The experiment was conducted in a local church whereby, I created a Youths’ Facebook account for the purpose of enhancing communication among the members who were aged between 12 to 17 years. Other that communication, the Facebook page was instrumental in giving updates about the upcoming youths activities and fun days.
All members were encouraged to create their accounts and update their profiles. In a period of two weeks, over 20 youths had signed up on the Facebook page. Most of the group members uploaded their pictures time .Some of the group members liked the photos while other gave positive comments. However, others did not comment anything as they did not see anything important about the pictures.
During the experiment, I noted that people who used to like their friends photos used to chart often. Also, the chatting created among and a sense of trust among some group members to an extent that they used to comment about their status freely on poking their friends. However, the opposite was noted among group members who never bothered to comment on the status or the profile pictures of other group members.
I organized a youth’s fun day in a park. I noticed that group members who used to poke each other or like the updates of their colleagues were walking holding hands or taking photos together. Most of these photos were uploaded to the group Facebook page.
After the fun day, members uploaded their photos in the groups' Facebook page. It was observed that there was a lot of chatting and comments among teenagers who took photos in groups while the little conversation was noted among group members who do not bother to comment a lot in the group. During church services, teenagers who used to comment a lot or like the status update of their friends were seen sitting together in the church and were always talking.
A control experiment was established in another branch of the church whereby there was no social networking platform where the teenagers could interact. In this church, it was hard to know the relationships that exist between the teenagers.
During the experiment, the independent variable was the social media and in this case, the youths Facebook page. This is because the Facebook page is the variable that causes change. Through the use of the Facebook page, various teenagers formed relationships. Besides friendship, the social media platform created a strong bond and trust among some group members who were often seen either walking or sitting together in the church.
The dependent variable was child peer relationships. This is because the relationship was an entity that was affected by the creation of the Facebook account. Prior to the formation of the Youths Facebook page, most of the group members did not know much about their colleagues. However, things changed when every member uploaded their pictures and profiles describing where they come from, likes, school, and hobbies. Some teenagers started identifying with group members whom they felt that they have a lot of things in common.
I will measure the dependent variable by observing the relationship patterns between various teenagers in the church due to the influence of the Facebook in the group.Furthermore, some of the relations beyond the church activities will be observed.
Social media plays a critical role in enhancing socialization and relationships among the teenagers. This is because it allows the youths understand and get to know their peers better thus developing trust that leads to new friendships (Lenhart, 2015).
Reference
Lenhart, A. (2015). Social media and friendships. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06/chapter-4-social-media-and-friendships/
