ADOLESCENTS SOCIAL NETWORKING EXPERIENCE ON FACEBOOK

Mohd Zuwairi Mat Saad Email: zuwairi@uum.edu.my School of Multimedia Technology & Communication, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia Noor Izzati Muhamad Nasir Email: noorizzati@uum.edu.my Language Centre, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah

Mohd Hasren Yusuf Email: hasren@uum.edu.my Language Centre, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah

ABSTRACT
With the advancement of todays technology, the interaction between people become more interactive with the birth of social network website like Facebook. This article analyzes the frequency of adolescents accessing Facebook and their perception towards it. A survey was conducted in 2011 on 162 adolescents within the range of age from 18 to 25 years old in Klang Valley. The study found that adolescents in Klang Valley log in to their Facebook account 1-2 times a day and surf for more than two hours to interact with friends and got satisfaction with the unlimited wide network of friends. The adolescents perceived Facebook as giving positive impact on them because they are able to foster closer relationship among friends.

Keywords: adolescents, perception, frequency, social network website, interaction

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INTRODUCTION Purpose of the study

This study aims to look at the frequencies of adolescents in using Facebook. Pattern of the frequency was looked at how frequent they log into their Facebook account, time spent and the number of friends that they have. Apart from that, this study also seeks to look at their overall perception towards Facebook. How and for what they use Facebook determines whether it brings positive or negative perception.

This study uses face to face survey method in quantitave using questionairres distributed to the respondents. This method is accurate in assessing the acceptance of Facebook among adolescents in Klang Valley. According to (Beger, 2000), the survey method is use to get information about certain groups and people representing bigger groups of the people that we are interested with.

Apart from that, survey is also one of the tools in collecting data by asking questions to people. Survey is a way to acquire data in daily lives and is used widely in the social science research (Dorsten & Hotchkiss 2005). 162 respondents living in Klang Valley were involved in this study. Adolescents of the age 18 to 25 years old were chosen to be the respondents. This study also took into account the races and genders of adolescents using and have used Facebook as a medium to interact or for other purposes. Non probability sampling was used for this study.

Since this study involves surveys on the use and satisfaction in using Facebook, purposive sampling method was chosen because is believed to represent the objectives related to the phenomenon being studied. Burn (1995), which describes the process of selecting cases (Silverman 2000) and select the sample so as to provide information in this study (Merriem 1998). Purposive sampling used in this study are a small sample of adolescents who use Facebook only to obtain information related to the objectives of the current study the distribution of the questionnaires.

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RESULT OF STUDY The Frequency of Using Facebook

The highest frequency percentage of adolescents using Facebook is 44% equivalent 72 respondents in 1-2 years. Second highest frequency is in 2-3 year with 28.7% followed by the usage of more than 3 years with 16.7% and usage of less than a year produced the least percentage of 11.1% which equals to 18 respondents.

The major factor that makes teens sign up for Facebook account is because of peer influence of 32.1%. However, this value is seen less significant with the trend factor with 31.5% with the difference of only one respondent. This is followed by curiosity or the need to try something with 29%. Only 7.4% teens sign up for Facebook based on invitations.

Table 1: The frequency of login one day Login (one day) 1-2 times 3-4 times 4-5 times More than six times Total Frequency 47 37 33 45 162 Percentage 29 22.8 20.4 27.8 100%

Looking at table 1, the frequency of adolescents login into their Facebook account for all the four items does not show a very obvious answer. The highest percentage of login in is only 1-2 times a day of 29% with the difference of only two respondents. Login in more than six times take the second highest percentage of 27.8% followed by 3-4 times a day with 22.8% and 4-5 times only 20.4%.

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Table 2: Time spent for every login Time Less than 30 minutes 31-59 minutes 1-2 hour More than two hours Total Frequency 31 29 36 66 162 Percentage 19.1 17.9 22.2 40.7 100%

The longest time adolescents spent when surfing Facebook is more than 2 hours with the frequency of 66 respondents equivalent to 40.7. The least is spending 30-60 minutes with 17.9%. Looking at the table above, 22.2% teens spent 1-2 hours at each session and less than 30% is only 19.1%.

Table 3: Time using Facebook Time 12.01 - 6 am 6.01 am - 12 noon 12.01 noon 6 pm 6.01 pm 12 am Total Frequency 5 21 38 98 162 Percentage 3.1 13 23.5 60.5 100%

The peak time for adolescents in the Klang Valley accessing their Facebook account is at 6.01 pm until 12 am with 60.5%. Even so, this does not mean that they were not accessing their Facebook. From 12.01 pm until 6 pm, 23.5% adolescents accessed their account followed by 6.01 am until 12 pm of 13% and the lowest is 3.1% at 12.01 am until 6 am.

Looking back, the result of study also found that most of the adolescents in Klang Valley spent time surfing their Facebook account at 6.01 pm untul 12 am with 98 respondents is because it is the free time for students and also people working. This study result is also reported by a study done by T.A Pempek et al. (2009) who found out that respondents in his

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study prefer to login into their Facebook account during night time from 9pm until 12 am (93.39%). Table 4: Number of friends on Facebook Friends Less than 100 101 500 501 1000 More than 1000 Total Frequency 19 74 42 27 162 Percentage 11.7 45.7 25.9 16.7 100%

In average, the highest number of friends in the adolescents Facebook account is between 100 to 500 which is 45.7%. Table 4 also showed that the second highest number of friends is 500 to 1000 people which constitute 25.9% followed by having less than 1000 friends and the least number is having less than 100 friends in the account with only 11.7%

A study done by Ellison et al (2007) with Lewis and West (2009) both studies came to a similar result where the number of friends in the users account were about 100 to 200 people. Result on a study done by Sheldon (2008) also came close with this study because the majority of Facebook users in his study had friends of between 200 to 350.

The overall results obtained indicate the frequency in terms of the time spent by adolescents around the Klang Valley in a session more than two hours gave a value of 40.7% with the frequency of 66 respondents. For the login frequency, the highest percentage value is 29% where adolescents log into their Facebook account one to two times a day. Looking at the connection between time and login frequency, the average time spent by teenager to surf Facebook in a day exceed to more than hours. A study, conducted by Ellison et al (2007) reported that undergraduate Facebook users spent about 10 to 30 minutes a day. A study made by Christofides et al (2009) reported that users spend in average about 38.86 minutes on Facebook in a day. There is a difference between the findings of this study with the findings of previous studies.

Looking back at the result of studies conducted by researchers from the western countries, most of the results regarding time spent is insignificant where only one hour and |5|i-COME12

below are spent in a day browsing Facebook. Lempe et al. (2006), the first study conducted found that 70% of Facebook users spent 30 minutes or less on Facebook every day. The second study conducted by the same researcher found that only 69% of users spent 30 minutes or less on Facebook daily. Almost identical results were obtained between Muise et al (2009) and Christofides et al (2009) where they found that Facebook users spend about 38.93 minutes each day.

Perhaps one reason is obvious in the results of these studies done by researchers in Western countries, because, Facebook can be considered as one of the new social network is received by users in Malaysia that popular around the year 2009 in which Facebook is also a major social networks in Malaysia with more than 5.1 million users and 5.7 visitors per month and Facebook has taken over the position that was once dominated Friendster, online social networking scenario in Malaysia and South East Asia (Siti Ezaleila Mustafa Azizah Hamzah and 2010).

Sheldon (2008a) in his study found the average user spends 47 minutes a day. In contrast to the study conducted by Ross et al. (2009) most of the time users spend between 10 to nearly an hour of 60 minutes a day on Facebook. In this study, respondents are adolescents who live in the Klang Valley who have different demographic backgrounds for each respondent as the level of education and employment. In contrast to most studies done by researchers like Christofides et al (2009), Lempe et al. (2006), Ellison et al (2007) and several other researchers make the university students as respondents in their study.

Table 5: The mean distribution of the Facebook page used

Types Min Standard Deviation Profile Search Engine Commercial 3.54 2.55 1.86 1.064 0.991 1.021

Table 5 shows the distribution of mean of Facebook page used by adolescents. Facebook has several features that can be used by users in browsing Facebook between like status, newsfeeds, blogs, photo sharing, and so on. Based on the mean, adolescents often use the profile with a mean of 3.54 (SD = 1,064), followed by its search engine at the intermediate |6|i-COME12

level with the mean value of 2.55 (SD = 0,991) and the medium used by adolescents is a feature ad on Facebook the mean of 1.86 (SD = 1,021).

Facebook has its own characteristics, such as photos, videos, private messaging, instant messaging and so on that can be appealing to users. The results of this study are also supported by the research conducted by the TA Pampek et al. (2009) where respondents in the study often see or read the friend profile of the percentage value of 69.57%. While for the function, wall post (41.4%) is the main function of which will be used by adolescents when logged into a Facebook account.

Table 6: Distribution of the mean value of adolescents' perceptions

Adolescents' perceptions Mean value Standard deviation Get closer with friends Wasting time 3.83 3.23 0.916 1.122 1.184

Cause I'm not actively socialize in 2.70 person

Based on Table 6, the perception of youth agree that Facebook get them closer with friends with a mean of 3.83 (SD = 0,916). The mean value of 23.3 (SD = 1122), adolescents' perceptions are not sure that using Facebook a waste of time. The lowest mean value of 2.70 (SD = 1184), disagreed Facebook makes them less active socializing in person.

Table 7: Overall percentage of adolescents' perceptions

Impact Positive Negative Total Frequency 110 52 162 Percentage 67.9 32.1 100%

Table 7 shows the overall percentage of youth opinion on Facebook. Highest percentage of teens say that Facebook had a positive effect with the percentage of 67.9% and 32.1% say that Facebook provides a negative effect on them.

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Table 8: The percentage of teenagers reason for the overall perception

Reason Wasting time Getting closer Make things done easily Sharing information Adding more friends Saving time and money Discussion Cyber crime Inactive interaction Total Frequency 43 54 24 17 11 1 2 2 7 162 Percentage 27.2 33.3 14.8 10.5 6.8 0.6 1.2 1.2 4.3 100%

In Table 8 finds that Facebook had a positive effect because 33.3% of teens say that Facebook could strengthen the relationship between friends and the significant percentage of teens not to say that Facebook has the negative effect caused much wasted adolescence of 27.2%.

Based on the research, teens must say that Facebook has become the medium of them getting with their friends and they do not agree with the statement makes them less active in socializing with others. Results of this study were supported by the research conducted by Bosch (2009) where the results of consumer research revealed that the main purpose of using Facebook is to maintain friendships with their offline friends. Overall, the teen said that Facebook made a positive impact (67.9%) as a medium to strengthen the relationship between friends. The results of this study are also supported by a study by Michael-Lee Johnstone et al. (2009) focused on the use of Facebook in the context of a tool of social relations. Facebook is used as a communicator between each other directly when a user of Facebook to interact with other Facebook users or be indirect interaction when the owner of Facebook tracking their friends.

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Conclusion
This study was conducted to identify the two main objectives: first, about the frequency of adolescents in surfing Facebook and theirs' perceptions of Facebook. For frequency of use, the overall adolescents use Facebook more than four hours a day. Frequency in terms of time spent on this was based on log frequency and time spent on each session. Detailed adolescents log into Facebook accounts from one to two times a day and time spent on each of the more than two-hour session. The summary of the frequency, adolescents in the Klang Valley are using Facebook more than four hours a day. This showed in the Klang Valley as they are heavy users that have a high level of addiction. Results also showed that the log into Facebook accounts spent by teens for four hours at the appropriate time in the hour of 6:01 pm to 12 pm.

Overall, adolescents felt that Facebook had a positive effect as to strengthen the bond of friendship and also to increase the relationship with their friends through online interaction that makes Facebook as a medium of communication in a way to establish a relationship or more in any one time. The results of this study can disprove the claims that Facebook specifying the negative impact on adolescents while surfing Facebook. But, it turned to the purpose of the use, if the aim directed towards the negative effect on teens also turned negative. On the whole it depends on the use and satisfaction of adolescents themselves.

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