Facebook Effects to College Students

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Facebook Effects to College Students

Research Topic

Currently, the world is in constant and continuous change. The technology that is evolving is changing every day. The young generations that are being born and those already born have adapted quickly to the use of the current technology. This may be considered an advantage or a disadvantage in some situations. In the recent past, many educators have been complaining about the usage of the social networks especially, the use of facebook by college students. The educators are raising concerns that facebook is affecting the different educators at different levels. Therefore, the main issue is how facebook affects college students.

Literature Review

According to a study done by Jolene Zywica and James Danowski, there is a relation of facebook popularity and offline popularity in the colleges (Zywica & Danowski, 2008). In this study, they are trying to evaluate whether there is an effect in popularity among the colleges. This has been a topic of discussion for many decades. The study indicates that, as much as the offline popularity affects the college students, facebook popularity also affects the college students (Zywica & Danowski, 2008). Additionally, the study indicates that the two go hand in hand in most cases.

The study has gone further to show how facebook affects the college students. For instance, when a popular student in the offline posts something on facebook, the rest of the students will note, and comment on the status. On the other hand, when an unpopular student posts something on facebook, he or she is not going to get comments from anybody. However, he or she can improve his or her popularity by putting more posts. This shows that college students are being affected by facebook either directly or indirectly.

According to the study done by Elizabeth Butler, Elizabeth McCann and Joseph Thomas, facebook affects the privacy of college students (Butler, McCann & Thomas, 2008). This study shows that facebook privacy settings have consistently been changing since the time it was created. Without this knowledge, a person who desires to maintain his or her information due to personal reasons might be affected. This is because, at this age and time, students often have many emotional problems that are affecting them (Butler, McCann & Thomas, 2008). Therefore, the study indicates that, it should be the duty of facebook to protect the people who are using it. This is because it can cause emotional distress.

In another study by Daniel Mansson and Scott Myers, facebook has an effect on the college students in the way they are affectionate to one another (Mansson & Myers, 2011). According to the research study, it shows that many students were more likely to show their affection while online, especially the females, as compared to when they are offline. The study shows that when people are communicating face-to-face, there are other factors that hinder this emotional response. Therefore, in this case, the college students find facebook communication more appropriate for affection communication (Mansson & Myers, 2011). This indicates that facebook affects college students’ love lives.

Another study shows that facebook affects the buying trends of the college students. According to a study by Nihaela Vorvoreanu, businesses have endorsed facebook as one of the best strategies of advertising since its inception (Vorvoreanu, 2009). College students often use facebook to know what the current trends of business are. In this case, the students use facebook to know the current trends of fashion and other products that they are about to buy (Vorvoreanu, 2009). This shows that facebook, as a tool for advertising by business entities, affects the current business trends.

However, in the study by Vorvoreanu, there is a negative attitude that has formed among the college students. When facebook was created, it was only meant for the college students only. Later, the students agreed to involve the high schools students. What they could not stomach, was the inclusion of every person who had an email (Vorvoreanu, 2009). In this scenario, the business entities have now come into place. A section of these college students believes that facebook is meant for a social network and not a business advertisement centers (Vorvoreanu, 2009). Therefore, they feel that the business entities are invading their privacy.

Facebook has affected the college students politically. According to a study done in Romania by Paul Adrian, it was noticed that some presidential hopefuls were using social media like facebook as a tool for campaign (Apasaschivei, 2009). The college students who were eligible voters were made to feel that those presidential candidates understood their language because they were able to communicate their messages to the students. Additionally, the students were able to give instant feedbacks based on how the different presidential candidates appeared on facebook. As a result, a large number of college voters were attracted, and they voted according to the campaigns on facebook (Apasaschivei, 2009). This study shows that facebook has affected the college students politically.

Facebook also plays a significant impact on the grieving process of the college students. According to the study done by doctor Wandel, facebook helps students who are mourning to come together in the grieving period (Wandel, 2009). According to the statistics done in the study, there are about twenty-two to thirty percents of students who come together during the grieving process in a year. In this case, it shows that facebook plays an influential role when it comes to grieving among the college students. Secondly, the study indicates that many people often tend to stay alone during the grieving process. When this happens, the students are often depressed or other problems affecting them. However, due to facebook, the students have been able to come together whether alone or not and let out the grief (Wandel, 2009). This has ended up reducing instances of attaining problems such as depression.

References

Apasaschivei, P. A. (2009). The Use of New Media in Electoral Campaigns Analysis on the Use of Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube in the 2009 Romanian Presidential Campaign. Journal of Media Research, 2 (10) 39-60.

Butler, E. McCann, E. & Thomas, J. (2008). Privacy Settings Awareness on Facebook and its Effects on User-Posted Content. A Publication of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, 14, 1, 39-55.

Mansson, D. H. & Myers. (2011). An Initial Examination of College Students Expressions of Affection Through Facebook. Southern Communication Journal, 76, 2, 155.

Vorvoreanu, M. (2009). Perceptions of Corporations on Facebook: An Analysis of the Facebook Social Norms. Journal of New Communications Research, 4, 1, 67-86.

Wandel, T. L. (2009). Online Empathy: Communicating via Facebook to BereavedCollege Students. Journal of New Communication Research, 4, 2, 42-53.

Zywica, J & Danowski, J. (2008). The Faces of Face bookers: Investigating Social Enhancement and Social Compensation Hypotheses; Predicting Facebook and Offline Popularity from Sociability and Self Esteem, and Mapping the Meanings of Popularity with Semantic Networks. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication,14, 1-34.