Friday, March 29, 2024

SU students are not addicted to Facebook – research

By Susanah Jane L. Lapa

THERE IS A low rate of addiction to Facebook among Silliman University students, a study by an Information Technology professor revealed.
Former dean of the SU College of Computer Studies, Dr. Dave Marcial in his paper entitled “Are you a Facebook Addict? Measuring
Facebook Addiction in Philippine University” showed that only 3 in every 71 students are addicted to Facebook.
“What is interesting is that in terms of frequency, the number one reason they use Facebook is to connect with their family and
friends,” said Marcial. “For me, the implication of that is they use Facebook in a positive way.”
Marcial was motivated to conduct the research after reading studies indicating the growing addiction to Facebook on a global scale.
According to him, the Philippines is ranked 8th in the top 10 Facebook users penetration rate among the Asian countries in 2012.
“There are many literatures telling us that Facebook users have been identified as one of the distractions inside the class among
the students. There are many studies related to that,” he explained.
The study adopted the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale with over 355 respondents—all of whom were enrolled in the Computer
Fundamentals class in the second semester of School Year 2012-2013.
The findings were presented at the 3rd International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation held last month in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
Marcial explored the motivations of his respondents for using Facebook. He provided five options. Ranked first was “to keep in touch with family and friends,” followed by “to be updated on news, current events and interesting happenings in the world.” The least among the motivators was “to play online games.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles