Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION
Computer and internet have gained a central importance in human life and social
media had a prominent role in this picture. Besides easy, cheap and fast access to
information through computers and the internet, the expansion of the communication
network is one of the factors that lead individuals to use social media.
Social media has become indispensable part of the daily life. Although there are many
useful applications of social media, the excessive use of medium led to personal, social and
occupational problems. With these problems, it began to lead Social Media Addiction,
Social Media Addiction is a term used to describe situation where a user spends too
much time on social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) such that it negatively
affects other aspects of his or her daily life like school, work, or relationships with others
(Walker,2011). According to Pavlicek (2013), a social media addict can considered as one
with an urge to be use social media excessively. For instance, engaging activities like
“frequently checking status updates and post or “stalking” the profiles of other users for
many hours” and this behavior or habit conflicts with his or her everyday responsibilities
Social media addiction is a relevant problem that will even get worse in future due
to the rapid development of technologies. People spend more time in the internet and social
networking sites.
1
Hence, this paper is an attempt to understand Social Media Addiction. This study
aims to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among selected students
specifically the Programming students of ACLC NAGA s/y 2018-2019. This study aims to
2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study aimed to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among
questions:
a. Age
b. Gender
2. Which social media accounts do programming students of ACLC use the most?
media?
The main objective of the study was to find whether selected Programming students
of ACLC-NAGA are addicted to social media and the level of their addiction. The
a. Age
b. Gender
2. To determine the social media accounts do programming students of ACLC use the
most.
social media.
3
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The findings of the study deemed beneficial to the students particularly to the
Students. The research aims to help the students to be aware of Social Media
Addiction
Teachers. This research aims to help teachers to guide and give students a proper
Parents. This study aims to help parents to know their child profile on social media
and the treatments they can give to prevent the said issue.
School. This research aims to help the school to know how many students, range of
ages and as well as each student level of social media addiction and the action taken
This research sought to find out the level of addiction to social media among selected
Programming students of ACLC-NAGA s/y 2018-2019. This study limits only to 100
students out of 284 students of Programming who are currently enrolled. Only those
Programming students are allow to participate in the research. This research conducted
4
Definition of Terms
Social Media: Internet based application or sites used for social networking.
Social media addiction: Excessive use and dependency on social media for gratifications
Extrovert: gain energy from other people. Extroverts actually find their energy is
sapped when they spend too much time alone. They recharge by being social.
alone. They lose energy from being around people for long periods of time, particularly
large crowds.
FOMO (Fear of missing out): fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend
Anxiety: is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension,
and worrying.
Twitter is an online social networking micro-blogging site that enables users to send and
video chat and voice calls from computers, tablets, and mobile devices via the Internet to
other devices or telephones/smartphones. Users can also send instant messages, exchange
files and images, send video messages, and create conference calls (Wikipedia).
5
Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service
that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social
Facebook is an online social networking service which allows users to create a profile,
add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share
videos and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users can
join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, etc. and
categorize their friends into lists such as "People from Work" or "Close Friends".
(facebook.com)
Messenger is a free mobile messaging app used for instant messaging, sharing photos,
videos, audio recordings and for group chats. This is separate app to Facebook. However,
user’s profile can be set using their Facebook account or a telephone number. (webwise).
6
CHAPTER II
The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature that is directly linked to the
current study. Review of related literature has to do with the identification and analysis of
past studies or in general, documents contain information related to the research problem
of the study to carry out. The review usually describes, sum up, assesses and explain related
literature and it also helps in choosing a theory to back the research and helps define the
There are many reasons why students use social media. Nyland (2007) identified
the five motives of using social media as “meeting new people, entertainment, maintaining
relationships, social events and media creation.” These motives are among common
engagement of university students who use social media as findings of some studies show.
A study carried out in University of Education Winneba in 2013 identified that students
use social media for “connecting old friends and family members, finding new friends,
Li & Chung (2006) state that the “Internet in itself is not addictive: instead the
social functions, self- expressions, communication and building of personal ties on the
7
Nicole (2007) students and teenagers have especially recognized these social media
to be able to contact their peers, share information, reinvent their personas and display their
social live. In another research conducted by Shana (2012) it was as certain that students
Omekwu et al (2014) the objectives of the study was to find out the different
use to find out the extent to which they use it to examine why they use social media, to find
out what gratification they get from using it, to find the risks involved in social networking
and to offer solution to deal with such risks. The researcher surveyed a sample of 150
using the simple random sampling technique. Findings of the study revealed that almost all
students use social media to interact with friends, connect with their classmates for studies
In another study carried out by Appeanti & Danso (2003) titled “Students’ Use
Media in Higher Education in Ghana,” they examined social media use among university
students using an online survey. Three hundred and eleven sandwich students in the
findings showed that majority of the students were aware of the existence of social media
and they use it for various reasons such as connecting with family members and old friends,
making new friends, sharing or getting learning materials, getting updates on events,
8
Guy (2012) a study found out that 90% of college students visit social media sites
in a regular basis using desktop computers, laptops, e-readers, tablets and cellphone to
actively engage in social networking, text messaging, blogging, content sharing, online
psychological disorder around the world, also internet addiction lead to social media
addiction. Facebook is the one of the most famous visited social network website. There
are many levels of social network addiction, some of the levels are for emotional low self-
confidence and scared be exposed personally. According to his study from the University
of Athens, psychiatrists discuss about a woman who lost her job because of being online
on a social media. The discussion was about the situation of the women that it could be a
According to Cheever (2009), there are five signs that may signal one has type of
social media addiction. 1.) When one is sleeping late at night spending time on social
networks, 2.) When a person spends more than an hour in social media sites, 3.) When one
disregards work including school work, 4.) And also being stressed when you start your
day without even using social media and the last and one of the most popular sign that you
are really became addicted in social media is when you start to break your schedule and
focuses your mind only in social media. Although this information may find very normal
9
Dau (2015) also investigated the social media addiction among the students of
tertiary institutions in Northern Nigeria and the level at which the students are addicted.
The findings from the study showed the majority of the respondents are all popular social
media platforms with Facebook having the largest number of users. He also found that
majority of the respondents use these social media platforms mainly for social needs such
Young et al. (2000) when we examine the symptoms of social media addiction
to fulfill responsibilities towards family and disruption in psychosocial functions are the
most important symptoms of addiction. Also, thinking of and desire for the Internet, virtual
environments and social media platforms throughout the day, unable to be free of them and
the feeling of loneliness and restlessness evoked by lack of social media are among other
symptoms. Some indicators of addiction in young people include considering social media
as a way of escape from personal problems, being unable to adapt to social life and
withdrawal into themselves when away from social media, insomnia, weight gain due to
decreased activity level, disorders like irregular eating habits and being unable to prevent
themselves from entering social media sites although they know all these undesirable
effects.
addiction in University students in Kuwait. The study based on the Internet addiction scale
developed by Young in 1996 from which questionnaires were designed and distributed to
1327 undergraduate students. The researcher employed the cross sectional survey
10
methodology. Findings from the data collected showed that social media addiction has
three (3) independent dimensions, i.e. the users experience with social media, time spent
using social media and satisfaction derived from them. He also found that social media
GPA.
from a psychological viewpoint each with powerful features that can lead to problem
behavior. For example, the extrovert might spend much time on Facebook, compulsively
checking their profile to see the number of “likes” their posts received. For others, with a
narcissistic inclination, Instagram may prove to be an addictive medium for them to display
themselves to others with “selfies”. Social anxiety can also fuel social media addiction.
The fear of missing out (FOMO) can be the main reason for frequent social media uses
In another study, Alabi (2012) sought to find out the level of Facebook Addiction
among selection of Nigerian University Undergraduates. The study surveyed the level of
Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used in selecting 1000 undergraduate
students from four universities in South-western Nigeria- two private institutions and the
other two; public. Data was collected using the Facebook Addiction Symptoms Scale
(FASS) in the form of a questionnaire. The findings from the study revealed a low level of
to internet access.
11
All the above literature reviewed suggest that social media addiction exists
however, most of the studies that have been carried out on social media addiction have
used mostly Facebook in its analysis and not much has been done with other social media
sites. The review also revealed the various scales for measuring addiction to internet and
certain social media platforms and have used in measuring addiction in other studies in
other parts of the world. It should be possible to develop similar addiction measures for
12
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Several theories have used to interpret the use of social media and its outcomes.
Determining the concepts of this research the study comes up with two theories: the Uses
and Gratification Theory (U &G) and the Media System Dependency Theory (MSD).
These two together assume that users of media rely on it to fulfil specific needs and in the
process develop preoccupations with it and will therefore help explain the level of social
McQuail (2005), the Uses and Gratification theory generally seen as a theory that is
closely linked to research on media effects. It is an approach to gaining insight on how and
An American sociologist Elihu Katz introduced the theory of uses and gratification in
1959 in an article in which he explained that communication research was near extinction
because researchers only focused on the effects the media had on people. He therefore
suggested that researchers focus rather on how media is used (Severin & Tankard, 2001).
McQuail (2005), states that the theory “seeks to explain the uses of media and the
satisfactions derived from them in terms of motives and self-perceived needs of audience
members.” As active influencers of the effect media has on them, users of media identify,
13
According to Ruggerio (2000), internet users choose activities online that satisfy needs
like “entertainment, information and social interaction.’ Uses and Gratification theory
therefore shows an affirmative relationship between the choice of using social media and
Based on this, the researcher chose to apply this theory to study the use and level of
social media addiction among programming students of AMA Computer Learning Center
(ACLC).
The Media Systems Dependency Theory proposed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin
DE Fleur in 1976 in an article that sought to describe why media could have cognitive,
affective and behavioral effects on different people in different way. Media Systems
The theory posits that individual have a goal when choosing the media they use and are
active in the making of this decision. It also suggest that the more a person relies on a
specific media to satisfy his or her needs, the more the media will become significant to
LaRose & Eastin (2002), internet addictions are generally “habits” that are initiated when
the “gratification sought”, starts to have an effect on users, which may lead to
preoccupation with it. With repetitive use and engagement in favorite online activities, a
14
Digital media have developed and has become an essential part of people’s lives. With
the growth of social media in recent times and its frequent use by many, over- dependency
on it for media needs by students may be a probable cause of addiction to it. The Media
Dependency theory has used as the theoretical basis for some studies of the Internet such
as Jung et al (2001) and Dhavan et al (2001) and can therefore help explain findings of this
study.
15
THE LEVEL OF SOCIAL MEDIA
ADDICTION AMONG SELECTED
PROGRAMMING STUDENTS OF ACLC-
NAGA S/Y 2018-2019
USES AND
GRATIFICATION
THEORY MEDIA SYSTEMS
DEPENDENCY THEORY
ELIHU KATZ (1959)
BALL-ROKEAH &
-helps to explain the many and
DEFLEUR (1976)
varied reasons why consumer
used and like social media -It said that the more a person
relies on a specific media to
-the uses and gratification for
satisfy his or her needs, the
using social media are social
more the media will become
interaction, information
significant to him or her
seeking, pass time,
entertainment, relaxation, -social media addiction are
communicatory utility, generally “habits” that are
expressions of opinions, initiated when the gratification
confidence utility, information sought”, starts to have an
sharing and surveillance and effect on users which may lead
watching of others. to preoccupation with it.
relationships of the input, process and output of the topic. This framework embodies the
specific direction by which the research will have undertaken by describing the relationship
The input shows the questions that seek to answer which includes the demographic
profile of the respondents in terms of age and gender, the social media accounts do
programming students of ACLC use the most and how frequent they use social media. To
enable to determine the Level of Social Media Addiction among programming students of
ACLC Naga.
The process on the other hand show the research being conducted through defining
the problems of the research first and gathered required data relevant to the research from
The output as the result, will indicate the general view of the situation, to determine
the level of social media addiction and defined the outcome of the study and give
17
INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT
The Survey Blog
demographic Seminars
questionnaire
profile of the
respondents in
terms of: Gathered
a. Age
required data
b. Gender
The social media
Analysis and
accounts do
programming interpretation
students of of Data
ACLC use the
most
The frequency
of the
respondents uses
social media
18
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter examines in detail the methodology used in carrying on the study. It
covers the following aspects: Research Design, Respondents of the Study, Research
Method. The researcher has discussed these aspects by highlighting the reasons why some
Research Design
descriptive survey was used to investigate the phenomenon of social media addiction
among Programming student of ACLC Naga. According to Orodho (2013), a study that
The respondents of the study is programming students of ACLC NAGA. Since the
chosen population could not observed because of factors such as time limitation and
financial constraints, a section of population selected as a sample from the entire population
to represent the whole. A sample derived from the population. For this study, the sample
sized is 100, made up of programming students from Grade 11 and Grade 12.
19
Research Locale
The study will be conduct at Ama Computer Learning Center (ACLC). The
respondents interviewed to their respective classroom. The researchers chose the place of
implementation because it give the researchers the needed information for people with
social media accounts especially programming students. The study will be conduct in the
Sampling Techniques
Probability sampling was use for this study and under this method; the Stratified
sampling technique was use to divide students into strata after which the simple random
Under the stratified sampling technique, all members of the population are puts into
strata and a specific number subsequently drawn from each stratum to represent the whole.
In the case of this study, the stratum represents each grade in the ACLC Naga namely the
Grade 11 and Grade 12. This means that, out of every Grade, a specific number of
respondents selected to participate in the study. This was gives all the subsets of the sample
20
Instrumentation
For this study, data was collected through self-administered questionnaires made up
the respondents and Section B covered questions under social media use and internet
Addiction test. The questionnaire partly modelled after the Internet Addiction Test (IAT)
developed by Kimberly Young to enable the researcher test the level of addiction among
programming students. It consists of 20 items that measures mild, moderate and severe
However, the researcher did not use all the 20 items. The scale has tested for validity
and reliability in different parts of the world in studies carried out by Ferraro, G. et al.,
The IAT was chosen because social media is a subtype of the internet (Turel, O. &
Serenko, A., (2010) and the items it has for measuring addiction covers all sites unlike the
other scales that have been modelled for specific sites like the Facebook Addiction
Symptoms Scale ( FASS) and Facebook Addiction Test ( FAT) for Facebook.
For this study, the researcher used 13 out of the 20 items from the IAT due to the
relevance of the items to respondents and because of its relativity to the setting of the study.
21
0= Not applicable
1= Rarely
2= Occasionally
3=Frequently
4=Often
5= Always
individual score for each item on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), which was administer
to each respondents as part of the questionnaire, were summed up and the total score for
each respondents was grouped according to the range of points in which they fall. Scores
ranged between:
22
Data Collection Method
The Survey method is employ in collecting quantitative data in the study. Consent
from teachers was obtained prior to visiting the classrooms. In this setting, students were
informed of the purpose of filling out the survey and turning it in was deemed as having
their consent and that participation was voluntary. They also aware that there was no
penalty for choosing not to participate. After explaining the procedure, the survey
minutes. The principal investigator stood at the front of the classroom and all the completed
survey were placed by the student into an envelope. This sample type was chosen for
Statistical Method
Data obtained from the field inputted into the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 20, which is a software designed for analysis of social science
research data into frequencies and percentages. To help present the data in the form of
tables and charts, which then analyze based on the research questions and later, discussed
to arrive at conclusions.
23
CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS
This chapter presents the findings of the data collected from 100 Programming
students of the ACLC Naga to find out their usage of social media and the test their level
response rate was achieved. Using frequency tables and charts, the research questions and
a. Age
b. Gender
AGE
f %
24
Table 2. Demographic Profile of the Respondents in terms of Gender
GENDER
f %
Female 48 48%
Male 46 46%
Lesbian 3 3%
Gay 2 2%
Bisexual 1 1%
As it can be observed from Table 1. Majority of the respondents who filled out the
questionnaire are fall between the ages of 17-19 years old while only thirteenth of them are
between the ages of 14-16 years old and the remaining four of them are fall in the ages of
In the Table 2, forty eight percent (48%) of the respondents who filled out the
questionnaire are female while forty six percent (46%) are male respondents. And the
remaining six percent was divided into lesbian (3%), gay (2%) and bisexual (1%).
The researcher found out that majority of social media users in Programming
students of ACLC Naga are female and fall between the ages of 17-19 years old.
25
SOP.2. Which social media accounts do programming students of ACLC-Naga use the
most?
Three
f=100
Majority of the respondents have 4 and more social media accounts and 29% of them
said they have only two social media accounts. Other (21%) said they have three social
media accounts while the remaining 20% said they have only one social media accounts.
26
Figure 4. Social media accounts use the most
69%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
16%
20%
9%
10% 3% 2% 1%
0%
Facebook Messenger Twitter Others Skype Instagram
f=100
More than half of the respondents said they use Facebook on a regular basis
followed by and the Messenger which has sixteenth percent of the respondents using it
regularly. A ninth percent of the respondents said they use twitter regularly and the three
percent other said it was other social media accounts which were not included in the list
provide choose from they used more often. Two percent respondent choose Skype as the
social media accounts they use the most while the remaining one percent who responded
27
SOP.3 How frequent do a selected programming students of ACLC-Naga use social
media?
30% 29%
25%
23%
20%
20%
16%
15%
12%
10%
5%
0%
Less than an hour One hour Two hours Three hours Four more hours
Figure 5 shows the time respondents spend on social media daily. A majority of the
respondents (29%) said they spend four or more hours on social media daily. Other
respondents (23%) said they spent two hours on social media a day, another 20% said they
spend one hour on social media daily. Less than an hour is spent on social media by 16%
of the respondents daily while the remaining 12% said they spent three hours on social
media a day.
28
As reviewed in related literature earlier, a study by Al-Menayes (2015) identified
time spent using social media as one of the dimensions of social media addiction because
it was clearly linked to all the identified factors of the phenomenon. This implies that, the
more time spent on social media, the higher probability for social media addiction to exist.
As the results have shown that majority of the Programming students of ACLC-Naga spend
more than four hours daily on social media therefore it further supports other findings from
this study that show the existence of social media addiction among programming students.
Figure.6 Reasons for using social media respondents are subscribed to.
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Entertainment Meeting People Social Events Create media Maintain
content and share relationship
opinions
f=197
Variables for this question were derived from Nyland’s (2007) five motives for
which people use social media. The five motives are entertainment, creating media content
and sharing opinions, meeting new people, for social events and maintaining relationships.
29
The results shows that majority of the respondents use their social media
account for entertainment, followed by 17.30% who use social media for meeting new
people while 16.80% of them said they use social media for social events. Other
respondents (16.20%) said they use social media for creating media content and sharing
opinions and the remaining 13.20% said they use it to maintain relationships.
From the data, majority of Programming students of ACLC Naga use social
media for entertainment more than any other reasons for using social media.
Governance 1%
Economics 5%
Others 11%
Sports 12%
Entertainment 45%
Series 1
f=100
Respondents were asked what they mostly discussed on the social media accounts
they are subscribed to. Most of the respondents said they discussed issues pertaining to
entertainment followed by their personal issues and then sports. Eleventh percent (11%) of
the respondents said they discussed other issues like memes, academics and general issues.
30
Fifth of them said they gave attention to issues concerning economics while one percent of
This section analyses the 13 items derived from the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by
Dr. Kimberly Young used in this study. These 13 items are questions that were based on
what studies have shown to be the factors that determine whether one is addicted to internet
use or in the case of this study, social media or not. There are six factors that determine
Answer to the question were in the form of a 5- point Likert scale and respondents
selected their responses to each question based on the one that best applied to the frequency
Table 3. How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?
NOT APPLICABLE 0 0%
RARELY 23 23%
OCCASIONALLY 25 25%
FREQUENTLY 22 22%
OFTEN 17 17%
ALWAYS 13 13%
31
A quarter of the respondents said they occasionally stay online longer than they
intend to, while 23% of them admitted to rarely stay online longer than they intended to.
Frequently, 22% of them stay online longer than they intended to and another 17% said
they often stay online longer than they intend to when they log on. Other respondents (13%)
said they always stay online longer than they intended while there’s no one said that the
Table 4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
ALWAYS 2 2%
When asked how often respondents form new relationships with fellow online users,
28% of the respondents said that happened occasionally and 23% said they rarely form new
relationships with other users, 21% said they frequently did, while 16% said it was often
the case. Some other 10% of the respondents said the question did not apply to them and
the remaining 2% of the respondents said they always form new relationships with other
online users.
32
Table 5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend
online?
RARELY 22 22%
OCCASIONALLY 22 22%
FREQUENTLY 24 24%
OFTEN 15 15%
ALWAYS 5 5%
Majority of the respondents (24%) said people in their lives frequently complained
about the time they spend online, 22% of them said people rarely complained about the
amount of time they spend online and another 22% said that people occasionally
complained about the amount of time they spend online. Others (15%) said it was often the
case, 12% respondents however said this did not apply to them but the remaining 5% said
there was always a complaint about the time they spend using social media.
33
Table 6. How often do your grades suffer because of the amount of time you spend
online?
RARELY 25 25%
OCCASIONALLY 25 25%
FREQUENTLY 17 17%
OFTEN 9 9%
ALWAYS 3 3%
According to Table 6, 25% of the respondents said their grades are rarely affected
by the amount of time they spend online. Another 25% said their grades occasionally
affected. Twenty one percent (21%) said their grades are never affected by the amount of
time they spent online, another 17% said it was frequently affected and 9% said it was often
the case. The remaining 3% said their grades were always affected by the number of time
34
Table 7. How often do you check your social media accounts before something else you
need to do?
NOT APPLICABLE 2 2%
RARELY 18 18%
OCCASIONALLY 33 33%
FREQUENTLY 17 17%
OFTEN 18 18%
ALWAYS 12 12%
From the table above it can be said that 33% respondents said they occasionally check
their social media accounts before something else they needed to do while 18% said they
rarely did. Another 18% said they did that often while 17% of the respondents too said
they frequently checked their accounts before doing else they needed to do and 12% said
they did that all the time while the remaining 2% of the respondents said it did not apply
to them.
35
Table 8. How do you often do you block disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing
RARELY 18 18%
OCCASIONALLY 26 26%
FREQUENTLY 22 22%
OFTEN 13 13%
ALWAYS 6 6%
The table shows that 26% respondents occasionally block disturbing thoughts about
their life with soothing thoughts of social media while 22% said they frequently did.
Eighteen percent respondents said they rarely blocked disturbing thoughts with social
media, others (15%) said this did not applicable to them. While 13% of them said they
often did and the remaining 6% of them said that was the case all the time.
36
Table 9. How often do you fear that life without social media would be boring, empty and
joyless?
RARELY 20 20%
OCCASIONALLY 20 20%
FREQUENTLY 17 17%
OFTEN 15 15%
ALWAYS 17 17%
It can be deduced from this table that, apart from 20% each said they rarely and
occasionally feared life without social media would be boring, empty and joyless, 17% of
the respondents said they frequently felt that way and another 17% of them said they always
feared while 15% of them said they often feared that would happen. And the remaining
11% said that they did not far that life without social media would be boring, empty and
joyless.
37
Table 10. How often do you lose sleep due to late night social media use?
RARELY 22 22%
OCCASIONALLY 19 19%
FREQUENTLY 19 19%
OFTEN 18 18%
ALWAYS 10 10%
This table shows responses participants gave when they were asked how often they
A few of the respondents (10%) said they always lost sleeping time due to late night
social media use while 12% of them said they never lost sleeping due to late night social
media use and 18% of them said they often lost sleep. Others (19%) said they occasionally
lost sleep and another 19% said they frequently did and the remaining 22% said they rarely
38
Table 11. How often do you fantasize about being online?
NOT APPLICABLE 7 7%
RARELY 24 24%
OCCASIONALLY 24 24%
FREQUENTLY 25 25%
OFTEN 13 13%
ALWAYS 7 7%
Table 11 shows that quarter of the respondents said they frequently fantasize about
being online while 24% said they rarely fantasized about being online and another group
of 24% said they occasionally fantasized about being online while 13% said they often did.
Seven percent of the respondents said they never fantasized about being online while
another 7% said they fantasized about being online all the time.
39
Table 12. How often do you find yourself saying ‘just a few minutes” when online?
RARELY 20 20%
OCCASIONALLY 20 20%
FREQUENTLY 20 20%
OFTEN 14 14%
ALWAYS 16 16%
This table shows, twenty percent each said they rarely, occasionally and frequently
experienced this while 16% of them said it always happen. Another 14% said they often
said that and the remaining 10% said it does not apply to them.
40
Table 13. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and
fail?
NOT APPLICABLE 8 8%
RARELY 27 27%
OCCASIONALLY 33 33%
FREQUENTLY 15 15%
OFTEN 9 9%
ALWAYS 8 8%
Respondents were asked how often they try to cut down the amount of time they spend
online and fail and their responses revealed that majority of them (33%) occasionally failed
in trying to cut down the amount of time they spend online while 27% of them rarely failed.
Also 15% said they failed frequently while 9% of them said they often failed. Very few of
them (8%) said they never failed in their quest as they said it did not apply to them and
another 8% said they always failed in attempting to cut down the amount of time they spend
online.
41
Table 14. How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with
others?
RARELY 20 20%
OCCASIONALLY 25 25%
FREQUENTLY 20 20%
OFTEN 14 14%
ALWAYS 7 7%
A quarter of respondents said they occasionally choose to spend more time online
over going out with others while fifth of each of the total number of respondents said they
rarely and frequently did. However, 14% of the respondents said they never choose to
spend more time online over going out and another 14% said they often choose to spent
time online instead of going out with others and the remaining 7% of respondents said they
always to choose to spend more time online over going out with others.
42
Table 15. How often do you feel depressed, moody or nervous when you are offline,
RARELY 18 18%
OCCASIONALLY 17 17%
FREQUENTLY 23 23%
OFTEN 12 12%
ALWAYS 8 8%
Majority of the respondents (23%) said they frequently feel depressed, moody or
nervous when offline, which goes away once they are back online while 22% of them said
feeling depressed, moody or nervous when offline did not apply to them. However, 18%
of the respondents said they felt that way rarely, 17% of the respondents experienced those
feeling occasionally, 12% often and the remaining 8% accepting they felt depressed,
moody or nervous when offline, which goes away once they are back online.
43
Level of Social Media Addiction
Scores for each respondent’s answer to the 13 items of the Internet Addiction Test
(IAT) included in the questionnaire were summed up and grouped in a range of points.
The percentage for each group was calculated and the results are represented in the chart
below.
None
Moderate
50%
Mild
Severe
Moderate None
1%
14%
Severe
Mild
35%
f=100
44
Figure 8 shows the various levels at which students are addicted to Social media.
Although all the respondents sampled for this study use social media, not all of them are
addicted to social media. The study revealed that 14% of the respondents obtained scores
below any of the levels of addiction and can therefore not addicted to social media. A
majority (50%) of student obtained scores that placed them at a moderate level of addiction
while 35% obtained scores that fall within the mildly addicted range. Only one of the
respondents can be said to be severely addicted to social media scoring 60 points which
falls within the severe level of addiction. These findings confirm the existence of the social
Summary
This chapter presented the results of the information gathered from the survey
conducted among 100 programming students of ACLC Naga. The study found that
Facebook is the most subscribed to and most used social media in ACLC. It also found that
majority of the students to these platforms for entertainment which also makes up the issues
most discussed on these platforms by programming students. Findings also showed the
existence of social media addiction among programming students at different levels with
majority being at the moderate level and just 1% being severely addicted.
45
CHAPTER V
This chapter discusses the findings in the preceding chapter and draws on the
theoretical framework used in the study and related literature which was reviewed in
Chapter 2, as well as the objectives of the study to enable the researcher draw conclusions
and make recommendations for future studies. This study sought to find out the level of
social media addiction among programming students of ACLC Naga. The sample frame
was made up of 100 programming students and a 100% response rate was achieved and
The discussion of the findings of this study will be done in connection to the research
objectives, theoretical framework and the literature that were reviewed in chapter two. To
this end, this subsection seeks to establish how the findings reflect the assumptions and
principle that underpin the Uses and Gratification and the Media Systems Dependency
theories.
The first objective was to identify the demographic profile of the respondents in
terms of: Age and Gender. The study revealed that majority of social media users in
programming students fall between the ages of 17-19 years old and majority is female.
programming students of ACLC Naga use the most. The study revealed that majority of
the respondents are subscribed to more than one social media accounts. Facebook was
46
identified as the most use social media accounts among the programming students. This
was followed by Messenger, Twitter, other social media accounts such as Google+,
The findings from this study ties in with the study by Dau (2015) which showed that
the majority of the respondents use almost all popular social media accounts and he
identified Facebook as having largest number of users, this study confirmed Facebook as
The findings also show that Facebook is the most regularly used social media
accounts although almost all the respondents had alternatives. This finding is an agreement
with the postulations of the Uses and Gratification theory which explains that there is a
motive behind audiences’ choice and use of media. According to the theory, media
consumers are at liberty to choose from a variety of channels, specifically one that fully
meets their needs although they have many alternatives and social media certainly offers a
which posits that the more a medium fulfils the needs of a user the more dependent he/she
is on that media therefore programming students use Facebook more regularly than any
other social media accounts because it satisfies their reason for using social media more.
Each of these social media accounts has its strength and specialized functions,
hence the selection of one platform is an indication of what the audience want to use the
medium for, which confirms assertions by the theorists of the Uses and Gratification theory
that users look for a media source that satisfies their needs although they may have
47
alternative choices. This means the users turns to the particular social media accounts that
meets their expectations which in this case is Facebook. The extent to which the social
media account is able to deliver and meet the expectation of the user determines the degree
of dependency on that social media accounts. Finding also show that all the reasons for
which respondents choose to join and use social media can be satisfied by Facebook which
majority of respondents also chose as their most regularly social media accounts. This
analysis ties in with the postulation of media systems dependency theory which states that
The third objective sought to know how frequent does a programming student of
ACLC Naga uses social media. The finding revealed that majority of programming
students of ACLC Naga spend 4 and more hours on social media daily. This further
confirms the existence of addiction to these sites among students as time they spent on
social media has been identified as a dimension of addiction in the study by Al-Menayes
(2015) with results of another study carried out by the University of Derby in the UK which
shows that users who spend an average of 3.6 hours a day on social media are classified as
addicted. Also, responses to one of the question asked in the IAT (How often do you find
yourself saying “just a few more minutes” online?) showed majority of students spent more
time than intended using social media and had difficulty in trying to cut down the amount
of time they spent online. This confirms two of the six factors (excessive use and lack of
48
This finding specifically relates to the basic assumption of the media system
dependency theory. This theory is anchored on audience’s dependence on media for their
needs to be met. From the study findings, social media addiction is present but not at its
optimal level. It can therefore, be inferred that the sampled population are dependent on
social media because of needs they want met when using platforms.
The last and the main objective was to find the level of social media addiction among
programming students of ACLC Naga. Generally, finding confirmed the existence of social
media addiction phenomenon among programming students of ACLC Naga and also
showed that addiction existed at different levels i.e. mild, moderate and severe level of
addiction. At the mild level are average users who use their social media accounts a bit too
long but have control over their usage. At the moderate level, the user may experience
occasional or frequent problems because of their use of the media while at the severe level,
social media usage causes major problems in some aspects of the user’s life like poor
Findings also showed that 85% of the respondents were moderately and mildly addicted
while only 1% was severely addicted. However, findings also showed that 14% of the
The findings also revealed students use their social media accounts for entertainment,
meeting people, and social events, create media content and share opinions and maintain
relationship in descending order. This findings confirms the research finding by Dau
(2015), Omekwu et al (2014) and Appeanti & Danso (2003) that majority of the
respondents use these social media accounts mainly for social purposes. All these studies
found that majority of the respondents use these social media platforms mainly for social
49
needs such as friendship, maintaining and forming new relationships with the most
dominant being entertainment as most of them said they joined social media because of
entertainment and the issues they discussed most on these platforms is about entertainment.
Conclusion
The study has shown that programming students of AMA Computer Learning
Center are active users of social media. The study shows majority of the respondent’s falls
between the 14-16 years old and female. The findings also revealed that the most popular
social media accounts use by programming students of ACLC is Facebook with almost all
students of ACLC Naga spend more 4 hours daily on social media. Importantly, the study
confirmed the existence of social media addiction among programming students though
not an alarming rate. It revealed that the most of them are moderate and mildly addicted
with only one person who is severely addicted. This an indication that ACLC has not been
left out of the effects of advancement in technologies like the internet although compared
Al-Menayes (2015) found in his study that students with higher social media
addiction rate have poorer academic records than who are either moderately addicted or
not addicted. The same can be deduced from findings this study. Although, the current
study did not set out establish a correlation between social media addiction and academic
performance, the study focused on students and this is an important issue that concerns
them and must therefore be looked at. One of the question as part of the items which were
50
used to test for addiction (How often do your grades suffer because of the amount of time
you spend online?) had majority of respondents saying their grades were occasionally
affected by their use of social media. This majority fall within the mild and moderate level
of addiction. However, the respondent who fell within the severe level of addiction said his
grades always suffered as a result of using social media. It therefore backs to the result of
Al- Menayes’ study. Finding show there is relatively low addiction to social media among
programming students of ACLC Naga, hence, it can be deduced that excessive social media
use does affect academic performance. Although addiction to social media is not yet an
optimal level at among programming students, like all other addictions negatively affect
the aspects of life, this could be a cause for concern and attention must therefore be given
51
Limitation
Firstly, this study was limited with a number of people sampled for the study. The
sample size was limited to only 100 programming students which is a very significant
number considering the general population of Programming student of the school due to
time constrain. This affected the generalization of the findings. Future studies should study
a larger number to further asses the phenomenon to know the actual situation and impact
Secondly, the method used in conducting the study limited only in terms of findings.
Survey was the only research techniques that was used to identify the existence of social
media addiction among programming students. This method only succeed in scratching the
surface of the phenomenon without in depth analysis into the impact of the addiction on
students’ academic performance and other aspects of their lives. Future studies must
complement the survey research method with either an interview on focus group
discussion. This will enable the researcher to gather extensive data for effective conclusion
52
APPENDIX B
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
Name (Optional):
Dear respondent,
Level of Social Media addiction among Programming students of ACLC NAGA s/y2018-
2019” in partial fulfilment for Practical Research II. We will be most grateful if you will
answer the questions to the best of your ability. Your responses will be treated
confidentially and used only for academic purposes. Your participation is greatly
appreciated.
Instruction: Please fill the spaces provided. Mark [√] where applicable and specify where
necessary
I. Personal information
___Transgender
3. Number of social media Accounts: __1 ___2 ___3 ___4 and more
53
4. Which of the following social media sites do you use on regular basis?
5. Why did you join these social media platforms? ( tick as many reasons as you do on
social media)
relationship
54
II. Rate yourself from 0-5.
0 1 2 3 4 5
QUESTIONS Not Rarely Occasionally Frequently Often Always
Applicable
8. How often do
you find that
you stay online
longer than you
intended?
9. How often do
relationships
with fellow
online users?
others in your
life complain to
amount of time
you spend
online?
your grades or
school work
suffer because
55
of the amount
of time you
spend online?
social media
account(s)
before
something else
do?
disturbing
thoughts about
soothing
thoughts of the
Internet?
Internet would
56
be boring,
empty, and
joyless?
due to late-
night social
media use?
you fantasize
about being
online?
you find
yourself saying
“just a few
more minutes”
when online?
down the
amount of time
57
you spend
you choose to
spend more
time online
with others?
you feel
depressed,
moody or
nervous when
which goes
are back
online?
58
APPENDIX 3
Original Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly Young
The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is the first validated test for Internet Addiction
Based upon the following five-point Likert scale, select the response that best
represents the frequency of the behavior described in the following 20-item questionnaire.
0 = Not Applicable
1 = Rarely
2 = Occasionally
3 = Frequently
4 = Often
5 = Always
1. ___How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?
2. ___How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time online?
3. ___How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your partner?
4. ___How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
5. ___How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend
online?
59
6. ___How often do your grades or school work suffer because of the amount of time you
spend online?
7. ___How often do you check your e-mail before something else that you need to do?
8. ___How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?
9. ___How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you
do online?
10. ___How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing
11. ___How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go online again?
12. ___How often do you fear that life without the Internet would be boring, empty, and
joyless?
13. ___How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are
online?
15. ___How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when off-line, or fantasize
16. ___How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” when online?
17. ___How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail?
18. ___How often do you try to hide how long you’ve been online?
19. ___How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others?
60
20. ___How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are off-line, which
After all the questions have been answered, add the numbers for each response to
obtain a final score. The higher the score, the greater the level of addiction and creation of
problems resultant from such Internet usage. The severity impairment index is as follows:
NONE 0 – 30 points
MILD 31- 49 points: You are an average online user. You may surf the Web a bit too long
because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.
SEVERE 80 – 100 points: Your Internet usage is causing significant problems in your life.
You should evaluate the impact of the Internet on your life and address the problems
61
Reference:
Vol. 10 pp. 70 – 80
www.academia.edu/8545466/Students_Use_Of_Social_Media_In_Higher_E
ducation_In_Ghana
Dau, B. (2015). Social Computing: A Study Assessing the Impacts of Social Network
62
LaRose, R. & Eastin, M. S. (2002). A Social Cognitive Explanation of Internet Uses and
Li, S. M. & Chung, T. M. (2006). Internet function and internet addictive behavior.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.168.4424&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Nyland, R. C. (2007). The Gratification Niches of Internet Social Networking, E-mail and
Omekwu, C. O, Eke, H.N. & Odoh, N.J (2014). The Use of Social Networking Sites among
emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out, Computers in Human Behavior,
63
Ruggerio, T. E. (2000). Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. Mass
Saravannel, P. (1992). Research Methodology. 3rd Ed. New Delhi: Kitab Mohab
Stat Trek (n.d.). Sample Size: Stratified Random Samples. Retrieved from
http://stattrek.com/sample-size/stratified-sample.aspx
http://www.netaddiction.com/internetaddiction-test/
64