Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction

One of the essential aspects of a research study is the review of the related
literature. Best (1983) said “The search for related literature is one of the first steps in
the research process. It is a valuable guide for defining the problem, recognizing its
significance, suggesting data gathering devices, appropriate study design and source
of data.” It shares with the reader the results of other studies that are closely related to
the study being reported (Fraenkel & Wallen, 1990).

Review of related literature, allows the researcher to acquaint himself/ herself

with current knowledge in the field or area in which he is going to conduct his
research. A summary of the writings of recognized authorities and of previous
research provides evidence that the researcher in familiar with what is already known
and what is still unknown and untested. Since effective research is based upon past
knowledge, this step helps to eliminate the duplication of what has been done, and
provides useful hypotheses and helpful suggestions for significant investigation.

The review of related literature gives the researcher an understanding of the

research methodology that refers to the way the study is to be conducted. It helps the
researcher to know about the tools, which proved to be useful and promising in the
previous studies. The advantage of the related literature is also to provide in sight in to
the statistical methods through which validity of results is to be established. Hence the
investigator has tried to collect relevant information from literature related to the present
study.

2.2 Studies Reviewed

In the present study, the investigator reviewed a number of studies undertaken

both in India and Abroad, which are related to Attitude towards Internet Chatting and
its Usage among College Students. The studies related to the present study have been
presented in the following headings.

1. Studies Related to Internet Chatting and other Social networking - Abroad.

2. Studies Related to Internet Chatting and other Social networking - India.
3. Other related Studies.

39
 Review of literature gives us the relevant material published in the problem
area under study. The researcher went through the books, journals, dissertations,
theses, research abstracts and educational websites to know more about research done
in this area. The studies conducted during the last few decades in the field of Attitude
and Usage towards Internet Chatting that are more relevant and pertinent to the
present investigation are discussed in this chapter.

2.2.1 Studies Related to Internet Chatting and Other Social Networking -

Abroad

Bsharah, Gasaymeh and Abdelrahman (2014) aimed to investigate Jordanian

university students‟ use of Facebook and their perceptions of their social intelligence
as well as the relationship between students‟ use of Facebook and a self reported
measure of their social intelligence. 282 students from different colleges in a
Jordanian public university were the participants. For the purpose of the study, the
researchers used cross-sectional survey design in which a questionnaire was
administrated and collected in-class by number of faculty members, who agreed to
have their classes participating in this study. The questionnaire aimed to collect data
regarding students‟ use of Facebook as well as the perceptions of their social
intelligence. The analysis of the collected data showed that the majority of the
students were active Facebook users. Participants‟ perceptions of their level of social
intelligence were positive and at moderate level. This study disagreed with the
common negative reputation, in Arab World, of the effect of Facebook on students‟
social life. Also the study showed that the use of Facebook might benefit students‟
social competencies and intelligence, through providing them with electronic platform
that they can use to freely express themselves.

Iorliam and Ode (2014) aimed at investigating the impact of Social Network
Usage on University Students Academic Performance using Benue State University
Makurdi, Nigeria as a case study. The study adopted a survey design. Using simple
random sampling technique a sample consisted of 1596 students were selected for the
study. The study focused on three key impact areas: the time spent on social media,
the frequency of visiting social media and the relationship between the volume of
social friends and a student‟s academic performance. Correlation and regression
analyses were used to determine and measure the extent to which the three variables
were related to students‟ CGPA. The study adopted a paper-based close-ended

40
questionnaire and was restricted to undergraduate students in three majors. It is found
that majority of them (95%) were active users of 3 or more social sites. 25.2% of the
respondents indicated they spent less than one hour per day, 16.2% of them indicated
they spent between one to two hours per day using social media and 47% of the
respondents revealed that they were always active. The study found that the time
spent on social media, the frequency of visit and the total number of online friends has
a statistically significant relationship with a student‟s academic performance.

Khan (2013) explored the impact of social networking websites on students. A

research questionnaire was designed to determine the factors of social networking
websites that have impact on students. Variables identified are age, gender, education,
social influence and academic performance. 168 respondents that were only students
were randomly selected. The data were statistically analyzed using descriptive
statistics, correlation, regression, chi square etc. The study concluded that students
whose age range from 15 to 25 mostly use social networking websites for
entertainment. 60% of male students commonly used social networking websites for
knowledge. Graduation students generally prefer social networking websites for
entertainment. From this research study it was also found that people can use social
networking websites due to social influence. This study determines that most of
students use social networking websites due to their friends and its total average is
67.3% of total sample. Students having 3.0 to 3.5 GPA (Grade Point Average) mostly
use social networking websites for entertainment.

Lipinski-Harten and Tafarodi (2013) compared the degree of attitude

moderation produced by online chat with that produced through face-to-face dialogue.
Participants were 142 undergraduate students (86 women and 56 men) at the
University of Toronto. Participants were recruited by phone on account of their
responses to a set of mass testing questions administered at the start of the academic
term. Members of pairs were unfamiliar to each other prior to the study. Each pair
was randomly assigned to either a face-to-face (FTF) or online chat (OC) condition.
FTF conversations were digitally recorded and transcribed for analysis. OC
conversations were automatically logged and downloaded. The data collected were
statistically analyzed by mean, SD, F-test, Pearson correlation and chi-square test.
Face-to-face conversation and online chat were compared on their tendency to
moderate attitudes through exposure to an opposing perspective. As predicted on the

41
basis of the greater self-focus and reduced presence of the other in text-based chat,
strangers who chatted online for 20 min about a divisive social issue on which they
held opposing attitudes showed less movement toward their partner‟s position as a
result than did those who spoke face-to-face for the same length of time.

Buhler, Neustaedter and Hillman (2013) investigated on how and why

teenagers use video chat. Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to
communicate with others, however, little research has been conducted to explore how
and why they use the technology. The sample of twenty teenage participants (10 male
and 10 female) recruited through snowball sampling, word-of-mouth, and by posting
ads on sites such as Face book and Craigslist and conducted an interview study with
them. The participants used multiple video chat systems where the most common was
Skype (18/20) followed by Face Time (10/20), Tiny chat (3/20), MSN Messenger
(3/20), and Google Hangouts (1/20). The results show that video chat plays an
important role in helping teenagers socialize with their friends after school and on
weekends where it allows them to see emotional reactions and participate in activities
like shared homework sessions, show and tell, and performances over distance. Yet
video chat is also used to engage in more private activities such as gossiping, flirting,
and even the viewing of sexual acts. This presents an interesting design challenge of
supporting teen use of video chat while mitigating privacy and parental concerns.

Sponcil and Gitimu (2013) examined social media use among college students
and how it affects communication with others, and college students' self-concept. A
convenient and stratified sampling method was used to acquire the participants
consisted of 96 undergraduate college students attending a mid western university in
the US. In this study, students completed a questionnaire which assessed personal use
of social media, communication skills with friends and family, and effects on self-
concept. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to conduct the analysis.
Results indicated that all of the sampled college students were using at least one form
of social networking website. There was a .586 Pearson correlation between usage of
social media and communication with family and friends. There was a .658 Pearson
correlation between usage social media and self-concept. These findings provide
implications for future research on why these social networking sites have gained
popularity.

42
 VanDoorn and Eklund (2013) explored the issue of student perceptions of the
use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) by assessing the perceived social-
interactional and learning benefits of Facebook chat. Although Facebook has several
functions- among others, wall posts and news updates-the synchronous text-based
CMC was of particular interest in this study. Twenty students volunteered to
participate in the study. At the end of the semester, students who had used Facebook
to communicate with the lecturer were provided with a questionnaire. The data from
the questionnaires was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative measures.
Students who made contact with the lecturer via Facebook, all selected “chat” as
particularly useful. To this end then, CMC was perceived favourably by distance and
day students as actively scaffolding their learning. The synchronous communication
provided distinct benefits, including overcoming or neutralising distance.
Synchronised communication-social-media chat-was generally perceived positively
by students. A quickly answered question allowed students to spend more time
completing their assignment. Further, they formulated questions and answers in
writing. The immediacy of the response and the irrelevance of distance, along with
anonymity, all helped the students in completing the unit.

Pornsakulvanich and Dumrongsiri (2013) investigated internal and external

factors influencing the use of social networking sites (SNSs) in Thailand. Overall (N
= 451) participated in this study. Survey research was employed to examine the
interrelationships and differences among a set of variables. The purposive sampling
was used for the selection of the sample. Participants were asked to complete a self-
administered questionnaire which was consisted of four main sections: SNS motives,
external influences, SNS use, and demographics. Factor analysis was performed to
identify and confirm the SNS motive factors. A descriptive analysis, t-test, F-test and
multiple regression analysis were used for the statistical analysis. The results showed
that both internal and external factors affecting the use of SNSs and SNS motivation.
External factors, particularly media and significant others were more influential than
internal factors to predicting time spent on SNSs. People who were influenced by
media and significant others would be more likely to spend more time using SNSs and
Facebook. SNS motivation led to different SNS use. In particular, those who were
motivated to use SNS for relaxation would spend more time using Facebook. In
addition, the findings indicated that females would spend more time using YouTube,

43
Twitter, and Hi5 than males. Moreover, females tended more to use SNSs to maintain
their friendship than did males.

Sinn and Syn (2013) studied personal documentation on a social network site:
facebook. Using an online survey, this study investigates how facebook content
presents users themselves and their everyday stories, whether they perceive their
activities of using facebook as personal documentation, and what factors influence
such activities. The final sample size was 503. The data were analyzed using mean,
SD, factor analysis, correlation and regression analysis. The findings of this study
show the current status of facebook usage. Facebook content indeed indicates
information of self-presentation and personal documentation of everyday lives of
users. Attitudes about and activeness on facebook are the major factors that influence
self-presentation and personal documentation activities on facebook. Generic external
factors, such as personal archiving in general, do not show strong associations with
personal documentation activities as factors. Based on this understanding, researchers
discuss the roles of information professionals and cultural heritage institutions in
dealing with a new type of personal record on the Web.

Zanamwe, Rupere and Kufandirimbwa (2013) explored social networking

technologies being used in higher education, their uses, extent of use, benefits and
skills learners acquire from use of these technologies. The study followed a
descriptive research design wherein a questionnaire was used as the main research
tool. Data was gathered from 124 university students from five institutions of higher
learning in Zimbabwe. The collected data was analysed using SPSS. It is found that
most of the students (64.8%) access internet from computer labs on campus and a
bigger percentage (96.8) of the respondents have a social networking profile. 38
percent of the learners use social networking sites for education and 31% for social
activities. It was found out that 76.6 percent of the respondents indicated that social
networking sites should be used in higher education. 54.8 percent of the respondents
use social networking sites in carrying out group projects or assignments. 87.9 percent
of the respondents were against the banning of social networking sites in universities.
Furthermore, it also emerged out that learners used social networking technologies for
academic purposes and more specifically to conduct group work. It was also
established that social networking technologies improved learners‟ technology

44
proficiency, enhanced learners‟ social skills and help learners to communicate in new
ways with new people.

Akbari, Eghtesad and Simons (2012) studied the expectation of social

networks in learning languages, as well as on their perceived usefulness. Twenty
Iranian Ph. D students were enrolled in an online English course via Facebook.
Through a study composed of a set of questionnaires, they investigated students‟
attitudes towards using social networks in learning languages. The data were analyzed
by descriptive statistics and t-tests. The results indicated that there is a significant
difference between participants' attitudes before and after the course. In the pre-course
questionnaire, the majority of participants considered Facebook to be generally useful
because through these networks, they can communicate and share knowledge. After
the online course, however, most students stated that, Facebook has high potentials
for being used as effective formal educational tools. Furthermore, the post –course
questionnaires revealed that students‟ positive attitudes towards the usefulness of
social networks increased. In fact, by the end of the course, all participants agreed that
using these networks for language learning can be effective and yield satisfactory
linguistic outcomes. This study confirmed that every participant considered social
networks to be highly effective and potential educational tools, especially for
improving linguistic knowledge and performance in various online contexts and
activities.

Saw, Abbott, Donaghey, and McDonald (2012) studied social media for
international students: it's not all about facebook. In 2010 there were 335 273
international students enrolled in higher education in Australia. To support these
students during their study, libraries need to find ways to communicate and engage
with them. The international students‟ preferred methods for learning about library
services was through library web pages and personal contact with library staff. In
order to investigate international students‟ social media preferences, librarians at
Bond decided to survey the current student body to ask them about their social
networking choices and usage. The survey was advertised via a global student email,
the Library website, the Library and Computing Facebook page, and the digital
signage on campus. The survey remained open for three weeks and 575 completed
responses were gathered. The data collected was exported and analyzed using
Microsoft Excel 2010. Data collection and analysis was divided into three sections:

45
Demographics, Social networking usage and Education usage of social networking. It
is found that the gender balance of respondents was heavily weighted towards
females, at 68%. Seventy-six per cent of the survey respondents indicated they were
under 25 years of age. Sixty-nine per cent of the respondents were domestic students
while 31% were international. Facebook was the most popular social network
platform for both domestic and international students. The majority of respondents
from all countries are using Facebook several times a day. Also the survey revealed
that over 60% of the respondents use Facebook for sharing information and over 50%
for finding out information. And 91% of the respondents use Facebook for
educational purposes.

Eren (2012) investigated students‟ attitudes towards use of social networking

sites, Facebook in particular, in language classroom. Social media has a great effect
on people‟s lives and millions of students are spending many hours for social
networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, You tube. Although millions of students are
using these Web 2.0 tools worldwide, there hasn‟t been much research regarding the
educational use of social networking. Considering the probable potential of these
websites for educational use, this study was carried out at a university in Gaziantep,
Turkey with 48 undergraduate students who were enrolled in one year compulsory
English preparatory class. The research design included a 5 point Likert-type
questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that Facebook can
be very useful as an educational tool. It was found out that students have a very
positive attitude towards the use of Facebook activity as a supplement to language
classroom, but traditional classroom based language learning still remains a backbone
for language education.

Veletsianos and Navarrete (2012) studied online social networks as a formal

learning environments: learner experiences and activities. While the potential of
social networking sites to contribute to educational endeavors is highlighted by
researchers and practitioners alike, empirical evidence on the use of such sites for
formal online learning is scant. To fill this gap in the literature, researchers present a
case study of learners‟ perspectives and experiences in an online course taught using
the Elgg online social network. Findings from this study indicate that learners enjoyed
and appreciated both the social learning experience afforded by the online social
network and supported one another in their learning, enhancing their own and other

46
students‟ experiences. Conversely, results also indicate that students limited their
participation to course-related and graded activities, exhibiting little use of social
networking and sharing. Additionally, learners needed support in managing the
expanded amount of information available to them and devised strategies and
“workarounds” to manage their time and participation.

Pimmer, Linxen and Gröhbiel (2012) investigated how students and

professionals use social network sites (SNSs) in the setting of developing and
emerging countries. Data collection included focus groups (N= 43) consisting of
medical students and faculty as well as the analysis of a Facebook site centred on
medical and clinical topics. The findings show how users, both students and
professionals, appropriate SNSs from their mobile phones as rich educational tools in
informal learning contexts. The analysis of the interviews showed that, apart from a
few exceptions, nearly all of the interviewed students used Facebook on a daily basis.
The analysis revealed explicit forms of educational content embedded in informal
learning contexts in Facebook. Quizzes, case presentations and associated deliberate
e-learning practices which are typically found in (more) formal educational settings
were identified. From a socio-cultural learning perspective, it is shown how the
participation in such virtual professional communities across national boundaries
permits the announcement and negotiation of occupational status and professional
identities.

Coe, Weijs, Muise, Christofides and Desmarais (2012) studied on

understanding veterinary students‟ use of and attitudes toward the social networking
site, facebook, to assist in developing curricula to address online professionalism.
Social media is an increasingly common form of communication, with Facebook
being the preferred social-networking site among post-secondary students. Students
were invited to complete an online survey with questions relating to their knowledge
of privacy in relation to using Facebook, their views on the acceptability of posting
certain types of information, and their level of professional accountability online.
Linear regression modeling was used to further examine factors related to veterinary
students‟ disclosure of personal information on Facebook. Need for popularity (p<
.01) and awareness of consequences (p< .001) were found to be positively and
negatively associated, respectively, with students‟ personal disclosure of information
on Facebook. Understanding veterinary students‟ use of and attitudes toward social

47
media, such as Facebook, reveals a need, and provides a basis, for developing
educational programs to address online professionalism. Educators and administrators
at veterinary schools may use this information to assist in developing veterinary
curricula that addresses the escalating issue of online professionalism.
Boswell (2012) studied Academic entitlement attitudes and their relationships
with course self-efficacy, social networking, and demographic variables. This study
investigated differences in university students‟ academic entitlement (AE) by
demographic group (sex, college class, college generational status) as well as AE‟s
relationship with self-efficacy for college coursework and social networking. It also
investigated predictors of AE in first-generation (FG) students and continuing-
generation (CG) students. Participants were 313 undergraduates at a south central
U.S. university. Participants completed a questionnaire to gather information about
demographic variables and AE was measured using the academic entitlement scale.
Also the participants rated their degree of daily social network use using a 7-point,
Likert-type scale. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and bivariate correlations
between AE and study variable. Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate
the viability of course self-efficacy, social network use, sex, and college
classification. Males reported significantly greater AE than females. No differences in
AE were found by college class or generational status. AE was significantly
correlated with college course self-efficacy and social network use. College course
self-efficacy, sex, and social network use predicted AE in CG students; however, in
FG students, AE was predicted by college course self-efficacy alone.

Lim and Meier (2011) studied International students‟ use of social network
services in the new culture: a case study with Korean youths in the United States. In
the United States, international students, especially from Asia, have reportedly
experienced difficulty adjusting to their new life and culture. Little research has been
done to understand the role of social network service (SNS)s, including instant
messaging, blogs, chatting websites, and email on these students. Korean students are
the largest international student group in the United States and were selected for the
qualitative case study. For the data collection, the participants were interviewed
individually. Results showed that the participants used SNSs in various ways for
their emotional well-being and for academic purposes. Internet messaging was
preferred to other communication tools by most of the participants.

48
 Lampe, Wohn, Vitak, Ellison and Wash (2011) examined how undergraduate
students use the social network site Facebook to engage in classroom-related
collaborative activities (e.g., arranging study groups, learning about course processes)
to show how Facebook may be used as an informal tool that students use to organize
their classroom experiences, and explore the factors that predict type of use. Data
from two surveys (N=302, N=214) are used to analyze how Facebook use, social and
psychological factors, self-efficacy, and types of instruct or student communication on
Facebook are related to positive and negative collaboration among students. The data
were analyzed using the statistical techniques mean, SD, factor analysis and
regression analysis. They found that predictors of Facebook use for class organizing
behaviors include self-efficacy and perceived motivation to communicate with others
using the site. When placed in the context of social and psychological factors,
Facebook intensity did not predict either positive or negative collaboration,
suggesting that how students used the site, rather than how often they used the tool or
how important they felt it was, affected their propensity to collaborate.

Cinta, Juan, Mar and Mercè (2011) investigated university students‟ attitudes
towards and expectations of the educational use of social networks. In the last few
years, social networks have revolutionized the way in which many people relate to
each other, but their use is still very limited in the academic field. When they are
used, the experiences tend to be very isolated and lacking in continuity. In this
context, and by means of a questionnaire, the objective is to bring an element of
reflection on students‟ attitudes towards the use of social networks in general, and
their use and potential in an educational context in particular. The aim is to compel
students to think about these attitudes as a vital first step in getting them to accept and
realize the educational potential of social networks. The tool used for the research
project was a self-administered questionnaire, given to a sample of 115 respondents.
For significance testing, the ANOVA test and for relationships between various
values, the Pearson correlation coefficient were used. The study revealed that students
had positive attitudes as users of social networks. The values for awareness and use of
some of them were particularly high, indicating that there is an obvious absence of
any particular mistrust that would stop the students from using them. However for the
students, there was an obvious absence of any negative attitude towards the
educational use of social networks. It is also true to say that the students did not show

49
themselves to be particularly enthusiastic about the educational use of social
networks, and that is directly connected with the fact that they had never used them in
an academic context.

Rouis, Limayem and Salehi-Sangari(2011) studied the impact of facebook

usage on students‟ academic achievement: roles of self-regulation and trust. They
analysed the effects of Facebook usage by undergraduate students at Lulea University
of Technology in Sweden. The proposed research model tests the perceived effect of
personality traits, self regulation, and trust on students‟ achievements. Data from
paper and pencil surveys with 239 undergraduate students from Lulea University of
Technology were used to test the model. Smart PLS software was employed to test
the proposed structural equation model. The results indicate that extensive use of
Facebook by students with extraverted personalities leads to poor academic
performance. However, students who are more self regulated control their presence on
these platforms more effectively. Trust in people does not influence their presence
and interaction on the platform. Students‟ cognitive absorption with Facebook is
regulated only by their self control and personality traits, which determine how much
time they spend on Facebook. Multitasking skills moderate the effect of cognitive
absorption on academic achievement, but they do not impede the time spent,
frequency, or nature of use or their effect on academic results. Although students‟
satisfaction with life significantly declines due to cognitive immersion with Facebook,
it does not play a role for students‟ academic achievement. However, their
performance goal orientation is a crucial determinant of university accomplishments,
which would limit the critical effect of their presence on the Facebook platform. The
results partly support prior conclusions about the personality traits that determine
presence on Facebook. Trust does not impede Facebook usage but determines use of
the Internet. Self regulation and performance goal orientations characterize students
who are more in control of their social activity, which in turn limits the apparent
negative effect ontheir academic performance. These results should help students
understand the consequences of their extensive usage of Facebook and better manage
their social activities on this platform.

Veletsianos (2011) studied on higher education scholars' participation and

practices on Twitter. Scholars participate in online social networks for professional
purposes. In such networks, learning takes the form of participation and identity

50
formation through engagement in and contribution to networked practices. While
current literature describes the possible benefits of online participation, empirical
research on scholars' use of online social networks in the educational technology
literature is negligible. The purpose of this study is to understand scholars' naturalistic
practices in social networks in general, and on Twitter in particular. Tweets from 45
scholars were analysed qualitatively to arrive at dominant themes describing online
social network practice. Findings indicate that scholars participating on Twitter (1)
shared information, resources, and media relating to their professional practice; (2)
shared information about their classroom and their students; (3) requested assistance
from and offered suggestions to others; (4) engaged in social commentary; (5)
engaged in digital identity and impression management; (6) sought to network and
make connections with others; and (7) highlighted their participation in online
networks other than Twitter. These findings assist the field in understanding the
emerging practice of scholarly participation in online networks.

Poellhuber and Anderson (2011) undertook a study on distance students‟

readiness for social media and collaboration. To investigate these issues, an online
questionnaire was distributed to students from four large Canadian distance education
institutions. A systematic sampling procedure led to 3,462 completed questionnaires.
Descriptive statistics, Two-way MANOVA and ANOVA tests were used to analyze
the data. The results show that students have diverse views and experiences, but they
also show strong and significant age and gender differences in a variety of measures,
as well as an important institution effect on the student‟s interest in collaboration.
Males and younger students scored higher on almost all indicators (past teamwork
experience, cooperative preferences, attitudes toward technology, experience with
social software, etc.). These age and gender differences should be interpreted
cautiously, however, as they are based on self-reported measures. The limits of the
study, as well as future developments and research questions, are outlined.

Hanson, West, Neiger, Thackeray, Barnes, and McIntyre (2011) explored

social media use and factors that determine acceptance of social media use among
health educators. A random sample of Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES)
(N = 503) completed an online survey consisting of items related to the Unified
Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Chi-square statistics were
computed to test differences between personal and organizational related use of social

51
media. Regression analyses were utilized to test the association between intentions to
use social media and performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence
while controlling for age and work experience. Findings revealed that health
educators most commonly used social networking sites and media sharing sites within
their organizations. Social influence and performance expectancy were both positively
associated with increased behavioral intentions to use social media for health
promotion. Reasons for lack of use included employers monitoring or blocking social
media, difficulty of use among older health educators, and the belief that social media
would not enhance job performance. Many health educators are using social media
and intentions to use in practice are associated with social influence and performance
expectancy.

Newman, Laulerbach, Munson, Resnick and Morris (2011) studied the topic
“It's not that I don't have problems, I'm just not putting them on facebook”: challenges
and opportunities in using online social networks for health. To understand why and
how people share health information online, they interviewed fourteen people with
significant health concerns who participate in both online health communities and
Facebook. Qualitative analysis of these interviews highlighted the ways that people
think about with whom and how to share different types of information as they pursue
social goals related to their personal health, including emotional support, motivation,
accountability, and advice. The study suggests that success in these goals depends on
how well they develop their social networks and how effectively they communicate
within those networks. Effective communication is made more challenging by the
need to strike a balance between sharing information related to specific needs and the
desire to manage self-presentation.

Zhang (2011) explored college students' use of social networking sites for
health and wellness information and their perceptions of this use. Thirty-eight college
students were interviewed. The interview transcripts were analyzed using the
qualitative content analysis method. Those who had experience using social
networking sites for health information used the platform mainly to check health
updates of a loved one, find lifestyle information and ask about treatments for mild
conditions. Overall, participants were sceptical about the quality of information,
concerned about the lack of medical knowledge of their friends or peers and wary
about possible social risks and invasion of privacy. Based on the results, a model of

52
users' acceptance of social networking sites for health and wellness information was
proposed and implications for designing social platforms to better support health
inquiries were discussed. Using social networking sites for health and wellness
information is not a popular behaviour among college students in this study and social
networking sites seem not to be a well-perceived platform for health and wellness
information.

Ames, Janet Go, Kaye and Spasojevic (2010) explored the practices around
video chat for a family as a whole. The researchers done the field study of 22
economically and culturally diverse families in the San Francisco Bay Area. They
explored the benefits of video chat for families and the corresponding work that home
users engage in to make a video call run smoothly. Also they explored the varieties of
social work required, including coordination work, presentation work, behavioural
work, and scaffolding work, as well as the technical work necessary. They outlined
the benefits families enjoy for doing this work and discuss the ways in which families
use video chat to reinforce their identity as a family and reinforce their family values,
in effect making – as in creating – love.

Flad (2010) investigated on the influence of social networking participation on

student academic performance across gender lines. Participation with technology for
social purposes has become the mainstream communication method for many people
in the past several years. In particular, adolescents in high school have adopted these
forms of communication as the paramount way to keep in touch with family and
friends. Social Networking websites, such as Facebook and MySpace are the most
popular places for these students to spend their time, and are the primary focus of this
study. A survey was created by the researcher that was composed of 14 questions.
Students were selected randomly from the school database by the researcher and an
eleventh grade school counselor. There were 41 students who chose to participate in
this research study. Of those 41 participants, 54% were female and 46% were male.
The researcher examined the impact of social networking participation among a
sample of high school students to determine how this involvement affects academic
performance, future plans, and overall attitude towards school. The results to the
survey were analyzed using correlations. The study reveals that students with the
highest GPA‟s were female, and the students with the lowest GPA‟s were male. The
vast majority (88%) also reported to wanting to go to college after graduation. A

53
higher percentage of female students were also enrolled in Honors and AP classes
than males. All students who completed the survey admitted to having a membership
on one or more social networking websites. The results of the survey also show that
students visit these sites at least once per day. Females were more likely than males to
participate in social networking, but were also more likely to have higher grades and
take more rigorous classes.

Ahn (2010) examined the effects of social network sites on youth social and
academic development. First, the researcher provides a critical analysis of the extant
research literature surrounding social network sites and youth. Researcher merge
scholarly thought in the areas of Internet studies, digital divides, social capital theory,
psychological well-being, identity development, academic engagement, and
educational technology to understand how researchers might examine new social
technologies and youth. Second, the researcher examines the question of digital
divide, or whether particular teenage populations do not have access to online social
networks. Using a nationally representative dataset from the Pew Internet & American
Life study, the researcher explore whether there are disparities in teenage access to
social network sites. Third, researcher report a cluster-randomized trial that was
designed to explore whether social network sites have a beneficial impact when used
in high school classrooms. A total of 50 classrooms, and nearly 1,400 students were
randomly assigned to use an experimental social network site.

Morris, Teevan and Panovich (2010) explored the phenomenon of using social
network status messages to ask questions. The researchers conducted a survey of 624
people, asking them to share the questions they have asked and answered of their
online social networks. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi-square
test and correlation analysis. Researchers present detailed data on the frequency of
this type of question asking, the types of questions asked, and respondents‟
motivations for asking their social networks rather than using more traditional search
tools like Web search engines. The study report on the perceived speed and quality of
the answers received, as well as what motivates people to respond to questions seen in
their friends‟ Status messages. The survey found that many people are turning to
social networking tools for information needs, even though such tools were designed
to facilitate social connectedness and awareness rather than information-seeking. The

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researchers then discuss the implications of our findings for the design of next-
generation search tools.

Chen (2010) conducted a study on uses and gratifications perspective on how

active Twitter use gratifies a need to connect with others. Twitter is an Internet social-
network and micro-blogging platform with both mass and interpersonal
communication features for sharing 140-character messages, called tweets, with other
people, called followers. A 21-question survey was designed using the free online
Survey Gizmo program for use in this study. A total of 437 people submitted on
online questionnaire on Survey Gizmo. However, some responses were eliminated
from analysis because they did not answer most of the independent variable questions.
This resulted in a total sample of 317 people. The data were statistically analyzed
using mean, SD, F-test, correlation and regression. Hierarchical OLS regression of
survey results from 317 Twitter users found that the more months a person is active
on Twitter and the more hours per week the person spends on Twitter, the more the
person gratifies a need for an informal sense of camaraderie, called connection, with
other users. Controlling for demographic variables does not diminish this positive
relationship. Additionally, frequency of tweeting and number of replies, public
messages between Twitter users, mediate the relationship between active Twitter use
and gratifying a need for connection.

Cheung, Pui-Yee Chiu and Lee (2010) explored the factors that drive people
to use online social networks (e.g., Facebook). Also they conceptualize the use of
online social networks as intentional social action and examined the relative impact of
social influence and social presence on We-Intention to use online social networks.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com), an online social networking site, was used in
this study to examine intentional social actions in online social networks. An
invitation message with the URL to the online questionnaire was posted on a number
of online social groups of Facebook. Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to test the
hypotheses. An empirical study of Facebook users (n=182) find that We-Intention to
use online social networks is strongly determined by social presence. These social
networking sites give everyone a place to share their personal stories, in words,
pictures, and videos with their friends. They also connect people with friends and
others who work, study, and live around them. Online social networks not only
provide a place for people who have similar interests to join together and

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communicate, but also provide a lot of business opportunities to the online advertising
and promotion industry.

Haas, Schaefer and Kornienko (2010) investigated the link between

individuals‟ health and the characteristics of their social network positions. The
researchers first developed theoretical predictions for how health may influence the
structure of adolescent networks. Then they tested these predictions using longitudinal
analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The
data collected were statistically analyzed by descriptive statistics and regression
analysis. They found important relationships between the health status of adolescents
and the characteristics of the social network positions within which they are
embedded. Overall researchers found that adolescents in poor health form smaller
local networks and occupy less central global positions than their healthy peers. These
results also have implications for social network research, expanding the scope of
factors responsible for the network positions individuals occupy.

Mahfouz and Ihmeideh (2009) investigated Jordanian university students'

attitudes towards using video and text chat discourse with anonymous native speakers
of English to improve their English proficiency. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire
was designed. The study sample consisted of 320 university students enrolled in two
Jordanian universities. The data were statistically analyzed using mean, t-test and one-
way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results revealed that students' attitudes towards
using video and text chat with English native speakers for improving their English
language skills were higher concerning speaking skills, followed by listening skills,
reading skills and finally writing skills. Furthermore, results indicated that there were
statistically significant differences amongst students, which are attributed to their
gender, the faculty they are enrolled in, the chat messenger mode they use most
frequently and their seniority of study at university.

Baradaran and Khalili (2009) investigated the effectiveness of using chat

rooms as a newly-developed technique on the oral fluency of EFL learners. To fulfill
the purpose of the study, from among 81 junior students of English translation, 52
were selected based on their performances on two proficiency tests and subsequently
divided into two control and experimental groups. The only treatment difference
between the two groups was using chat rooms among the subjects in the experimental
group. After 20 sessions of instruction, the subjects took part in a post test. The

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analysis of the data revealed that the learners who underwent the chat room treatment
significantly outperformed those who did not in terms of oral fluency. Hence, using
chat rooms in the EFL context can be recommended as an efficient technique in
improving this attribute among EFL learners.

Huang, Harboe, Tullio, Novak, Massey, Metcalf and Romano (2009) made a
field study of communication choices and practices in television-based text and voice
chat. Social television applications have emerged as a potentially valuable
convergence of media and communication, but questions remain about the utility and
nature of the communication experiences they will provide. In the study of STV3, the
researchers presented an application that adds free form text and voice chat
capabilities to the conventional television viewing experience. They conducted an in-
depth field study of STV3 to understand how friends integrate communication
through social television into their lives. The results reveal users‟ choices of
communication modality, their topics of conversation, and the sense of connectedness
that was fostered through their use of STV3. The findings indicate that participants
overwhelmingly preferred text chat to voice chat, and that they often communicated
about topics unrelated to the television content.

Pempek, Yermolayeva, and Calvert (2009) studied college students' social

networking experiences on Facebook. Millions of contemporary young adults use
social networking sites. However, little is known about how much, why, and how they
use these sites. In this study, 92 undergraduates completed a diary-like measure each
day for a week, reporting daily time use and responding to an activities checklist to
assess their use of the popular social networking site, Facebook. At the end of the
week, they also completed a follow-up survey. The data were analyzed using
descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicated that students use Facebook
approximately 30 min throughout the day as part of their daily routine. Students
communicated on Facebook using a one-to-many style, in which they were the
creators disseminating content to their friends. Even so, they spent more time
observing content on Facebook than actually posting content. Facebook was used
most often for social interaction, primarily with friends with whom the students had a
pre-established relationship offline. In addition to classic identity markers of
emerging adulthood, such as religion, political ideology, and work, young adults also

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used media preferences to express their identity. Implications of social networking
site use for the development of identity and peer relationships are discussed.

Correa, Hinsley, and Gil de Zuniga (2009) investigated the relationship

between personality traits and social media use. An online survey was conducted
among US adults. It also examined whether gender and age played a role in that
dynamic. The data were analyzed using mean, SD, correlation and multiple
regression. Results revealed that while extraversion and openness to experiences were
positively related to social media use, emotional stability was a negative predictor,
controlling for socio-demographics and life satisfaction. These findings differed by
gender and age. While extraverted men and women were both likely to be more
frequent users of social media tools, only the men with greater degrees of emotional
instability were more regular users. The relationship between extraversion and social
media use was particularly important among the young adult cohort. Conversely,
being open to new experiences emerged as an important personality predictor of
social media use for the more mature segment of the sample.

Chang (2009) studied on the efficacy of interaction among college students in

a web-based environment. For this purpose, three interactive tools - discussion board,
e-mail, and online chat- were evaluated regarding the level of interaction and tool
preference among a diverse group of college students in terms of age, gender, and
online learning experience. A survey instrument was developed and used to assess
and encourage interactive qualities in distance courses. A four-factor split-plot
ANOVA was applied to analyze the data. The survey‟s questions were repeated
across each of the three tools in order to determine interaction efficacy levels in a
Web-based environment. Discussion board, e-mail, and online chat each had
statistically significant interactions with one another across four different factors:
Instructional Design, Instructor Engagement, Learner Engagement, and Tool
Preference. E-mail was the most preferred method of interaction, particularly among
younger students.

Valenzuela, Park, and Kee (2009) examined if Facebook, one of the most
popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes
and behaviours that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random
web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive
relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social

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trust, civic engagement, and political participation. For the analysis of socio-
demographic variables descriptive statistics were used and in order to test whether
there was a relationship between intensity of using Facebook and each social capital
variable, hierarchical multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were used.
While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has
mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations
between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online
social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from
civic duty and democracy.

Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield (2008) analyzed on changes in use and

perception of facebook. Social Network Sites (SNSs) are becoming more popular
across broad segments of Internet users. Facebook, in particular, has very broad
participation amongst college attendees, and has been growing in other populations as
well. They look at how use of Facebook has changed over time, as indicated by three
consecutive years of survey data and interviews with a subset of survey respondents.
The data were analyzed using mean, SD, ANOVA and chi-square test. Users seemed
to indicate through both survey and interview responses that they were typically using
the site to maintain lightweight contact with relationships they had developed offline.
Reported uses of the site remain relatively constant over time, but the perceived
audience for user profiles and attitudes about the site show differences over the study
period. In general, over time, users found Facebook more useful and had embedded it
into their routines to a greater degree.

John and Jennifer (2008) conducted a study to evaluate: (a) why people use
these friend-networking sites, (b) what the characteristics are of the typical college
user, and (c) what uses and gratifications are met by using these sites. One hundred
sixteen students from a 4-year public, East Coast university were recruited to
participate in this study on student Internet usage, with no mention made of friend-
networking sites. Upon arriving to the study, participants were given a two-part
packet to complete. Descriptive statistics, Univariate ANOVA, chi-square and finally
MANOVA were used for analysing the data. Results indicated that the vast majority
of college students are using these friend-networking sites for a significant portion of
their day for reasons such as making new friends and locating old friends.
Additionally, both men and women of traditional college age are equally engaging in

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this form of online communication with this result holding true for nearly all ethnic
groups. Finally, results showed that many uses and gratifications are met by users
(e.g., “keeping in touch with friends”).

Dawson (2008) explored the relationship between a student‟s position in a

classroom social network and their reported level of sense of community. Quantitative
methods, such as Rovai‟s (2002b) Classroom Community Scale and social network
centrality measures, were incorporated to evaluate an individual‟s level of sense of
community and their position within the classroom social network. Qualitative
methods such as discussion forum content analysis and student interviews were
adopted to clarify and further inform this relationship. Statistical analyses
incorporated ordinary least squares regression analyses and basic descriptives. The
results demonstrate that the centrality measures of closeness and degrees are positive
predictors of an individual‟s reported sense of community whereas, betweenness
indicates a negative correlation. Qualitative analyses indicate that an individual‟s pre-
existing external social network influences the type of support and information
exchanges an individual requires and therefore, the degree of sense of community
ultimately experienced.

Bakker, Sloep, and Jochems (2007) studied students and instant messaging: a
survey of current use and demands for higher education. The researchers wanted to
gain insights in how students currently use IM and what opportunities they themselves
see for the medium. To that end they conducted a survey and a sample of 781 students
at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands were answered the
online survey. The questionnaire was based on questions on IM use. To analyse the
data statistically, frequency, percentage and correlation analysis were used. The
survey shows that 96% of all respondents used IM. A large majority of the
participating students indicated using IM for their studies. Also, when asked about
their demands for a possible educational implementation, the majority were positive.

Wood (2007) examined how college students use Instant Messenger (IM).
Specifically, the present study explored if college students use IM to supplement
traditional behaviors associated with academic and social integration. Data were
collected from emailed IM conversations, log sheets submitted by the participants,
and answers to IM survey questions. The results of the analysis of these data were
compared to Gatz‟s (1998) lists of traditional behaviors associated with academic and

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social integration. Results seem to suggest that college students use Instant Messaging
for primarily social purposes. When students engage socially through IM, it is most
often used to connect or stay connected with friends. Interestingly, the majority of the
friends college students are Instant Messaging are fellow students from their home
institution. When students do use IM for academic purposes, it is most often used to
set up project meeting times or ask questions about a class.

Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) examined the relationship between use
of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance
of social capital. In addition to assessing bonding and bridging social capital, we
explore a dimension of social capital that assesses one‟s ability to stay connected with
members of a previously inhabited community, which we call maintained social
capital. Regression analyses conducted on results from an online survey of
undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of
Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to
bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with
measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater
benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Lampe, Ellison and Steinfield (2006) explored whether the students are using
Facebook to find new people in their offline communities or to learn more about
people they initially meet offline. The data collected from a sample of 1085 students
were statistically analyzed using descriptive analysis. The data suggest that users are
largely employing Facebook to learn more about people they meet offline, and are
less likely to use the site to initiate new connections. Respondents indicated they felt
their Facebook profiles represented them accurately and positively. Users may assume
that others are engaging in the same types of behaviours they report in themselves,
namely searching for information about their offline connections.

Shiu-Yun Fu (2006) investigated the differences in culture, attitudes and social

networks between Australian and Taiwanese men and women and identify the factors
that predict midlife men and women‟s quality of life in both countries. A stratified
random sample strategy based on probability proportional sampling (PPS) was
conducted to investigate 278 Australian and 398 Taiwanese midlife men and women‟s
quality of life. Multiple regression modelling and classification and regression trees
(CARTs) were performed to examine the potential differences on culture, attitude,

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social networks, social demographic factors and religion/spirituality in midlife men
and women‟s quality of life in both Australia and Taiwan. The results of this study
suggest that culture involves multiple functions and interacts with attitudes, social
networks and individual factors to influence a person‟s quality of life. Significant
relationships were found between the interaction between cultural circumstances and
a person‟s internal and external factors. The research found that good social support
networks and a healthy optimistic disposition may significantly enhance midlife men
and women‟s quality of life. The study indicated that there is a significant relationship
between culture, attitude, social networks and quality of life in midlife Australian and
Taiwanese men and women. People who had higher levels of horizontal individualism
and collectivism, positive attitudes and better social support had better psychological,
social, physical and environmental health, while it emerged that vertical individualists
with competitive characteristics would experience a lower quality of life.

Rutter (2006) conducted a study on the tutorial chat, a case study of

synchronous communication in a learning environment. This case study describes the
use of a web-based synchronous chat application, run during computing tutorials. The
chat room was moderated by a paid demonstrator, who assisted and encouraged
students whenever possible. Most of the discussion was banter, which acted as a
lubricant for relevant factual communication. Students were permitted a degree of
anonymity, but nevertheless learned to treat the facility in a useful manner. The
application and its mode of employment were found to be both motivating and
supportive. Use was evaluated by questionnaire and an analysis of student input. As a
result of the experience, it is suggested that abuse will certainly occur and may be
minimised by technical improvements, but never eliminated. The Rogerian approach
adopted was found to have transferred emphasis from teaching a topic to the learning
of generic skills. These research aims were met in so far as qualitative evidence was
gathered that indicated some students were benefiting educationally and there was
some evidence for the social skills of the group having developed.

Anolli, Villani, and Riva (2005) investigated on personality of people using

chat: an on-line research. Conflicting claims have been presented in the literature
about on-line management of personal relationships. The current research, carried out
in a substantially descriptive design, aimed to consider psychological and social
features of a particular electronic environment, the Chat room. One hundred fifty-

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eight participants filled out an on-line questionnaire set, designed to investigate the
personality traits and the prevailing interpersonal values of those participants who set
up interpersonal relationships on-line. The Web research showed that, if sampling
control and validity assessment were provided, it could be a valid alternative to a
more traditional paper-based procedure. The results highlighted that Chat users were
not a homogenous group, but were composed of different personality types.

Hu, Wood, Smith and Westbrook (2004) explored the relationship between the
amount of Instant Messenger (IM) use and the level of perceived intimacy between
friends. Participants in the study were 138 college students at a large university in the
northeastern United States. The researchers administered surveys in teams of two to
help maintain consistent count in heavy traffic areas. The survey contained measures
for the amount of IM use (actual use and idle time on the program) and IM use
location. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and Regression analysis were used for
the analysis of data. Cronbach's alpha was used to confirm a strong relationship
between intimacy factors. Results reveal that in the sample of 138 participants, 89%
acknowledged that they use IM. Also the results showed the amount of IM use was
positively associated not only with verbal intimacy, but also with affective and social
intimacy. Findings are consistent with the relationship liberated perspective of
computer-mediated communication, and suggest that IM promotes rather than hinders
intimacy. Moreover, frequent conversation via IM actually encourages the desire to
meet face-to-face. Theoretical as well as practical implications of the results for
geographically remote friends and families are discussed.

Recchiuti (2003) explored college students‟ uses and motives of e-mail,

instant messaging, and online chat rooms, as well as to examine the effect of
psychological, social, and demographic antecedents on college students‟ CMC use.
This study was grounded in the uses and gratifications perspective, which posits that
people use certain communication channels to fulfill needs and motives. The
hypotheses predicted that e-mail would be used more for task related and instrumental
communication whereas instant messaging and online chat rooms would be used more
for social related and ritualized communication. A questionnaire was distributed to
446 college students to measure e-mail, instant messaging, and online chat rooms uses
and motives, as well as, shyness, loneliness, unwillingness to communicate,
interpersonal communication satisfaction, social networks, involvement in student

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activities, and several demographic characteristics. Results indicated that e-mail,
instant messaging, and online chat rooms share five general uses: task-related, social-
related, offline, online, and long distance. Results also indicated that e-mail, instant
messaging, and online chat rooms share some motives, but this study found that there
were unique motives reported for each of the three forms of CMC: convenience for e-
mail, companionship and anonymity for instant messaging, and chat room benefits for
online chat rooms. Finally, this study found that psychological, social, and
demographic antecedents have an effect on college students‟ use of e-mail, instant
messaging, and online chat rooms.

Spencer and Hiltz (2003) studied the use of synchronous chat in online
courses. Data were collected from 29 course sections, for which instructors were
interviewed, students were surveyed online to investigate their perceptions of the use
of chat in online courses, and university records were used to determine grade
distributions. Data were analyzed with the help of statistical techniques, mean,
standard deviation and ANOVA. The percentage of students participating in
scheduled chat sessions varied from 5% to 50% and many of the instructors report
problems with organizing the sessions as well as ideas about how to do it better "next
time." Instructors were nevertheless generally positive about the potential usefulness
of synchronous sessions in terms of their ability to bring the students closer to the
instructor. They report some small success in their first chat session and the
experience leads to better facilitation in subsequent sessions. Students significantly
find chat more „Rewarding‟ and less „Complex‟ in classes that scheduled sessions two
or more times than students in asynchronous- only classes.

Zinkhan, Kwak, Morrison and Peters (2003) studied web-based chatting:

consumer communication in cyberspace. They provided an illustrative description of
various consumer chatting situations, examined the motivations underlying Web-
based chatting, and discussed the ways in which chatters act as "nai've marketers" in
their attempt to attract chatting partners. Two methods, an Internet survey and
acontent analysis of personal advertisements, were employed in order to examine the
five research questions. This sampling procedure resulted in a sample size of 1,348
chatters. Using information gathered through the combined use of an Internet survey
and a content analysis, they explore five research questions: who chats, why
individuals chat, how chatters communicate, what links exist between Web chatting

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and other consumer behaviors, and which factors lead to a successful chatting
experience? The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test chi-square test and
correlational analysis. The findings show that non-English users (LGG) in our sample
were more likely to be in current chatting. The results also indicate that incomplete e-
mail addresses play a role in enhancing active chatting. The findings provide some
insight into how consumers market themselves in cyberspace and the effectiveness of
their "personal advertisements" in attracting other chatters. The results suggest that
individuals actively chatting are more likely to want to talk with a person who was
already known to them (e.g., friends and family members) than with users in a waiting
list. If chatters want to talk with acquainted individuals, their friends or family
members are likely to already know each other's e-mail address. These in-groups may
not want to be interrupted by unknown persons. A related finding is that chatters who
specify the same ethnic group were more likely to chat than were those who did not
specify and ethnic group.

Peris, Gimeno, Pinazo, Ortet, Carrero, Sanchiz and Ibanez (2002) conducted
an exploratory study to get some insight into cyberelations examining
sociodemographic and personality profiles of online chatters. A specific
questionnaire, Online Interpersonal Relationships Questionnaire (Inter.red), was
devised for the purpose of this research. This questionnaire includes both quantitative
and open response qualitative variables. It explores the attributes of face to face
personal and social relationships by asking details about motivations, use habits,
aspects ruling cyber relations and group self-perception. Several chat rooms were
used to collect a sample as varied and numerous as possible. Once data were
collected, descriptive exploratory and differential analysis techniques were applied on
the specified variables of the Inter.red. Data obtained have outlined the socio
demographic and personality profile of internet users who engage in online chats as
well as group self-perception, chatters‟ use habits, motivations to interact online, and
the chatters‟ network of virtual and face-to-face relationships. Results suggest that
relationships developed online are healthy and a complement to face-to-face
relationships. These data are confirmed by personality studies.

Suguri, et al. (2002) examined the pedagogical uses of web based chat. Many
educators around the world are making extensive use of computers and the Internet to
enhance teaching and learning. The three main objectives of this study are to test the

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use of a simple web -based chat tool in collaborative educational projects, to identify
effective strategies for integrating the use of Internet chat into Brazilian Curricula and
to learn what impacts, if any, that Internet chat may have on teaching and learning and
in carrying out interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. Students from the Jacob
K. Neto School of Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state of
Brazil, met in a chat room with students from Antônio Canela State School of Montes
Claros, state of Minas Gerais, a state in the center of Brazil. The focus of this chat was
to allow students to explore the differences and similarities between the two regions
of Brazil where the students lived. Also online seminars and interviews were
conducted to discuss other important topics such as the negative impact of early
pregnancy on young women. Without using Internet chat, these experts would not
have been able to collaborate with these students on this topic. Also, it is likely that in
a face-to-face meeting, the discussion of this topic would not have been as open as it
was with Internet chat. The study also showed that both teachers and students quickly
learn to use the chat tools and greatly enjoy the dynamic discussions that occur.

Xie (2002) explored the feasibility of using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to
facilitate Chinese language teaching and learning. This article describes procedures
for organizing and conducting chat sessions and discusses the benefits and problems
of using IRC. The participants in the study described here were 27 students who, at
the time, were enrolled in their third year of Chinese language instruction at the
University of California, Davis. It is argued that IRC promotes communication in the
target language and that it enhances students‟ reading and writing skills. However,
some general problems such as keyboarding skills as well as some special difficulties
with typing Chinese characters exist.

Leung (2001) analysed the motives of college student for chatting on ICQ.
Results from a random sample of 576 college students show that relaxation,
entertainment and fashion are instrumental motives for ICQ (`I seek you') use while
inclusion, affection, sociability and escape are the intrinsic motives. Students who are
heavy users of ICQ are motivated by affection and sociability whilst light users are
motivated by fashion. Use of emails and ownership of cellular phones seem to be
significant predictors of ICQ use. Students who spend longer time on ICQ sessions
also play online games more often for entertainment, live in dormitories, have a lower
household income, and do not subscribe to any ISP service at home. Female ICQ

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users tend to chat longer and more frequently for reasons of sociability while males
spend less time on each session for entertainment and relaxation. The findings suggest
that ICQ is a technology that facilitates social relations and is a major source of
entertainment for college students.

Lantz (2000) made an empirical study on meetings in a distributed group of

experts comparing face to- face, chat and collaborative virtual environments. Focus
for this report is the Collaborative Virtual Environments potential to support work
meetings for geographically distributed experts. The variables used were media (face-
to-face, chat and CVE) and experience. Research question concerns the difference in
face-to-face-, chat-, and CVE-meetings on efficiency, communication, technology,
enjoyment and, competence development. A small group of experts were observed
during their natural work meetings. Six of the groups scheduled meetings were held
three times in a chat environment and three times in a CVE. Results point at that chat
and CVE meetings are more task oriented than face-to-face meetings, that avatars
support turn taking and are enjoyable.

Smith, Farnham and Drucker (2000) studied the social life of small graphical
chat spaces. This paper provides a unique quantitative analysis of the social dynamics
of three chat rooms in the Microsoft V- Chat graphical chat system. Survey and
behavioural data were used to study user experience and activity. 150 V- Chat
participants completed a web-based survey, and data logs were collected from three
V-Chat rooms over the course of 119 days. This data illustrates the usage patterns of
graphical chat systems, and highlights the ways physical proxemics are translated into
social interactions in online environments. V-Chat participants actively used gestures,
avatars, and movement as part of their social interactions. Analyses of clustering
patterns and movement data show that avatars were used to provide nonverbal cues
similar to those found in face-to-face interactions. However, use of some graphical
features, in particular gestures, declined as users became more experienced with the
system. These findings have implications for the design and study of online
interactive environments.

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2.2.2 Studies Related to Internet Chatting and Other Social Networking – India

Chawla (2014) tried to identify the positive as well as negative aspects of the
use of Social networking sites (SNSs) among college students of Karnal district.
Social networking using habits of the students of 4 colleges (2 Govt. aided & 2 self-
financing) were studied. A descriptive survey method was used for data collection
with the help of a self-structured & administered questionnaire on a sample of 200.
The statistical techniques mean, SD, t-test, percentage and correlation were used for
the analysis and interpretation of the data. The results revealed that the students of
urban areas are savvier with social networking usage in comparison to the rural.
Students are spending on an 1-3 average hours on internet and the most popular social
networking sites in terms of profiles in order of preference is facebook, orkut, twitter
and linkedin etc. In the order of preference, students mostly socialize on social
networking sites firstly with friends, secondly with relatives and then with teachers.
Findings of the study indicates that there is no significant difference between the
social networking habits of Govt. aided and self-financing college students as now a
days everyone is using internet in routine for every kind of information whether
social, personal, educational or professional. Furthermore, social networking using
habits of undergraduate and post-graduate students differ.

Kasturi and Vardhan (2014) examined the key issues and new challenges of
the social media with the help of a filed study in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.
The main objectives of the study were to seek the opinion of audience of social media
on various aspects, to discuss the key challenges posed by social media, the major
roles played by social media and to discuss the significances of social media. In this
research study, survey method has been used to collect the data. Opinions of a total of
54 participants, an equal representation of men and women aged below 35 years has
been considered for the study. Percentage, frequency and graphs were used to analyze
the data. This study and its embedded data analysis find that the social media has a
tremendous upshot on the masses of all three geographic levels; and on both male and
female participants. From the study, it is evident that both boys and girls accept the
fact that social media is highly ubiquitous in nature. Irrespective of the geographic
area and their sex, all the respondents are of the opinion that the life without social
media cannot be thought of, due to its high interactivity. All the participants agreed
that social media enabled them to connect with friends and relatives, staying at distant

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places. Almost all the respondents agreed that social media plays communicative role,
collaborative role, role of education, role of engagement, role of monitoring, role of
maximising and role of enjoying. all the respondents agreed that social media is fast
emerging as a powerful and unparalleled tool to share information, shape opinions,
connect people across domains and cultures, bring participation, and above all to
communicate as never before.

Vijaya Lakshmi, Krishnatray, and Shrivastava (2014) aimed to evaluate how

and why Indian teenagers engage with social networking sites. They hope to fill the
gap as they use Focus Group Discussion to explore the experiences of Indian
teenagers with social networking sites. The sample was drawn purposively from
different geographical backgrounds, the participants belonged to different social,
educational, and economic backgrounds and between 15 and 17 years of age. Thirteen
focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to get participants totalled 109
undergraduate students (53 girls and 56 boys). Information from the groups was
analyzed in terms of their use of social networking sites, online versus offline
friendships, and extending friendships beyond cyberspace. The findings indicated that
both boys and girls use other forms of communication channels to strengthen existing
friendships more with the same gender than with the opposite. However, the boys
enjoy more freedom when compared with the girls and they admitted talking to online
friends and meeting them outside cyberspace without any hesitation. The girls, on
their part, were hesitant to extend online friendships beyond virtual space because of
security issues and resistance from family members.

Mahat and Mundhe (2014) conducted a research on youths between age group
of 12-30 years with a view to knowing the level of consciousness on the community
issues and how far social networking sites get up the today‟s youth in expressing their
views on present and burning issues like corruption, human rights, education etc.
Total sample size taken is 400 respondents. It was an investigative study and tools
used were tables, graphs, bar charts, Cross tables. It is found that the age group (12-
21) that is teenagers and young teenagers uses SNS for entertainment, communication
and for sharing personal profile over the net and the age group (22+) that is adults and
working adults uses SNS for corruption.

Manjunatha (2013) aimed at presenting usage pattern of SNS by the Indian

college students. This study was aimed to determine the effects of SNS to the

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interpersonal relationships. It also focuses on analysing the level of interpersonal
relationships. For the said purpose a survey has been conducted among 500 students
in various colleges and universities throughout India. The findings of the study
acknowledge the rampant usage of SNS among young college students in India.
According to the present study 80 percent of the students spend significant amount of
time on using SNS regularly. The majority of the Indian students (62.6 %) spent 1-10
hours per week on using SNS. In general, according to the data male students use
SNS more than female students. Among the total users of SNS 71 percent of the users
are male. 48% stated that they use SNS to maintain existing friends/relationships.
Above 95% responses were of the positive opinion that social networking sites act as
platform for reconnecting with lost friends, maintaining existing
networks/relationships and sharing knowledge, ideas and opinions. The main purpose
of usage of SNS for the respondents was for messaging and chatting.

Nachimuthu (2013) investigated the student teachers‟ attitude towards social

media. The purpose of this research is to study the attitude of using the social
network sites for teacher education. In addition, it provides specific instructions on
how to use social media and a discussion of utilization of internet in teaching learning
process. This is a survey method of the sample consisted of convenience sampling of
160Bachelor of education students studying under the affiliation of Tamilnadu
Teacher Education University, Chennai, at Dharmapuri district of Tamilnadu State
of India. The tools used in this study were Social Media Attitude Scale (SMAS)
prepared by the investigator and found out the reliability of 0.89. Data was analyzed
using mean, standard deviation and t- test. The findings of the study are; (i) Attitude
towards social media networks do not differ while utilizing their level in B.Ed
students either in gender wise and in locality wise; (ii) Social media networks sites are
effective in teacher education programme and it improved their level of learning. For
the purpose of internet use, 40% of students reported that they use Facebook, Twitter
and other social media networks per day and the majority of the students also reported
that they have more than 250 friends on Social media network sites.

Kumar, A. and Kumar, R. (2013) attempted to study the activities and reasons
for using Social Networking Sites by the Post Graduate students and research scholars
of Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, India. A self structured questionnaire was
distributed among the target population with a sample of 150 respondents. The

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primary data gathered through questionnaire were analysed and discussed in
accordance with the objectives of the study. To evaluate the responses simple
percentage method was used. It was found that 58% of respondents were male and
42% of respondents were female and 76.67% of respondents were between the age
group of 20-30 years. The main purpose of using SNSs were found entertainment by
92.66% of the respondents followed by sharing videos and pictures, instant message
and find Information. An important finding of this study was that the use of SNSs is
time consuming. The majority of the respondents (47.33%) believed that information
on SNSs is reliable. The study also reveals that Facebook is the most popular SNSs
among the all categories of students and research scholars.

Rithika and Selvaraj (2013) investigated the impact of social media on

student‟s academic performance. The objective of the study was to determine how
social networking websites affects student‟s academic performance and to explore the
consequences of social networking sites in education system. The data was collected
using a questionnaire from 100 respondents. Judgement sampling has been used for
data collection. The data collected were carefully assessed to the statistical software
i.e. SPSS. Pearson Chi-Square was used to conduct the analysis. It is found that
students are very fond of using face book, twitter, YouTube and orkut. Gender
analysis shows that male students mostly use social networking websites and they use
social networking websites for knowledge. 69% of the total population generally use
social networking websites for entertainment. Paying attention to their academic
progress and addressing any issues will go a long way towards keeping the negative
aspects of social media from influencing their studies. However, faculties and students
are now pushing learning beyond the borders of the classroom through social
networking.

Mahmoody (2013) attempted to identify the visiting patterns of students

towards different social networking sites. For that, Focus Group Interview has
conducted through a structured questionnaire where random sampling technique was
considered and 150 samples of individual consumers was selected in India (West
Bengal and Maharastra) within the age of 15 to 30 years students group on 2013.
After analyzing the collected data, the result showed that the most popular social
networking sites to students was the facebook (86%) and male students use social

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network more than female students. The study also proposed some required actions
for the marketers to avail the opportunity in competitive market.

Mahajan, Singh and Kumar (2013) aimed to study the purpose of using social
networking sites (SNSs) among the research scholars of Panjab University (PU),
Chandigarh and Kurukshetra University (KU), Kurukshetra in India. The study was
conducted through a questionnaire administered to the research scholars in two
universities in India. The questionnaire was distributed among the randomly selected
research scholars of the two universities in India. It is observed that the majority of
the research scholars from both the universities is aware of the SNSs and have their
accounts on them. Facebook is the most popularly accessed SNS both in PU (83 per
cent) and KU (77 per cent) followed by Orkut (46 per cent) in PU and Research Gate
(38 per cent) at KU. The majority of the research scholars who use SNSs for various
purposes from both the universities are in the age group of 20-30 years. 46 per cent of
the researchers surveyed from PU do not have any publications and only 5 per cent
have more than ten publications so far, whereas 54 per cent research scholars do not
have any publications to their credit in KU.

Kumari, Ali, Mahadevamurthy and Hydarali (2013) intended to identify

purposes and most popular SNSs and to address the benefits, problems associated
with use of SNSs among dental students of Farooqia Dental College, Mysore. A
questionnaire was used among a sample of 130 students in order to discover the use of
SNS. The study found that major reasons for frequent use of SNSs are to find
information and to interact with their friends. The study discovered that Wikipedia,
WebDental and SciSpace are the most popular SNSs used by dental students.

Lal and Aggarwal (2013) tried to find out the effectiveness of social media
sites in the process of recruitment. The role of social media sites in making or
breaking the next job opportunity. Empirical study used for studying the effectiveness
of social media. The research methodology used includes primary data, secondary
data and statistical tools like Hypothesis testing and correlation. The study aims at
testing the popularity & effectiveness of the social media sites on one hand and also
finding out the reliability & trustworthiness of these sites on the other hand. The study
revealed that majority of respondents are aware of the social networking sites & there
is very low correlation between age of employment and the awareness about social
networking sites. One interesting indicator was that in current macroeconomic

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scenario frequency of changing jobs has come down substantially. The study also
revealed that the most popular networking site for seeking employment is Linkedin
because of its large user database and unique features like job highlighter &
specialized email alerts.

Madhusudhan (2012) explored how research scholars of University of Delhi

integrated Social Networking Sites (SNSs) into their daily communication for
research work. A structured questionnaire was designed and personally distributed
160 respondents. Results revealed that most used SNSs for “lurking” while few used
such sites for promoting one‟s research. Additionally, most respondents preferred the
SNS Facebook and ResearchGate for academic purposes. Collaborative and peer-to-
peer learning were common benefits from SNSs while some expressed concern
regarding cyber-bullying and privacy. Finally, a majority of respondents said using
SNSs may be a waste of time.

Chakraborty (2012) attempted to study the activities and reasons for using
Social Networking Sites (SNS) by the research scholars of North Eastern Hill
University (NEHU). For that the study has covered two social networking sites
namely Facebook and ResearchGate based on popularity and widely used by research
scholars. a self administered questionnaire was distributed among the research
scholars of NEHU. And the primary data gathered through questionnaire were
analyzed and discussed in accordance with the objective of the study. Here it is found
that most of the scholars from social science background use SNS from education and
research point of view; on the contrary scholars from pure science think that SNS has
no role on research and education. They use SNS just for entertainment.

Jain and Gupta (2012) conducted a research on youths between age group of
18-30 years with a view to know the level of awareness on the social issues and how
far social networking sites awakened the today‟s youth in expressing their views on
current and burning issues like corruption, human rights, girl education etc. Study was
conducted on 100 people mostly through email or sending link of questionnaire on
various social sites. It was a exploratory study and tools used were tables, graphs, pie
charts, ANOVA, Cross tables using IBM SPSS 19.0. It was found that these social
networking sites are acting as great medium for view mobilization. People are feeling
free in sharing their thoughts on any issue and even youth is raising their voice against
social acts like violation of Human Rights, corruption etc. These social networking

73
sites are proving themselves a boon at least in bringing thoughts of people on these
social issues. ANOVA results shows that youth were more vibrant while discussing
the social issues during the social networking sites usages but they are not coming
forward in concrete way to resolve the issues.

Keskar (2012) examined the incidence & impact of Social Networking upon
the college going students. The data collected through a questionnaire that was
administered to a sample of 60 students of a college in pune city. Result shows that
youngsters are enjoying Social Networking sites. Face book is more popular than
Books. More use of Social Networking sites can become addiction while reading
books can develop and groom personality. The study concluded that Social
Networking made required to be regulated both in quality content & quantity of its
use.

Golwal, Kalbande and Sonwane (2012) examined the purposes of Facebook

use in Library and Information Science (LIS) Professionals sample and explore time
investment of the professionals to Facebook social network site. Data was collected
by means of a questionnaire that was circulated among the LIS Professionals of
MLOSC Group randomly. The collected data were analyzed using statistical tools.
The findings of the study revealed that all the respondents are in the habit of using the
Facebook and more than half of them visit the Facebook every day and 50% visit the
Facebook every alternate day and a very negligible portion to use the Facebook rarely.
The main purpose of use of the Facebook is to get interact professionally, followed by
to keep abreast of the latest news and commentaries, to participating in discussions
and to Express Creativity. Almost all the respondents are agreeing to Facebook works
as a platform to interact among LIS Professionals of the all world. Almost all the
respondents use Facebook for their academic and research activity also.

Singh and Gill (2012) attempted to determine the use and effectiveness of web
2.0 based applications such as wiki, blogs, RSS, SNSs, IMs, etc in education and
research by the research scholars. The study conducted through a structured
questionnaire administrated among the research scholars pursuing their research at
GND University Amritsar. The study finds that majority of the respondents were
found to be aware and making use of such applications in their research affairs and it
was revealed from the study that Facebbok is the most popular SNS by all category of
research scholars.

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 Jain, Verma, A., Verma, R.S. and Tiwar (2012) envisaged on the impact of
Social Network on Education and Training of the students. A survey was
administered to a sample of 128 Post Graduate and Graduate students at Department
of Commerce, Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, a Central University declared
by Government of India. It is found that Graduate students are very fond of using
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Orkut. Students prefer downloading study material
from internet and are not buying books. They find internet helpful to boost their
confidence for presentation and reports. It is also found that by chatting using
Facebook, Blogs, Twitters, and chatting online result in increase of the English
communication. The inferiority complex of talking and writing in English is
decreased. Also it is found that students are preparing working science model using
these websites.

Shirase (2012) examined the impact of social networking sites on personal

lives of the people in Pune & neighbourhood. The growing popularity of social
networking sites (SNS) among the Internet users demands an introspection of
personal and social behaviour of human beings. To carry out the research the data
collected from employees who are working in a corporate sector and in various
industries and designed a questionnaire which has 11 set of questions which are based
on different aspect which are related with the use of social networking site (SNS), to
get the in-depth knowledge about their behaviour and attitude. Results revealed that
mostly people use SNS to stay in touch with their existing friends. Also it was evident
that SNS do not create any negative impact on the lives of majority of the users. The
growth of social networking sites shows a significant change in the social and
personal behaviour of Internet users. SNS has become an essential medium of
communication and entertainment among the young adults.

Augustine and Arulsamy (2011) conducted a study on Attitude of College

Students towards Internet Chatting on Educational Development. The present study is
focused on the attitude towards Internet Chatting on educational development of
college students in Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu. The investigators used normative
survey method for the study. The sample consists of 200 college students from two
Arts and Science and two Engineering colleges in Coimbatore District. Stratified
random sampling technique has been used for the selection of sample. The
investigators developed a tool themselves to measure attitude towards Internet

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Chatting on educational development. The data were analysed using „t‟ test and χ2 -
test. The major findings of study reveal that the college students in Coimbatore
district have good favourable attitude towards Internet Chatting on educational
development and their attitude differed in terms locality of college.

Mohamed and Sumitha (2011) investigated the perception and use of social
networking sites by the students of Calicut University, Kerala. Structured
questionnaires were used to collect data from a representative sample of 150 students.
The study found that a majority of the students were aware of social networking sites
and use these sites for friendly communication. Orkut was the most popular and used
social networking site than Facebook and MySpace. A number of students visited
social networking sites twice a week and always send scraps and meet new friends.
Though the students indicated that lack of security and privacy are the main concerns
of social networking sites, a majority of them used their real names and photos in their
profiles.

Gupta and Kumaraguru (2011) attempted to characterize and extract patterns

of activity of users on Twitter during a crisis situation. This was the first attempt to
study an India-centric emergency event such as the triple bomb blasts in Mumbai
(India), using online social media as a source. In this research, they performed content
and activity analysis of Twitter after the bomb blasts. Through the analysis, they
concluded, that the number of URLs and @-mentions in tweets increase during the
time of the crisis in comparison to what researchers have exhibited for normal
circumstances. In addition to the above, they empirically showed that the number of
tweets or updates by authority users (those with large number of followers) is very
less, i.e. majority of content generated on Twitter during the crisis comes from non
authority users. In the end, we discuss certain case scenarios during the Mumbai
blasts, where false and inaccurate information spread through the network of Twitter.
The understandings can be used to build technology that can be useful for intelligence
agencies and emergency response teams.

Augustine and Arulsamy (2011) conducted a study on Attitude of College

Students towards Internet Chatting on Social Development. The present study is
focused on the attitude towards Internet Chatting on social development of college
students in Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu. The investigators used normative survey
method for the study. The sample consists of 200 college students from two Arts and

76
Science and two Engineering colleges in Coimbatore District. Stratified random
sampling technique has been used for the selection of sample. The investigators
developed a tool themselves to measure attitude towards Internet Chatting on social
development. The data were analysed using „t‟ test and χ2 - test. The major finding
of study reveals that the college students in Coimbatore district have good favourable
attitude towards Internet Chatting on social development.

Augustine and Arulsamy (2011) conducted a study on Attitude of College

Students towards Internet Chatting on personal Development. The present study is
focused on the attitude towards Internet Chatting on personal development of college
students in Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu. The investigators used normative survey
method for the study. The sample consists of 200 college students from two Arts and
Science and two Engineering colleges in Coimbatore District. Stratified random
sampling technique has been used for the selection of sample. The investigators
developed a tool themselves to measure attitude towards Internet Chatting on personal
development. The data were analysed using „t‟ test. The major findings of the study
reveal that the college students in Coimbatore district have favourable attitude
towards Internet Chatting on personal development and their attitude differed in terms
of gender and locality of college.

Mishra (2010) attempted to explore the participatory patterns of youth in

social networking sites in India. Also to determine their objectives behind the usage of
these sites. Hence, the findings of this study should be imperative to both search
engine marketers, and to the social networking sites themselves, as it reveals a
number of opportunities for both populations. This concept is leading to interesting
debates in the academia and industry on how it will impact communications,
connections between individuals and commercial viability for marketers. The results
of the study revealed four intentions behind the usage of these sites – building
association, spending time, self-image formation and acquiring information.

Chandran (2010) tried to find out the various dimensions in which social
networking sites are used by the student community. Students use social networking
sites for their personal and curricular activities. A descriptive survey method was used
for data collection with the help of a questionnaire on a purposive sample of 100. The
study shows that the social networking sites are an integral part of their social life.
They use it to maintain and strengthen their offline connections and primarily for

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communication rather than entertainment. The study also points out the popularity of
mobile social networking among the students community.

Kulshreshtha, Kapil and Sumiti (2010) aimed to look at the positive effect that
interaction through social networking sites has on today‟s society in relation to the
modern media concept of greater interaction. Stratified samples of 150 different
persons in Haryana and Punjab were collected to understand the impact of Social
Networking Sites in society. A questionnaire with some closed ended and some open
ended questions. The study revealed that almost everyone believes that Social
Networking Sites have positive impacts on society. Almost 99% people of society in
the age group of 15 to 30 yrs surf internet. Ratio of male and female using internet is
50%-50%. Also the study revealed that Facebook is the most popular Social
networking site preferred by 83% users.

Neelamalar and Chitra (2009) studied the impact of social networking sites on
Indian youth. They identified and assessed issues regarding youth social networking
usage and the resultant impact on their social interactions and social behavior on the
whole. This research employs the method of Qualitative research through quantitative
analysis to gather an in-depth understanding of the behavioral changes caused by the
social networking sites like Orkut on youth and the reasons that govern such behavior.
The research has made use of survey method. Survey was conducted among randomly
selected social networking sites users in India with a sample size of 100 between age
group of 17 to 22 yrs who were school students and college Students. Results
indicated that above 95% responses were of the positive opinion that social
networking sites act as platform for reconnecting with lost friends, maintaining
existing networks/ relationships and sharing knowledge, ideas and opinions. A
majority of the Indian youth are members in one or more social networking sites but
also are low users of such sites and used Internet more for mailing and surfing the net.

Marshall, Cardon, Norris, Goreva, and D‟Souza (2008) examined cross-

national differences in the usage of social networking websites (SNWs) between
university students in India and the United States. A total of 245 Indian university
students and 241 American university students completed a survey about privacy
attitudes and behaviours as well as communication patterns on SNWs. Many of the
traditional propositions about cross-cultural values and related notions about trust and
communication patterns did not explain differences in behaviour between Indian and

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American students. In particular, Indian students, who are considered being from a
collectivist society, and American students, who are considered being from an
individualist society, exhibited many common communication patterns. When they
did exhibit different communication patterns, Indian students reported communication
behaviours considered significantly more individualist than the American students.
This research suggested that additional cross-cultural research is needed about the
usage of SNWs and other forms of computer-mediated communication.

2.2.3 Other Related Studies

Israel (2013) investigated the attitudes of undergraduates of library schools in

Delta and Edo states towards educational use of the internet. Using the questionnaire,
data has been collected from a sample of 238 undergraduates of library and
information science departments in Delta and Edo states. The questionnaire contained
8 items that have been structured to elicit information representing the
undergraduates‟ attitude towards the educational use of the internet. This research
work employed statistical tools such as frequency and percentage. The five items that
met with the strongest agreement from the sampled undergraduates are „the internet is
as important as other research tools‟ (91. 6%), „I find using the internet easier than
using the library‟ (91.2%), „Internet is a universal digital library‟ (90.8%), „Internet
can allow you to do more imaginative work‟ (88.2%), „Internet has a potential to be
an effective teaching/training tool‟ (87.8%). This finding revealed that undergraduates
of library schools in Delta and Edo states have positive attitudes towards educational
use of the internet.

Suri and Sharma (2013) aimed to understand the relationship between gender
and attitude towards e-learning. Literature shows that gender plays a key role in
understanding the differences in perception towards usefulness of technology and ease
of use but with regards to attitude and perception towards e-learning diverse views
have been presented. The researchers analysed the effect of gender on attitude
towards computer technology and e-learning collectively. They also analysed the
impact of gender on the usage of the basic e-learning forms like
uploading/downloading course content, interactive videos and pod casting. A
questionnaire was developed to collect the necessary data. Scale on Computer and e-
learning attitude (SCAELA) was constructed and validated. In this study 477 students
enrolled in various courses across many departments in Panjab University Chandigarh

79
were analyzed. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA
were used to analyze the data. The results showed that no significant relationship
exists between gender and attitude towards computer and e-learning. The usage of
various e-learning forms also showed a non-significant relationship with gender. The
future developments in e-learning can take note of this finding while developing e-
learning tools which are efficient.

Otaibi (2012) investigated the relationship between the attitude towards the
use of the Internet and its cognitive, emotional and behavioural components. The
questionnaire sample was selected randomly from the college students and the final
sample included 216 students with ages ranging from 20 to 31. Descriptive statistical
method and t-test was employed to analyze the data. The most important result of the
study was the attitude that students have towards the positive use of the Internet. The
uses of the Internet involve educational and cultural purposes, leisure and
entertainment as well as purchasing purposes. Besides, there is the existence of
significant differences at the level (0.01) between high and low Internet users in the
general attitude towards the Internet in favor of the high users of the Internet.

Chongtham and Ratan (2012) tried to find out the frequency of Internet use,
the preference of place and time for accessing internet and the purpose of using
internet among Assam university students. The sample of the present study is drawn
from PG students, M. Phil and Ph.D. scholars. The sample consisted of 100 students
of different subjects in Assam University, Silchar. Out of 100 students 50 each belong
to male and female category. For selection of sample purposive sampling technique
has been adopted. The self designed questionnaire comprising of 18 items relating to
internet access has been used. Percentages analysis and pie chart were used to analyse
and interpret the data. The result shows that majority of the respondents are using
internet daily and both male and female respondents majority of them are using 2 hour
in a day. Also maximum number of respondents prefers to access at night time.
Because in morning they are busy for learning in their respective discipline. Also the
study shows that maximum numbers of respondents (54%) are use internet for their
study, which is followed by 16% download material, 14% for chatting with friends,
9% to send e-mail, and 7% used for any others. As this study has shown, more
students are relying on the Internet for their academic needs than any other areas.

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 Al Mahmud (2011) investigated the attitude of private university students in
Bangladesh towards internet. Sample selected by the method of random sampling as a
1022 (one thousand twenty two) graduate and postgraduate students. A questionnaire
was designed for analyzing students‟ attitudes towards Internet. Quantitative research
methods, frequencies, t-test, and ANOVA were used in order to investigate the
research problems that affect on internet learning. Results from the study indicated
that students had positive attitudes toward using the Internet as a learning tool,
adequate basic knowledge of the Internet, viewed Internet is a fastest way to reach
knowledge, and Internet has a potential to be an effective training tool. The results
also revealed that the students exhibited positive attitudes toward the Internet
irrespective of gender, again in contradiction to most other findings.

Amenyedzi, Lartey, and Dzomeku, (2011) assessed the computer and Internet
usage as supplementary educational material to enhance quality education; help
improve educational management and planning; how students use the computers and
internet to facilitate their learning; how teachers in the Tema Senior High Schools use
the computers and Internet to teach and guide students. Stratified sampling method
was used to select students and teachers. Data were subjected to SPSS version 11
analysis using descriptive statistics. The results showed that a significantly high
percentage of respondent teachers (92%) were computer literate and 78% of
respondent students also had basic knowledge in computer. However, less than 15%
of these teachers used the internet as an innovative way of improving teaching and
learning. It was revealed that Internet and computers have helped students to achieve
new things such as finishing assignments, solving problems, learning history of other
countries, improving typing skills, and chatting with friends. There is no clear
interaction between teachers and students through the use of Internet facilities. The
Internet was not used for guidance. Despite the limited use of computers by teachers
in their teaching, many agree that the computer has changed the way students learn.
One fourth of teachers have received some form of training in the use of computers,
with quite minimal training in the pedagogical integration of ICT.

Sujatha (2011) analyzed the patterns of use of Internet among the teachers and
the students of the first grade colleges in Mangalore city. The study also investigated
the level of academic community‟s access to the Internet, reasons for non-use of
Internet, satisfaction with the Internet facilities provided in these institutions as well

81
as the problems faced in the use of Internet. A well structured questionnaire was
distributed among the 390 teachers and students of the five colleges in the Mangalore
city. Out of which 335 questionnaires were received back duly filled in. The response
rate was 85.9 per cent. The data were analyzed using frequency& percentage, mean
and SD. The study revealed that the level of student‟s access to the Internet was low
and the major reason was that at the time of the study, computers with Internet
facilities were inadequate. The findings also revealed that the rate of Internet use was
more among the teachers and students of Commerce and Science faculty as compared
to the faculty of Arts. However, majority of the students expressed their interest in the
use of Internet and its resources and were enthusiastic in improving their skills in the
use of the Internet.

Mahmood (2010) attempted to assess the attitude towards the usage of Internet
services like World Wide Web, email, chatting, etc. This study was based on a
questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed through plagpk listserv. After
two reminders, 227 usable questionnaires were received. The data were analyzed with
the help of mean, SD, „t‟ test and One-Way ANOVA. This study reveals that library
and information professionals working in all types of institutions in Pakistan paid a
warm welcome to the Internet technology. Their attitude was very positive towards
Internet based facilities and services. They found these tools very useful in their
professional and personal work. Most of them had Internet facility at their offices. It
was found that the institution type, gender and age of the research participants had no
effect on the strength of their attitude towards Internet. However, experience,
frequency, level of perceived skills and training in the use of Internet had strong effect
on the extent of participants‟ attitude.

Safdar, Mahmood, and Qutab (2010) investigated the Internet use behaviour
and attitude of intermediate and bachelor's level students of the Leadership colleges
network in Punjab. The questionnaire survey method was used in this study. A total
sample of 800 students (200 each) was selected from all four campuses of the
Leadership Colleges network, i.e., Lahore, Multan, Rawalpandi, and Sailkot. A
convenience sampling method was applied. The data were analyzed using frequency
& percentage, mean and SD. Results of the study reveal that the students were new
Internet users but used it regularly. Most had access to the Internet at home. They
used this technology mostly for communication and educational purposes. A majority

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of users had no formal training. They preferred to contact their friends or relatives for
solving problems in Internet use. Their attitude towards the tools and services of the
Internet was positive. Users agreed that the Internet was very helpful in meeting their
information and communication requirements swiftly.

Mohammed and Al-Karaki (2008) studied the attitudes of students towards the
integration of the web as a channel of communication and a study tool in traditional
teaching. In particular, the study aims at studying the effect of certain variables such
as gender, major, computer experience, and the percentage of internet usage on the
learning process. A descriptive survey method was carried out with a sample of 502
male and female of the university students. A comprehensive and reliable
questionnaire was designed and distributed to the students' sample. Percentages and
ANOVA were used to analyse the data. Drawing on evidence from lesson
observations, teacher/student interviews and project reports, the researchers examined
the university perspectives and strategies to incorporate use of internet resources and
associated information and communication technology tools into humanities, social,
and scientific studies. The results revealed a low percentage of internet usage in
university education. Also, the results showed that computer experience mainly
affects how internet is used in the learning process. However, there were no
significant differences in the results regarding the gender and major or even the bi- or
tri-interactions between the variables under consideration. The study also showed that
email correspondence and internet search are the most common uses of internet in the
university. Furthermore, the findings support the following assumptions: The Web
cannot substitute entirely for face-to-face learning, but it can serve as a reasonable
alternative when the latter is unavailable.

2.3 Summary of review of related literature

The review of related literature presented in this chapter included the research
studies conducted in the area of Internet Chatting & other social Networking and the
attitude towards the usage of Internet. The investigator reviewed 100 studies in total,
of those, 60 studies related to Internet Chatting and other Social networking which
have been conducted in abroad and 30 studies in India. Also the investigator reviewed
10 other related studies.

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 The review of related literature indicates that very few researches have been
conducted in abroad and in India on Attitude towards Internet Chatting. In other
countries, Lipinski-Harten and Tafarodi (2013) compared the degree of attitude
moderation produced by online chat with that produced through face-to-face dialogue
and Mahfouz and Ihmeideh (2009) investigated Jordanian university students'
attitudes towards using video and text chat discourse with anonymous native speakers
of English to improve their English proficiency. In India, Augustine and Arulsamy
(2011) studied on Attitude of College Students towards Internet Chatting on personal,
educational and social development.

Many studies have been conducted abroad on the usage of Internet Chatting.
Buhler, Neustaedter and Hillman (2013) investigated on how and why teenagers use
video chat and Ames et al. (2010) explored the practices around video chat for a
family as a whole. Huang et al. (2009) made a field study of communication choices
and practices in television-based text and voice chat. Bakker, Sloep, and Jochems
(2007) studied on students and instant messaging, Wood (2007) examined how
college students use Instant Messenger (IM), Anolli, Villani, and Riva (2005)
investigated on personality of people using chat, Hu et al. (2004) explored the
relationship between the amount of Instant Messenger (IM) use and the level of
perceived intimacy between friends. Recchiuti (2003) explored college students‟ uses
and motives of e-mail, instant messaging, and online chat rooms, Spencer and Hiltz
(2003) studied on use of synchronous chat in online courses, Zinkhan et al. (2003)
studied on web-based chatting: consumer communication in cyberspace and Suguri et
al. (2002) studied on pedagogical uses of web based chat. Peris et al. (2002)
conducted an exploratory study to get some insight into cyberelations examining
socio demographic and personality profiles of online chatters, Xie (2002) explored the
feasibility of using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate Chinese language teaching
and learning, Leung (2001) analysed on college student motives for chatting on ICQ,
Lantz (2000) made an empirical study on meetings in a distributed group of experts
comparing face to- face, chat and collaborative virtual environments, Smith et al.
(2000) studied on the social life of small graphical chat spaces.

Many studies have been conducted abroad and few studies in India on the
usage of Social Networking. Eren (2012) and Coe et al. (2012) investigated students‟
attitudes towards use of social networking sites. Sponcil and Gitimu (2013),

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Pornsakulvanich and Dumrongsiri (2013), Saw et al. (2012), Pimmer, Linxen and
Grohbiel (2012), Lim and Meier (2011), Lampe et al. (2011), Rouis et.al., (2011),
Hanson et al. (2011), Morris., et al. (2010), Cheung, Pui-Yee Chiu and Lee (2010),
Correa et al. (2009), Tiffany Pempek., et.al. (2009) Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield
(2008), and Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) examined usage of social
Networking sites among college students. Zhang (2013) explored college students' use
of social networking sites for health and wellness information, Haas, Schaefer and
Kornienko (2010) investigated the link between individuals‟ health and the
characteristics of their social network positions and Newman et al. (2011) studied on
challenges and opportunities in using online social networks for health. Akbari,
Eghtesad and Simons (2012) studied the expectation of social networks in learning
languages, as well as on their perceived usefulness and Veletsianos and Navarrete
(2012) studied on online social networks as a formal learning environments. Boswell
(2012), Cinta et al. (2011), Flad (2010) investigated on university students‟ attitudes
towards and expectations of the educational use of social networks and Ahn (2010)
examined the effects of social network sites on youth social and academic
development.

Few studies have been conducted in India on the usage of Social Networking.
Chawla (2014) tried to identify the positive as well as negative aspects of the use of
Social networking sites (SNSs) among college students, Kasturi and Vardhan (2014)
examined the key issues and new challenges of the social media, Vijaya Lakshmi,
Krishnatray, and Shrivastava (2014) aimed to evaluate how and why Indian teenagers
engage with social networking sites, and Mahat and Mundhe (2014) conducted a
research on youths between age group of 12-30 years with a view to know the level of
consciousness on the community issues and how far social networking sites get up the
today‟s youth in expressing their views on present and burning issues like corruption,
human rights, education etc. Manjunatha (2013) aimed at presenting usage pattern of
SNS by the Indian college students, Mohamed & Sumitha (2011) and Chandran
(2010) investigated on the usage of social networking sites among the college
students, Nachimuthu (2013) investigated on student teachers‟ attitude towards social
media. Mahmoody (2013) attempted to identify the visiting patterns of students
towards different social networking sites, Adithya Kumari et al. (2013) intended to
identify purposes and most popular SNSs and to address the benefits, problems

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associated with use of SNSs among dental students, Madhusudhan (2012) explored
how research scholars of University of Delhi integrated Social Networking Sites
(SNSs) into their daily communication for research work. Mishra (2010) attempted to
explore the participatory patterns of youth in social networking sites in India.
Neelamalar and Chitra (2009) studied on the impact of social networking sites on
Indian youth. Marshall et al. (2008) examined cross-national differences in the usage
of social networking websites (SNWs) between university students in India and the
United States.

2.4 Rationale of the study

This study is conducted to assess the attitude towards Internet Chatting and its
usage among college students in India. In this technological era, everyone is engaged
in Internet Chatting and member of one or other social networking sites. Obviously,
college students spend a lot of time chatting on internet. Nobody can restrict them
from doing Internet Chatting. So the only possible way is, to make them aware that,
how useful is this technology for their all round development. Internet Chatting has
several benefits to students, as one can get in to contact with outer world so quickly
and economically, can discuss various issues related to educational, social, political
and even commercial. A student can make use of this technology to take decision
regarding his/her career and also to learn foreign languages. Well-managed and
focused synchronous chat sessions can provide powerful online learning experiences
to students. Also the study tries to make the students to realize that how Internet
Chatting is used for getting social values, good manners etc.

The present study differs from the reviewed studies in many ways. First of all,
there was no study undertaken so far with the variable attitude towards Internet
Chatting on various dimensions such as personal, educational, social, cultural and
emotional development. Few studies have been conducted in relation to usage of
Internet Chatting (Buhler, Neustaedter and Hillman. 2013; Ames et al. (2010); Huang
et al. (2009); Recchiuti (2003))

Secondly, the present study is unique and differs from the rest of the studies in
terms of population and sample.

Finally, there was no study undertaken so far which had combined variables of
usage of Internet Chatting and attitude towards Internet Chatting. Therefore, the

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present study is the first of its kind in this regard. Hence, the investigator has chosen the
title as Attitude towards Internet Chatting and its Usage among college students for her
research work.

2.5 Conclusion

A detailed review is carried out on Attitude towards Internet Chatting and its
Usage among college students are recorded systematically in this chapter. Based on the
review, the present research title was ensured. The next chapter deals with the
methodology followed by the investigator for the present investigation.

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