Research Proposal: Impacts of Social Media on Society

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Abstract

Social media sites continue to attract enormous attention from the world population. These sites range from Facebook to Instagram, Twitter, among others. It is impossible to ignore the role these sites play in the modern society. However, regardless of their benefits, these sites come with their share of disadvantages. This paper, therefore, explores the different aspects of social media; from their history to both their negative and positive impact, with relation to the society. Questionnaires, surveys, and other data collection methods are utilized in this study. The researchers expect to obtain both negative and positive views from the individuals who consent to participate in the study.

 

 

Introduction

There are many social networks in use today including; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Tagged, and many others. SixDegrees.com is believed to be one of the earliest forms of social media; having been used from as early as in 1997. It is well-known fact that numerous social media sites have gained much popularity amongst all people,  regardless of age or gender. There are however both negative and positive impacts of its use on the entire society. Social media are useful in areas such as advertising, socializing, and communication, especially between people separated by long distances. However, despite these benefits, social media have numerous negative effects on the society. These effects include deterioration of social ties, laziness, and even familial breakups. This research, therefore, seeks to determine the various effects these sites have had on the society by obtaining information from the users and other relevant sources.

Statement of Research

The fast spread of social media use in the world is undeniable. People of all age groups have embraced this medium of communication. Despite the many benefits that have come with the use of social media, numerous complaints continue to be aired on the negative impact that it had on the society. Those who oppose it and those in support of this medium have concrete arguments to support their sentiments. It is, therefore, crucial to identify the various effects that social media; both positive and negative

Research Question

How has the emergence of social media impacted the society?

Research Aims and Objectives

This study hopes to determine the impact of social media. This will be achieved by exploring the history of social media, then examining the changes that have come with its introduction. The research will also separate social media’s positive effects from its negative ones in a bid to measure its essence in the society.

Literature Review

Due to the increased frequency of social media usage in our day to day lives, numerous studies, that relate to this topic, have been carried out. Some of these researchers argue that social media has improved social interactions among friends and relatives (Qualman, 2012). Others argue that it has led to a strain on the relationships that individuals have with their families and also their friends. These second class of researchers argues that social media discourages face-to-face communication while exposing users to unscrupulous people.

It was until 2002 that social network and social media use became popular with the onset of Friendster. Friendster was later followed by MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Twitter, Pinterest and many other social networks. The increased internet connectivity has widened the reach of social media to all ages of people, social status, and gender (Qualman, 2012). Apart from social interactions, social media are currently used for politics, policy making, administration, entertainment, business communications, and advertisements, among others. Social media have gradually changed the way we communicate and carry out our daily activities. The media have enabled friends and relatives to communicate and interact more effectively. Social media have also facilitated closer and more intimate interactions among people, and hence promoting cohesion and understanding. It has enabled many people to make new friends all over the world.

Further, business organizations can interact and communicate with their clients more effectively through the available social platforms (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt, & Füller, 2013). Social media have changed the way business perform marketing. Politicians, through social media, have been enabled to woe voters and influence opinions of people to their favor. Through the use of social sites, the activists can reach a wider portion of the population and get the required quorum to influence political policies.

Although social media has improved connectivity among people, it also comes with risks. The use of social media has exposed the users to predators and con people who pretend to be well-intentioned people only to exploit the unsuspecting users (Ahlqvist, Bäck, Heinonen, & Halonen, 2010). Children are highly targeted by online bullies who pretend to be someone they trust only to terrorize them. People have also blamed the emergence of social sites for blamed for the decline in productivity of workers. Many companies are losing a lot of revenue due to workers spending most of their time chatting and interacting with social networks (Haythornthwaite, 2005). Most of the users also use media sites to express their personal life to people they have never met before. Some of the information shared on the social media can be intimate and can be used by malicious individuals to defame the user. Although users can control who can access the information they post on the social media, this controls are mostly forgotten.

Research Design

This is a basic research design aimed at assessing a cause and effect relationship between impacts of social media on society. This project will be especially interested in establishing the affected parties, and when and the manner in which they are affected. The mode of collecting data includes roughly 25 different discussion threads. The data will both be analyzed using opinions and sentiments mining of text and content analysis.

Research Instruments

In statistics, measurement is a term used in reference to how numbers or variables can be categorized. The scales of measurement fall into four categories: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio (Cozby, 2001). The questions for the research will be of the following scales:

• Are you on social media? Nominal
• For how long have you been using social media? Interval
• How many of the social media sites have you subscribed to? Nominal
• How do you gain access to these social media accounts? Nominal
• Which would you name as the sites that have gained the most popularity? Nominal
• What is your opinion regarding social networking sites? Ordinal
• How has social media influenced your life in a positive or negative way? Ordinal
• Has social media exposed you to dangerous individuals? Nominal
• Are you aware of persons that have been exposed to dangerous individuals through social media? Nominal
• What would you regard as the downsides of social media with relation to the society? Nominal

 

For this study, a summated scale score will be used. This is due to various reasons. A summated scale score allows for the use of multiple items in combination. In this case, the variety of questions tests different aspects.  Apart from this, the questions have no particular right or wrong answer. This makes the summated scale score a suitable choice. Furthermore, the score is not used for determining the ability that in this case is true. This research seeks to gather individual’s views with regards to social media. Also, a summated scale score has good reliability and validity. A summated scale score is easy to develop.

To determine its reliability, the questionnaire will be divided into two parts containing a variation of the same questions.  This will be a parallel forms reliability that will correlate the two outcomes to evaluate results’ consistency. Since, reliability is not sufficient by itself, the validity of the tool used for assessing the study will be determined by sharing the questionnaire with experts in the research field to determine the soundness of the questions. Moreover, this will help determine whether the questions will measure the impact of social media on society. Sensitivity will be determined by giving a variety of questions on the same aspect to get the true opinion of the participants.

Data Analysis Strategy

Once the researchers complete the field survey, and the questionnaires or interviews are completed, the data must undergo editing, coding, and analyzing the results of the study. The assignment of transforming the data in the questionnaires into useable results involves numerous discrete tasks such as initial editing of the questionnaires, entering of the data, editing using a computer, correction of the data, analyzing it, and interpreting the final results and report preparation. Coding of the data is transforming primary data into a version that can be interpreted easily using computer software. This method is crucial because it involves classification of information that is an important step during preparation of the primary data for computer processing using statistical software.

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics used in the study describe the fundamental features making the data. They include the summary of the sample size and the measures chosen in the study, which is a total of ten people in my organization. These statistics combined with some simple analysis in the form of graphs make the virtual basis of the study’s analyzed data. Descriptive statistics is the description of the data and its representation In addition; there will be provision of the information about the population in which the sample is derived from. Every type of variable must determine the descriptive statistics nature and how the calculations are carried out and the manner of reporting or displaying the statistics involved.

In measuring the central the measures of the central tendency, calculations of the means, mode, quartiles, and the median are vital. Measures of dispersion will be calculated using the variance, range, interquartile range, and standard deviation using the codes used during coding of the data. The measures of the central tendency will provide information about the distribution center of the values of the codes applied to the study. Use of graphs to display results is a way of presenting the descriptive statistics. The graphs are a good method of identifying the data patterns. A histogram will be used to indicate the number or frequency of the observations falling in diverse disjoint categories separating those using fixed intervals.

Ethical Issues

While conducting research, ethical dilemmas are bound to come up. To minimize these issues, several steps will be taken. First, the researcher will ensure that they get consent from the individuals for them to participate in the research (Drew, 2008). Secondly, the capacity of the participants will also be determined. This shall be in relation to legal qualifications by age. Moreover, voluntariness of the participants shall also be taken into consideration. Every individual, who participates, must do so willingly without being under any form of coercion or distress.

 

 

References

Ahlqvist, T., Bäck, A., Heinonen, S., & Halonen, M. (2010). Road-mapping the societal transformation potential of social media. foresight, 12(5), 3-26.

Cozby, P.C. (2001). Measurement Concepts. Methods in Behavioral Research (7th ed.), California: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Drew. J. C., Hardman, M., & Hosp, J., (2008).Designing and Conducting Research in Education, Sage Publications.

Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Community & Society, 8(2), 125-147.

Hutter, K., Hautz, J., Dennhardt, S., & Füller, J. (2013). The impact of user interactions in social media on brand awareness and purchase intention: the case of MINI on Facebook. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(5/6), 2-2.

Qualman, E. (2012). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.