CONTENT

ITEM PAGES
INTRODUCTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT & RESEARCH

OBJECTIVES

JUSTIFICATIONS AND INITIAL RESEARCH

CONTRIBUTIONS

BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW

PROPOSED RESEARCH FRAMEWORK &

RESEARCH METHODS

REFERENCE
 Introduction

Social networking has become a norm in this era of information technology where
borderless communication is at its prime. There have been also recent newspaper articles
regarding government having a problem with staffs who log on to Facebook during working
hours. University students are spending most of their time online logged in and browsing on at
least one social network. In Malaysia, we have 800,000 active Malaysian users using Facebook
as of Dec 16 last year out of which 45% was male and 51% was female with 4% unstated.
(Source: ​http://www.malaysiacrunch.com/2008/12/how-many-facebook-users-in-malaysia.html​).

We as MMU students wanted to find out how much has social networking sites impact
MMU Students' education? This social lifestyle is causing an effect on the students’ social life in
terms of their education and need to be studied at this stage as their education is beneficial for
them to move forward in life. This research might also help university when they plan their
curricular structure in terms of incorporating certain positive aspects of social networking such
as resourcefulness and borderless communication as it is essential in the future.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT & RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How do social networking sites impact our education as Multimedia University students?

RESEARCH GAP

There have been a number of previous studies of or about social networking behavior of
university students ​Boyd & Danah, 2007; JALN V:7, Issue 3., 2003) However, none of these solely
focused on how much it affects the students education.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to find out

● The depth of social networking that affects education of university students

● To assess the level of social networking literacy among university students
● To identify the relationship of social networking and education
 JUSTIFICATIONS AND INITIAL RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS

This research is mainly about the time spent on social networking sites by MMU students
and its negative effects upon students in their university life. These findings will be beneficial to
not only students but also to parents, lecturers, universities programs, and also lastly to the
society. After doing this research, we will thoroughly know the effects of social networking
towards students in MMU which serves as a guideline to other researches as well because of the
similarities between the age groups.

This research is needed because social network sites have been on the internet since 1995
with classmates.com and evolved tremendously throughout the years and now it has become a
big part of student’s life. Facebook has been around since 2006 and its population is the biggest
in the world if a social network site can replace a country. With this being said, the effects of
social networking are still very little and many tend to ignore the magnitude of this problem that
is ever present in a student’s life.

With this research, parents will receive knowledge about guiding their university going
children about social networking. “Prevention is better than cure”, with correct knowledge and
also research parents can plan and strategize on how to discipline their children when using the
social networking sites. This is to ensure a better handling of similar cases in the near future.
Many parents are struggling to communicate with their children’s and are frustrated because they
cannot clearly find the factors that caused it. With this research it might help to reveal the effects
of social networking.

Other than that lecturers and universities will also gain knowledge in handling university
students. Since social networking has been found a lot of lecturers have been complaining about
student absentees and also the lack of concentration in classes. This all might be caused by social
networking websites. Although it might be a false assumption, with this research lecturers and
universities will know the true result of this sudden phenomenon. Other than that , this research
can also shape the approaches of lecturers and universities towards students. Since social
networking has been present in students’ life, the lecturers and universities will have to find a
way to shape the university program in such a way that students will be fully committed in
studying and the effects of social networking can be reduced.

Lastly this research will also benefit the society we are living in. This is because the
society today are using social networking daily and still does not have a rough idea what are the
effects towards them . With this research, it will definitely allow them to further understand and
also embrace the changes that are inevitable. With greater knowledge this phenomenon will be
used in a way that will eventually bring the society to another new level.
 Brief Literature Review

Based on Lenhart, A.2007, a social networking site is an online location where a user can create

a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.

In this literature review, four main ideas will be discussed pertaining social networking sites and

its effect towards student’s education.

First and foremost is internet literacy. The meaning of literacy is continually changing

over time, between cultures and depending on the technological context in which it occurs (Leu,

Kinzer, Coiro and Cammack, 2004). Livingstone, S.; Bober, M. and Helsper, E. (2005) has

defined internet literacy based on the Communications Act 2003 following “media literacy” as

“the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of forms. As the access

of internet increases, youth turn first to internet for information. Being internet literate is a good

thing. Nonetheless, it is being misused when it comes to social networking. Instead of using the

internet for education, youths tend to divert to social networking sites since it’s just a click away.

The second idea to be discussed is gender. Based on our findings, we have found gender
to have a significant effect to the usage of social networking sites. According to Boyd,

Danah.(2007), “gender appears to influence participation on social networking sites”. It also

mentions that “Younger boys are more likely to participate than younger girls (46% vs. 44%) but

older girls are far more likely to participate than older boys (70% vs. 57%). Also mentioned was

“Older boys are twice as likely to use the sites to flirt and slightly more likely to use the sites to

meet new people than girls of their age”. This alone proves that different gender uses social

networking sites in different ways. While they polish their social skills online, their actual soft

skills are deteriorating.

The third idea is social skills. When people get along well with others, it means they have

good social skills. People develop social skills as they relate to each other, learn about

themselves and consider other people’s feelings. Having good social skills is important for

everyone. To be part of any group, it is necessary to have social skills. After social networking

sites, instead of it improving the social skills of youth, it seems to have made it worse. Students

are more hooked on to their pc’s playing online social networking site games or pretending to be

someone that they are not; online. When it comes to the real world, they do not know how to

interact.
 PROPOSED RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Social Newtorking

Education
Internet Literacy

Social Status

Social Skills

Independent Variables

Moderating Variables

Gender

Dependent Variables
 RESEARCH METHODS

This research will be conducted among students in the Faculty of Management (FOM) in
Multimedia University Cyberjaya Campus, during the 1st semester on 2011. Currently FOM has
a population of 5,631 students. The survey was administered as a paper version to students in this
faculty. A total of 50 questionnaires will be sent out to the students in FOM.