CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Communication is one of the most important things for us to live in this world wherein people express different views, opinions and viewpoints about the current issues in our lives (Thompson, 1967). It is
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Communication is one of the most important things for us to live in this world wherein people express different views, opinions and viewpoints about the current issues in our lives (Thompson, 1967). It is important because of the fact that there are billions of people living in this world and it is very impossible for us to communicate with others simultaneously. And for that reason, different modes of communication are invented and innovated. One of the most, if not the only, used form of communication today is through the use of our internet.
From your internet, you can access incredible amounts of information including texts, graphics, audio and video. You can search databases at the Library of Congress, view masterpieces by Michelangelo, take an aerial tour of the Philippines, or dissect a virtual frog. You can send email, receive electronic newsletters and “chat” with others online. This is a new medium in education requiring strategies and new learning is happening increasingly using an interconnection of networks that links together millions of computers worldwide.
The internet, according to Visual Basic 6: Proficiency in Application Development, is a huge system of voluntary linked networks with millions of documents, records, databases and variety of information. It can be referred to as the “information superhighway”. That is why it is one of the most accessible forms of information gathering and dissemination. But internet in our generation is not just simply for researching, emailing or chatting purposes. This is also a form of interactive socialization with our family, friends and even to the people we are not familiar to.
This is the wonderful world of social networking sites; and the most famous of them all, FACEBOOK. Facebook is a social network service and website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. The users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Furthermore, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school, or college, or other characteristics. The name of the ervice stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone who declares them to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website (www. wikipedia. org). Here in our country alone, according to Lim of Sun Star Cebu, the Philippines ranks eighth among the countries in the world with the most number of Facebook users.
In fact, in September last year, there were only 4,832,040 Facebook users in the country, putting the Philippines in 13th place in the world in terms of number of users, said Vera Files trustee Luz Rimban during a seminar-workshop last week at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino. But the number of Filipinos on Facebook continues to rise and helps the Philippines keep its position as the fifth largest in the world’s leading social networking site. Facebook analytics company SocialBakers reports that, as of Feb. 2011, there are now 22,515,820 Filipinos on Facebook. This means 1. -million Filipinos signed up on Facebook in a month and represents an increase of seven percent from 20,802,540 in Jan. 2011, as reported by Philippine tech company Yehey!, also citing SocialBakers. (Cruz, 2011) As what was said in the definition of Facebook, it originated for the sole purpose for teenagers, college students in particular, to be familiar to their new environment and as well as their new classmates. During the first day of classes, college students have this “culture shock” because they see that everything is new: new school, new classrooms, new teachers and new classmates.
If one is not that independent, they might be nauseous and not enter their classrooms anymore. They feel that way because they seem to realize that they do not know anybody from the room and it’s like everyone’s watching your every move once you enter the class. This might be the initial reaction that we feel, but as soon as we start introducing ourselves to our seatmate and eventually our classmates, we tend to build friendship during the first day and probably the very last thing that we want to know is his/her number or Facebook account.
This is the first step to friendship. Next, we chat with them and ask about the given requirements of the professors, though we knew about it, just to have conversation. The nature of these social exchanges is characterized by either one-on-one or one-on-many communication scenario. Bryant and Oliver (2009), found out that people who are shy but wish to be social were able to develop a closer and more satisfactory relationship with others online, compared to those who are characterized by high shyness/low sociability, low shyness/high sociability.
Other scholars’ finding suggests that only when online relationships were built on shared interests or sincere disclosure of one’s true self, then a healthy and perhaps lasting relationship could potentially flourished. Other scholars’ finding suggests that only when online relationships were built on shared interests or sincere disclosure of one’s true self, then a healthy and perhaps lasting relationship could potentially flourished. Indeed, teenagers learn that friendships must be kept through effort and behavior that indicates a commitment towards preserving the relationship and satisfying the relational needs of both partners.
For example, Oswald and Clark (2003) found that when transitioning to college, high school best friends experience decreased satisfaction, commitment, rewards, and investments with increased costs and alternatives. However, students who maintained their best friends from high school during their first year in college reported engaging in more maintenance behaviors — positivity, supportiveness, self-disclosure, and interaction – than students in best friend