thesis. social networks

CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Technology has brought a great change in the lifestyle of people. It has been a part of daily life. Some people can’t live without them and some get addicted to them. One product of technology is the internet. In the internet, one can easily search information and data. He can find entertainment, he can communicate to his loved ones who are far away from him, and he can have business transactions and many more. As for now, internet is one of the fastest medium of communicating. When one talk about internet, it is more about expressing thoughts and emotions in the places of blogs, podcasts and social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace and many more. These sites were made for communicating purpose but also for online sharing. Social networking sites have become part of daily habits. Visit, post, share, view, like, comment, that’s the usual things that are done in these sites every day. Many questions have been raised because of the impact of these sites to teenager, the youngest and number one user of social networking sites. The question between the privacy and safety are still one of the hottest issues that remain unanswered. Penuel and Riel1 define social networking as “a set of people and the relationships between them”. Social networking focuses on building and reflecting social relationships who shares interests and activities. It encourages the users to build relationships with others and share their personal opinions and emotions.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project2, social networkings websites are sites where users create a profile and connect their profile to others for the purpose of forming personal network. Adolescents are the frequent users of such social networking sites. The teenagers, born on the new generation where technology has been frequently used and developed more, find these sites as their community. According to the study worked by the University of McCann3, Philippines have been declared as the “social networking capital of the world”. With 6.9 million users and approximately 50 percent of it as teenagers. It is only been proven that teenagers are the most likely affected by this Social Networking Phenomenon. According to Ishak4, commuting times and threat of rising crime combined together act as a compelling factor which keep many youth at home for long hours. As a result, those with Internet access turn to online social networks which enable not only instant communication with friends but also enable the sharing of similar interests. In that sense, social networks represent an effective platform for teenagers to interact and socialize. The 3rd year accountancy students of Saint Ferdinand College are having fun with their friends and love to share their thoughts through social networking. Most of them are extrovert person and most likely spend their time to visit social networking sites where they can freely express themselves.
Having an access to the internet is easy. Different connections are available today that most houses have. Teenagers are inclined to their relationships with their friends than the relationships with their parents and studies. Social network as one of the factors that affects the mind of a teenager had caused them several changes in their lifestyle. That’s why the researchers would like to find out the impact of social networks to the academic performance of students.
Theoretical Framework
Social identity theory5 posits that social i8indetity stems from that part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership of a social group or groups together with the value and emotional significance of that membership.
Social identity and group belonging are important facets of all age groups, however, adolescents are particularly affected by this. With regard to definition, the world health organization describes adolescence spanning ages 10-20 with late adolescents as approximately 17-20. Clearly, there are differences in developmental tasks according to stage of adolescence so that in early adolescence, these are more concerned with psychological change where as late adolescence is associated with individualization from family of origin and personal adjustment to same. Older adolescents and emerging adults are enthusiastic users of several forms of new media communication such as instant messaging, blogs and chat rooms. Apart from motives such as passing time, entertainment and information seeking, interpersonal and interactive goals have been consistently identified6.
Based on a recently conducted study, adolescents’ closeness with friends mediated the influence of the forms of internet communication on participants’ reports of well being7. Another study was conducted identified five motives for use of the internet-interpersonal utility, passing time, convenience, information seeking and entertainment. Those who considered the internet as a warm, social and active environment used it mainly to pass tie, for convenience, interpersonal utility and entertainment. Interestingly, those who felt less secure in face-to-face interaction were more likely to turn to the internet for interactional process8. The main focus of this study is to know the impact of these social networking sites in the academic performance of 3rd year accountancy students.
The research paradigm of the study represents the flow of the study through the input, process and output diagram. The input shows the perceived advantages and disadvantages of social network, reasons why students use these SNS, devices that students use to access these sites and the academic performance of students. The process shows the analysis of the academic performance of the students, advantages and disadvantages of social network, reasons why students use these SNS, devices that students use to access these sites and the impact of SNS in the improvement of academic performance. The output shows the impact of social networking sites in the academic performance of the 3rd year accountancy students of Saint Ferdinand College.
Research Paradigm INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Statement of the Problem:

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of social networking to the academic performance of the 3rd year accountancy students of Saint Ferdinand College. Specifically, the study attempted to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:
a. Gender
2. What are the reasons why students visit these social networking sites e.g facebook?
3. What is the impact of social networking in the improvement of student’s academic performance?
4. What are the advantages of social networks to students in their academics?
5. What are the disadvantages of social networks to students in their academics?
6. What is the Academic performance of the 3rd year accountancy students of the 1st year semester S.Y 2012-2013?
7. What are the devices that students use in visiting these social networking sites?

Significance of the study
The main purpose of this study is to find out the impact of social networking to the academic performance of 3rd year accountancy students of Saint Ferdinand College.

This study will benefit the following:

The Parents, this study will help them know the actions they need to do to prevent their children from addiction to social networking.
The Teachers, the study will help them know the cause why some students have low grades.
The Students, for them know the negative and positive effects of social networking to their lives.
To Researchers, the study helps them to enhance more their critical thinking skills, improve their patience and develop the ability to gather more information.
To Future researchers, this study will serve as a reference of further studies.

Scope and Delimitations This study was conducted to find out the impact of social networking to the academic performance of the 3rd year Accountancy Students S.Y 2012-2013 of Saint Ferdinand College,City of Ilagan, Isabela. It will be confined to the impact of social networking to student’s academic performance and gender of the respondents is included in the study. Likewise, the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites are also looked into.
Definition of Terms
The following terms are defined to have a better grasp of the study and clearer understanding of its meaning:

Social networking- It is one of the most active web-based activities in the world which mainly for socialization purposes.

Social networking sites- These are the sites used to communicate with family, friends and etc. It is also use for sharing one’s thought, photo, video or any link.

IMPACT- It is a marked effect or influence into someone or something.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE- It is the academic aspect or the record of the student based on his/her intellectual performance inside the classroom.

TEENAGERS- He is the person aged between the brackets of 13 to 19 years of age.

INTERNET- It is` also known as the World Wide Web, it is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.