face, 6) Do you prefer to communicate with more friends through social media sites than face-to-face at the weekend According to the data I collected from the tenth question of the questionnaire, most students (70%) believed that social media sites made keeping in contact with others easier 25% of students did not agree that social media sites help keep in contact with others easier, and 5% were not sure whether social media sites would be easier in keeping in contact or not ( Table 5) The college students’ opinion about social media sites make keeping in contact with other easier Number Percentage (%) Yes 91 70 No 33 25 Maybe Table The college students’ opinion about social media sites make keeping in contact with other easier Social media has made it much convenient for students communicate with people 53% of students believed social media was extremely convenient, the minority (2%) of respondents claimed social media was not convenient to communicate (Figure 1) Figure Level of social media's convenience in the way communicate Communicating with others using media social sites was exactly popular among college students Ninety percent of students had more friends on social media as compared to real life and they spent more time to communicate with others on social media ( see figure 3) This also indicated that social media played a vital role in helping communicate with others Figure College students' friends on social media compared to real life Results continue to show that social media had a variety of benefits as communicating with others Findings also show most ( 65%) agreed that social media sites helped they better communicate with others face-to-face Some social media apps such as Messenger or ZALO, with video – call and livestream function, help people communicate face-to-face without difficulty Some (59%) thought that social media help them to maintain contact with people that they rarely saw Fewer than half (48%) claimed social media provided a cost- free forum for expression of ideas and opinion as communication tools And nineteenth asserted social media help to connect with more friends around the world, 32% regarded social media as an easy and fast tool with more opportunities to communicate with others (Table 6) Benefits in terms of communication from social media Help to maintain contact with people that students rarely saw Connect with more friends around the world Provide more opportunities to communicate easier and faster Help students better communicate with others face – to – face Provide a cost-free forum for expression of ideas and opinion Number 77 Percentage (%) 59 25 42 19 32 85 65 62 48 Table Benefits from social media in terms of communication Along with the previous benefits, social networks allow students to stay in touch easily, but social interaction via screens instead of in real life can make it difficult for students to develop the needed skills to maintain good relationships and effective communication For instance, twenty-three percent of students admitted they were in case that they chatted with others at real life through social media sites instead of communicating face - to – face at coffee shop or common areas 8% were not sure whether they were in that case or not, students also explained that in some case, they and their friends were chatting with another on social sites Seventy-three percent of participants are in favor of communicating with others through social media sites at the weekend, and only twenty-seven percent of the sample admitted that they communicated with others face-to-face at the weekend (see Figure ) Figure The way students prefer to communicate with others at the weekend RQ3 And college students self-realize these impacts of social media on their interpersonal communication? To measure self-realize, two questions were used The questions were as follows: 1) How many internet “friends” you have on SNS, 2) What you think about the impact of communicating through social media sites The number of friends college students had on social media may indicate whether they self-realize the impacts of social media The number of “friends” the students reported having on SNS was found to be mostly between range of 401-800, with 32% of participants reporting they had that many friends Additionally, 20% of students reported having 0- 400 friends, 19% reported having 801-1200 friends, 16% reported having 1201-1600 friends, and only 13% had friends in the 2100 and above range (Figure 4) Figure 4.The number of friends on social media sites An equal number of students indicated that communicating through social media sites had affected them positively (49%), or that it did not affect them positively or negatively (49%) IV CONCLUSION In conclusion, like many scientific and technical achievements, the social media is created and developed to serve the interests of society, however, how to use it will be affected positively or negatively It is impossible to deny the positive aspects that social networking has brought, it helps students to understand, acquire, improve their communication, as well as learn more than the above knowledge In this information era, if the young people today master this useful tool, they will become the owners of a country firmly integrated into the global world tomorrow 5 References Dollarhide, M (2019) Social Media Definition Investopedia Vol 1, No 1: [Online] Available from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp [acces sed 08 October 2019] Gillin, P.(2009) Secrets of social media marketing Fresno, California: Quill Driver Books Kakkar , G (2018) What are the Different Types of Social Media? 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