Impact of Social Networking Sites on First Year Multimedia Arts Program

Introduction Today, young people around the world have been using social networking sites with their own different purposes. The main purpose of social networking sites is communication. It is likely believed that social networking sites have greatly improved communication especially for people who have their loved ones abroad. Some people spend most of their time on social networking sites, specifically Facebook and Twitter. Studies show that most young people or teenagers are addicted to these social networking sites. Needless to say, it is not healthy to spend most of our time on social networking sites, especially for teenagers who are supposedly using their time to study. As Coyne (2010) mentions in his research paper â€Å"It’s hard for most college students to remember a time before social networks. Half of Facebook’s 500 million users will log-in on any given day. On the same day 65 million tweets are sent. The last 10 years have witnessed major advancements in global commu nication. It appears fiction has become a reality.† Social networking sites can also affect social behavior. It can either improve or hinder an individual’s social behavior. In the Philippines, where most teenagers use social networking sites, such as Facebook covered 12 percent of all active users according to statistics. Most of these teenagers are dependent on social networking sites in engaging any kind of relationship with someone. It is often that an individual would be socially awkward in public if he/she is dependent on social networking sites and reluctant to personal interaction. Regardless of being so dependent on social networking sites, this may also improve an individual’s relationship with one another. As said by Boyd (2007), internet... ...ocial Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13(1) Coyne, E. (2010). http://ecoyne.blogspot.com/ Haythornthwaite, C. (1996). Social network analysis: An approach and technique for the study of information exchange. Library and Infor ¬mation Science Research, 18, 323-342. Kuppuswamy and Shankar. (2012). http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul07/reid_grey.shtml Ruffes, V. (2010). http://jhands.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/social-networking-research- paper/ Sundà ©n, (2003). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13(1) Trusov, M., Bucklin, R.E., Pauwels, K. (2009). http://www.emeraldinsight.com/bibliographic_databases.htm?id=1819982 Wiley and Sisson (2006). http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=gradco nf_hospitality