Social Networking

Social Networking:

Introduction:

This paper discusses current trends of social networking and its impact in the society; there are a number of social networks which include face book, twitter, my space, linked in and online forum. A random sample n=49 is selected to analyze the impact of social networking and questionnaires used in the collection of data, the main aim of this research study is to establish whether social networks help in establishing real life relationships of new contacts, this is done using data collected that depict time spent establishing new contact and the time spent connecting with already established contacts, the following is a discussion of the methods and results.

Method:

A questionnaire was designed to collected data from the selected sample, the questionnaire contained seven questions which were aimed at collecting data regarding which social network and individuals was a member, whether individuals have created any relationships, whether the individuals have met these individuals in real life and whether individuals felt comfortable interacting with individuals online.

Social networking

Given that the number of individuals who were members of social networks is relatively large, a random sample was selected to represent the entire population; this number included those indiduvaulks who were face book, twitter, my space, linked in or online forum members, a total number of 49 individuals were selected for this study.

Results:

Social networks:

Majority of the individuals in the study stated that they were members of face book (81.63%) and only a few individuals however stated that they were members of myspace social network (24.49%), the chart below summarizes the percentage in each social group.

From the chart it is evident that majority of the individuals were face book members while only 24.49% were my space social network members.

Social networks and Relationships:

The other research question was whether the participant had created new relationships; the following chart summarizes the results:

The above table shows 59.18% of the individuals had created new relationships while 40.82% had not created new relationships, therefore majority of the individuals who were members of the social network had created new relationships.

Social networking

Meeting new people:

The other question was to determine when participants were most comfortable meeting new people, results are surmised below:

The chart shows that majority of the individuals were most comfortable meeting new people in real life than online, this indicates that individuals are not comfortable meeting new people online.

Social networks and social development:

The other research question was to establish whether social networks deter social development, the following chart summarizes the results:

The chart shows that majority of individuals stated that social networks did not deter social development and only 8.16% stated that social networks deterred social development.

Establishing contacts:

The other question aimed at establishing whether social networks made it possible for people to connect where it was impossible to connect with them when they were not members of these social networks, the chart below shows the results:

Social networking

79.59% of the individuals felt that the social networks helped in establishing contacts with individuals and 2041% felt that social networks did not establish contacts with individuals.

Hypothesis testing:

The following hypothesis test tends to establish whether connections using these sites have created real life relationships, this hypothesis was tested using data collected on time spent establishing new contacts and time spent connecting with already established contacts, it was evident that more time was spent connecting with already established contacts although individuals still spent time establishing new contacts.

The total time spent establishing new contacts amounted to 165 hours per week while time spent connecting with already established contacts amounted to 130 hours per week, therefore the mean time taken establishing new contact per individual is 3.36 hours while the time spent connecting with already established contacts is 2.65, this indicates that less time is spent connecting with already established contacts.

The hypothesis in this case will be to determine whether the mean time spent establishing new contacts is greater than time spent connecting with already established contacts, the table below summarizes the mean and standard deviation for the two variables:

Social networking

time spent establishing  contacts with new individuals(a)

time spent connecting with  already established contacts(b)

total

165 hours

130 hours

mean

3.367346939

2.653061

standard deviation

2.063642578

2.005739

Social networking

Null hypothesis:

H0: Ma = Mb

Alternative hypothesis:

Ha: Ma > Mb

Where Ma refers to mean time spent connecting with already established contacts while Mb refers to time spent establishing new contacts. Ma from the above is greater than Mb; however we test the hypothesis at the 95% level.

Test statistics:

The T table will be used to test this hypothesis; the T statistics is calculated as follows:

(Ma- Mb)

T value =             ——————————————

Social networking

[(σ12/ n1) + ( σ22/n2)]½

(3.36- 2.65)

T value =             ——————————————

[ (2.062/ 49) + (2.002/49)]½

T value =0.248207327

The T critical value at the 955 level of tests( two tail test) = 1.95996

The T value is greater than the critical value, when the value calculated is greater the null hypothesis is rejected, in this case the hypothesis H0: Ma = Mb is rejected meaning that the hypothesis Ha: Ma > Mb is accepted at the 95% level of test.

Social networking

Interpretation:

From the hypothesis test the null hypothesis is rejected and this means that Ma is greater than Mb, this shows that the mean time spent establishing new contact per individual is greater than the time spent connecting with already established contacts, this shows that social networks encourage the establishment of new contacts with individuals whereby members spend more time establishing new contacts.

Conclusion:

From the discussion majority of individuals in the sample are face book members while only a few individuals are members of myspace network. Majority of individual feel that social networks help in establishing new contacts with individuals, majority state that social networks do not deter social development and that more individuals have created new relationships over the networks.

The results above also show that the mean time spent establishing new contacts is greater than time spent connecting with already established contacts, this means that social networks have encouraged establishing new contacts and also have led to establishments of real life relationships.

Social networking

REFERENCE:

Mendenhall, W. (2003) Introduction to statistics, Prentice Hall press, New  Jersey