Proposal for Independent Study: The Effect of Social Media on the Behavior of College Students in their Twenties
Abstract
A lot of teenagers and youth in their twenties are not only social media users but confirmed addicts. Although lauded as great steps towards achieving global integration, social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, YouTube and Instagram do have both positive as well as detrimental effects on the users. This intended research study will thus seek to establish such positive as well as detrimental effects of social media on college students in their twenties. The sample size for the intended research study will include 50 students who will be randomly picked within the university. The research study will take a qualitative research design where open ended questionnaires and oral interviews will be used as the primary tools for collection of data. Thereafter, descriptive statistics will be used to analyze and process the raw data into useful information. The processed information will then be used to draw conclusions that will be included in the final research report. Introduction
One notable effect of social media usage is that continued exposure can alert the user’s behavior, whether positively or adversely. Different social media users have thus depicted varying behavioral characteristics, some inherent while others are perceived to have been developed as a result of interaction with other online users. This intended research study will thus seek some of the effects of social media, whether detrimental or supportive, on college students, especially students in their twenties.
The primary purpose of the intended study will be to establish some of the effects on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram & Youtube) on the behavior of college students. This will help develop counter strategies to rectify some of the detrimental behaviors that are more likely to be developed due to t social media usage. The findings of the intended research will also be of great use to juvenile psychologists and youth councilors. Such experts will find it extremely easy to identify some of the symptoms of social media addiction and quickly identify remedies for their clients suffering from such problems
Parents and guardians also stand a chance to greatly benefit from the findings of this research as they will help them on how to advise some of their siblings who might show signs of social media addiction. Finally, the findings of this research study will also be of significant use to teachers and college tutors. These are professionals who spend most of the time with the people within the affected age bracket and hence will depend on the findings to design their guiding and counseling sessions.
Research question
The proposed research study will seek to answer the following questions
What are some of the positive behavioral effects that college students learn from social media?
What are some of the detrimental behavioral effects that college students in their twenties learn from social media?
How to college students in their twenties learn detrimental behavioral effects from social media?
How do college students in their twenties learn positive behavioral effects from social media?
Hypothesis
H1: college students have learned negative behavior from social media
H2: Social media has helped improve the behavior of college students
H3: College students are adversely affected by interaction with social media users with negative behaviors.
Weekly schedule
The weekly schedule of activities will be as shown in the table below. The entire study is expected to last for four weeks.
Research design
The proposed research study will use a qualitative research method to exonerate the core objectives of the research. Qualitative method is based on collecting data from the natural setting, while maximizing on the research (Creswell 234). Moreover, this research will be anchored on an inductive research method to find the actual data based on the espoused objectives. Interpretivist is yet another model that shall be incorporated to establish the objectives of study. In this type of research design, the researcher seeks to collect data from respondents with an objective of establishing their perceptions, attitudes and even moral conceptions about a determine variable under study
Data collection
Methods of analysis
All the data obtained from the interviews and questionnaires will be processed and analyzed for further analysis and interpretation (Creswell 237). After collecting the raw data through open-ended questionnaires and the interview, this information will be processed before being tabulated. Moreover, such data will be analyzed using simple frequency techniques and percentiles. After that, the analyzed information will then be presented through descriptive forms by employing the use of tables, means, and percentage distribution tables. The researcher will also take great care by noting the total number of times that the respondents have expressed their views about the main topic. The findings from the analysis and processing stage will then form the basis for drawing conclusions.
Limitations of the study
A research study of high magnitude like the proposed study cannot be possible without limitations. To begin with, some of the college students, who will form the majority of the research population, might be reluctant to revealing the true information required for the study to remain viable. Nevertheless, this challenge will be countered by informing the students about the necessity of revealing accurate information, and the significance of their cooperation to the suces of the research. Furthermore, the questionnaire design will strictly adhere to confidentiality principles in such a way that the respondent is not necessarily required to identify him or herself. In some rare occasions, some of the intended key respondents might face the challenge of tight schedules thereby lacking sufficient time to give exhaustive feedbacks required by the study (Swanborn 124). Should such limitations come up; the affected respondents will have questionnaires sent to them in time so that their responses are also captured during the study.
Justification of the study
The topic of social media usage and its effects is not only broad but sensitive, especially to college students. In the same regard, the behavioral effects of social media cannot be learned in conjunction with any of the college’s course offerings due to the primary reason that most students are victims and thus bringing up such topics might be perceived as a direct infringement on their social space (Klenke 37). Hence, taking up the proposed topic as a research study provides the best platform for which such sensitive issues can be comfortably and exhaustively tackled.
Works Cited
Creswell, W,John. Research Design; Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. University of Nebraska. 2014, Print.
Klenke, Karin. Qualitative Research in the Study of Leadership. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub, 2008. Print.
Swanborn, Peter. Case Study Research: What, Why and How?London: Sage Publications, 2010. Print
