A Survey Report

ON IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES ON YOUNGSTERS

Submitted for the partial fulfillment of the course on Business Research Methodology

Under the supervision of Prof. R. N. Subudhi Prof. Sasmita Mishra

Submitted By: Abhishek Jain (11202085) Tajender Singh (11202122) Manjot Singh (11202133) Avinash Mohanty (11202083)
MBA 2011-13 Batch

School of Management, KIIT University

Bhubaneswar 751024
www.ksom.ac.in

Impact of Social Networking Websites on Youngsters

We declare that this project work is our own work and is submitted in partial fulfillment of the BRM Course of MBA Programme at School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. This project work has not been submitted before any degree or examination in any other University. We further declare that we have obtained the necessary authorization and consent to carry out this research.

Abhishek Jain(11202085) Tajender Singh(11202122) Manjot Singh(11202133) Avinash Mohanty(11202083) Students of MBA (2011-13) School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar Date: April 20, 2012

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We owe a great many thanks to people who helped and supported us during this project. Our sincere thanks to Prof. R.N.Subudhi & Prof. Sasmita Mishra for guiding us with attention and care. They took pain to guide us during the tenure of the project completion and make necessary corrections as and when needed. Their valuable guidance and encouragement really led us to the path of completion of this project. Their expertise and friendly behavior encouraged us to do a lot of work under their guidance even after completion of this course. We consider ourselves as a fortunate that we got the opportunity to work under them. Finally we would extend our heartfelt thanks to our family members & friends who have inspired us, without whom this project would have been a distant reality.

Abhishek Jain Tajender Singh Manjot Singh Avinash Mohanty Students of MBA (2011-13) School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar

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List of Tables............................................................................................... ........................4 List of Figures.................................................................................................................. ....6 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................. 8 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 9 Review of Literature........................................................................................................... 10 Objective............................................................................................................................. 11 Research Methodology..................................................................................................... ...11 Demographic Profile of the Respondents............................................................................12 Frequency Distribution Tables of responses in Questionnaire............................................13 Testing of Hypothesis......................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 43 Limitations.......................................................................................................................... 44 Bibliography....................................................................................................................... 45

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1. Frequency Distribution of Gender 2. Frequency Distribution of Age 3. Frequency Distribution of : Educational Qualification Do you use Internet Average Hours of Active Internet usage per day Do you know what a social Networking website is Do you have a profile on any of the SNs(Multiple Choice)

Table 1.1 Table 2.1

Table 3.1 Table 4.1 Table 5.1 Table 6.1 Table 7.1

How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on avg.)Table8.1 How many communities/groups are you a member of? How often do you usually log on to your favorite service(s)? Table 9.1 Table 10.1

How much time (on average) do you spend on your favorite social networking site(s) per session? Table 11.1 What do you mostly use these sites for? 1. Keeping in touch with friends/celebs. 2. Planning events 3. Making new Friends 4. Dating 5. For Information/Knowledge 6. Entertainment 7. Share your Experience 8. Socialize 9. Shopping 10. Time pass

Table 12.1 Table 12.2 Table 12.3 Table 12.4 Table 12.5 Table 12.6 Table 12.7 Table 12.8 Table 12.9 Table 12.10

4. Do you feel that Social Networking websites help you keep updated about the current happenings in the world? Table 13.1 5. Rate your favorite social network in terms of user friendliness? Table 14.1 6. Do you feel secured while giving your personal information/photos etc. in the social networking websites? Table 15.1

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7. Can you access your social network via mobile phone? Table 16.1 8. Do you use video chat when using social networks? Table 17.1 9. Do you think Social Networking has made your life much easier than beforeTable 18.1 10. Is life possible without Social networking for you? Table19.1

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1. Frequency Distribution of Gender via Pie Chart/Bar Diagram: 2. Frequency Distribution of Age via Pie Chart/Bar Diagram: 3. Frequency Distribution of Questionnaire via Pie Chart/Bar Diagram: Educational Qualification Do you use Internet Average Hours of Active Internet usage per day Do you know what a social Networking website is Do you have a profile on any of the SNs(Multiple Choice)

Fig 1.1 Fig 2.1

Fig 3.1 Fig 4.1 Fig 5.1 Fig 6.1 Fig 7.1

How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on average) Fig 8.1 How many communities/groups are you a member of? How often do you usually log on to your favorite service(s)? Fig 9.1 Fig 10.1

How much time (on average) do you spend on your favorite social networking site(s) per session? Fig 11.1 What do you mostly use these sites for? 1. Keeping in touch with friends/celebs. 2. Planning events 3. Making new Friends 12.3 4. Dating 5. For Information/Knowledge 6. Entertainment 7. Share your Experience 8. Socialize 9. Shopping 10. Time pass

Fig 12.1 Fig 12.2 Fig Fig 12.4 Fig 12.5 Fig 12.6 Fig 12.7 Fig 12.8 Fig 12.9 Fig 12.10

4. Do you feel that Social Networking websites help you keep updated about the current happenings in the world? Fig 13.1 5. Rate your favorite social network in terms of user friendliness? Fig 14.1 6. Do you feel secured while giving your personal information/photos etc. in the social networking websites? Fig 15.1
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7. Can you access your social network via mobile phone? Fig 16.1 8. Do you use video chat when using social networks? Fig 17.1 9. Do you think Social Networking has made your life much easier than before? Fig 18.1 10. Is life possible without Social networking for you? Fig 19.1 11. Necessity of SNs for youngsters in todays life. Fig: Test1 12. Access SNs Via Mobile Phone (Bar Diagram) Fig: Test2 13. Use Video Chat in SNs (Pie Chart) Fig: Test3

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Purpose: Social networking services are changing the ways in which people use and engage with the Internet and with each other. Young people, particularly, are quick to use the new technology in ways that increasingly blur the boundaries between online and offline activities. Social networking services are also developing rapidly as technology changes with new mobile dimensions and features. This paper analyses youngsters attitude towards Social Networking Websites, and their thinking towards having more friends/connections, and to gain knowledge from SNs.

Methodology: This study used an empirical survey on a convenience sample of youngsters in the locality of KIIT University, and nearby Schools of Patia, Bhubaneswar

Findings: Two main hypotheses researched in this paper are: H1: Social networking websites helps to gain knowledge about current affairs. H2: People prefer to have more friends on Social Networking Profiles Necessity of using Social Networking Websites for youngsters in todays life. (Through Frequency Distribution Table) The first hypothesis was accepted whereas the second hypothesis wasnt accepted after a brief analysis by using various tests using SPSS 16.0 version, and the Necessity of using SNs was also analyzed using Frequency Distribution Table where we found that the Necessity of using Social Networking Website for Youngsters is very high.

Implications: These findings show us the impact of usage of Social Networking Websites on Youngsters life. They provide an insight into the youngsters perception of gaining knowledge from SNs, and the Necessity of usage of such services in their life.
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The project is designed to investigate how social networking services are creating an Impact on youngsters specially focused to support personalized informal learning by youth via Social Networking Websites. The work opens by asking What are social networking services? This section investigates current definitions of social networking services and provides a comprehensive review of current social networking service types and activities. Definition Social networking services refers here to a wide-range of rapidly developing services tools and practices. Social networking services can be broadly defined as Internet- or mobile-device based social spaces designed to facilitate communication, collaboration and content sharing across networks of contacts.

What are social networking services? Social networking services allow users to manage, build and represent their social networks Online. Services usually (but not always) include other individuals; they might also include the profiles of events, companies, even political parties. They may let add anyone in the network as your friend or contact, or they might ask both parties to agree all connections. Social networking services are changing the ways in which people use and engage with the Internet and with each other. Young people, particularly, are quick to use the new technology in ways that increasingly blur the boundaries between online and offline activities. Social networking services are also developing rapidly as technology changes with new mobile dimensions and features. Children and young people within the India, who have grown up taking the Internet and mobile technologies for granted, make up a significant segment of the beta generation the first to exploit the positive opportunities and benefits of new and emerging services, but also the first to have to negotiate appropriate behaviors within the new communities, and to have to identify and manage risk. Social networking services are on the rise globally, and this change is also evident in increased Indian engagement with sites. According to recent Hitwise figures, the most popular dedicated social networking sites in the India are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. While the number of visitors to social networking sites is increasing, so too are the numbers of new services being launched, along with the number of longstanding websites that are adding, developing or refining social networking service features or tools.

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Gone are the days when people tried to create an account to log-in in to an e-mail browser with a help of a user-name to get in to chat rooms for a friendly chat or to get a date or even networking for the sake of a business relationship. Though the online chat friend is a total stranger, Youngsters loved the thrill of meeting new people virtually. And now with the growing technology and the exposure that the young minds get, people have started to follow the rage of joining in to as many social networking sites to meet and keep in touch with as many people as possible at a click away. Do you want to find your long lost friend, who had studied in your kinder garden, its now possible. Are you joining a new company or an educational institute and want to find people who are either part of the company or studying in the institution, its completely done. That's the power of these sites which draw the attention of the youngsters. Sometimes even a business transaction is made simple with just having a friendly chat and in some cases it might even turns around in a different way and its in the hands of the person and the situation it is completely depended on. The entertainment offered by these sites is tremendous that one would stick on to it throughout the day. Games are plenty, chatting is simple, starting a discussion and getting a solution to a problem is made to be so easy, and that the immediacy approach is admired by many in this fast paced world. The choice is many and so is the chance of getting addicted to these networking sites. Teenagers and working adults are constantly in touch with people through these sites either by speaking their mind by updating their status message online or through chatting that it has become a mandatory day to day activity and a routine. The addiction had made many corporate companies to ban the access to these sites during their working hours. In fact it has even gone beyond the extent that even some countries had banned the usage of some of the networking sites. The advancing technology has pushed us to the extent that a parent had to call their kid to come down for dinner through an online chat which is easier to get to the access of the teens. Researchers have also tried to establish a significant relationship between the Youngsters and Effect of Social Networking Websites on them. The studies have shown that Social Networking Websites however is a good source of information to learn about and lets people to build in relationships, However it has shown some adverse effects on the lives of youngsters being an addict to it, in a negative way. Thus, we in this Research have targeted 48 respondents of age group 14-25 years of Bhubaneswar area to have a look about the impact of social networking websites on their lives, wheather SNs help gain some knowledge of Current Happenings to youngsters and their Necessity of Using Social Networking websites.
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To understand the youngsters experience with social networking websites and communities.

The aim of this paper is to analyze youngsters attitude towards Social Networking Websites, and their thinking towards having more friends/connections, and to gain knowledge from SNs. Thus, two main hypotheses were set:

H1: Social networking websites helps to gain knowledge about current affairs. H2: People prefer to have more friends on Social Networking Profiles Also, On the basis of frequency table we tried to find out the Necessity of SNs for youngsters in todays life. After the literature review, a questionnaire was developed to study the youngsters behavior and attitude towards the usage of Social Networking Websites. The questionnaire includes the demographic profile, Internet use and attitude towards Knowledge gained, Connections/Friends and the Necessity. The questionnaire is also based on a five-point Likert's scale and other methods. The respondents were asked to rate the options according to their choices. Random sampling technique has been used for collecting the data. The sample includes the locality of KIIT University and Some schools nearby Patia. Data has been collected from students. A total of 48 questionnaires were distributed from which all the questionnaires were received. Chi-square, mean, Frequency Table, & Cross-tab along with Graphical representation (Pie charts/ Bar diagram) have been used to find the behavior of Youngsters towards Social Networking websites.

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1. Gender:

Table 1.1

Fig: 1.1

2. Age Group:

Fig: 2.1

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We selected a sample size of 48 amongst which 54.2% are men and 45.8% are women. We also have taken age group ranging from 14 to 25. Given below are representations of the questionnaires conducted by us .To give a clear picture we have given pie chart distribution to know about the frequencies of various variables we have taken.

3. Educational Qualification:

Table: 3.1

Fig: 3.1

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4.

Do you use internet?

Table:4.1

Fig: 4.1

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5.

Average hours of active Internet use per day? Table: 5.1

Fig: 5.1

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6.

Do you know what a Social Networking Website is?

Table 6.1

Fig: 6.1

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7.

Do you have your profile on any the following social networking services?(Multiple Choice) Frequency Table:
Social Networking website Facebook Orkut Yahoo Gmail Twitter Myspace Youtube Hi5 LinkedIn Table7.1 Profiles on SN's(Frequency) 40 10 5 45 24 5 25 1 11 Percentage 83.3 20.8 10.4 93.7 50 10.4 52.08 2.08 22.91

100 90 80 70 60 50 40

30
20 10 0

Fig 7.1 (Percentage of people having profile in several Social Networking Websites)

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8.

How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on average):

Table8.1

Fig: 8.1

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9.

How many communities/groups are you a member of ?

Table 9.1

Fig: 9.1

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10.

How often do you usually log on to your favorite service(s)?

Table 10.1

Fig: 10.1

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How much time (on average) do you spend on your favorite social networking site(s) per session?
11.

Table11.1

Fig: 11.1

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12. Purpose

of usage of SNs?

Table12.1

Fig: 12.1

Table12.2

Fig: 12.2

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Table12.3

Fig: 12.3

Table12.4

Fig: 12.4

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Table12.5

Fig: 12.5

Table12.6

Fig: 12.6

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Table12.7

Fig: 12.7

Table12.8

Fig: 12.8

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Table12.9

Fig: 12.9

Table12.10

Fig: 12.10

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13. Do you feel that Social Networking websites help you keep updated about the current happenings in the world?

Table13.1

Fig: 13.1

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14. Rate your favorite social network in terms of user friendliness?

Table14.1

Fig: 14.1

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15. Do you feel secured while giving your personal information/photos etc. in the social networking websites?

Table15.1

Fig: 15.1

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16. Can you access your social network via mobile phone?

Table16.1

Fig: 16.1

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17. Do you use video chat when using social networks?

Table17.1

Fig: 17.1

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18. Do you think Social Networking has made your life much easier than before?

Table18.1

Fig: 18.1

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19. Is life possible without Social networking for you?

Table19.1

Fig 19.1

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Hypothesis 1: Social networking websites helps to gain knowledge about current affairs. For the analysis of H1, we used the samples and the key claim on the basis of Gender and Age with a closed ended question Do you feel that Social Networking websites help you keep updated about the current happenings in the world? The hypothesis was tested using a Cross-tab/Chi Square.

The result of the Cross-tab/Chi Square test conducted on the representative sample of KIIT University and nearby Schools of Patia, Bhubaneswar locality. When compared with Age, we rejected the null hypothesis H0: Social networking websites doesnt help people to gain knowledge about current affairs.

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Interpretation: In the age group 14-16, 3 respondents said yes that they were updated about current happenings In the age group 17-19, 5 respondents said yes that they were updated about current happenings However the inclination was towards the age group of 20-25, of which 36 respondents said in favor of updates of current affairs.

Now, Thus, We Accepted the null hypothesis

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Hypothesis 2: People prefer to have more friends on Social Networking Profiles For the analysis of H2, we used the samples and the key claim on the basis of Age, Gender & Qualification and Friend/Connections with the question How many connections do you have on your Social Networking Websites Profile? The hypothesis was tested using a Cross-tab/Chi Square.

The result of the Cross-tab/Chi Square test conducted on the representative sample of KIIT University and nearby Schools of Patia, Bhubaneswar locality. When compared with Age, we Accepted the null hypothesis H0: People doesnt prefer to have less friends on Social Networking Websites. However, When compared with Gender and Educational Qualification we Rejected the null hypothesis H0: People doesnt prefer to have less friends on Social Networking Websites.

The following are the test results:

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Intrepretation: How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on average): (On the Gender Basis) For male we can see that they dont hesitate to make friends, among 26 male 17 of them have more than 300 connections, whereas female hesitate to make connections in SN as among 22 females only 7 has more than 300 connections.

How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on average): (on the Age Group basis ) For the age group between 14-16, 1 person has 101-200 friends in social networking sites. However, the trend starts to increase with the age group ranging from 17-19 & 20-25 and people prefer to have more friends to add in SNs.

How many connections (Friends) you have for your SNs profile (on average): (on the basis of Educational Qualifications) In this we can see among male less of school student and undergraduate youngsters use SN and more of postgraduate student use it and it is the same for females also. As chi-square is more than .608, we accept the null hypothesis on the basis of age. But on the basis of Gender we doesn't accept the null hypothesis. On the basis of Educational Qualification we doesn't accept the null hypothesis

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Frequency Test for Necessity of SNs for youngsters in todays life. For the analysis of necessity of SNs for youngsters in todays life, we used the samples and the key claim on the basis of Usage of Internet via Mobile Phone, Video Chats in SNs, and Time Spent by an Individual in SNs per session. The questions involved were Do you use your favourite SN Profile via Mobile Phone? Do you use Video Chats in SNs? How much time (on average) do you spend on your favorite social networking site(s) per session? The analysis was done using Frequency Distribution Table and the result is below:

Frequency Tables: Table: Test 1

Fig: Test1

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Table:Test2

Fig: Test 2 Interpretation of the above table:

Fig: Test 3

From the frequency table we can see that that 56.3% of people are online for 5 hours per day. Also, Around 85.4% people use social networking sites via mobile phones and 54.2% use video chat on a continuous basis. Thus, we can say from the above analysis social networking websites are really necessary for youngsters.
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Social networking services are changing the ways in which people use and engage with the Internet and with each other and these services are growing at a great pace and is well accepted by the Youngsters these days.

In the recent days, Social Networking websites are not only used for Socializing or Entertainment but has increased to a wider perspective such as Shopping, Dating, Advertising, Keeping updated about the Current affairs of the world and much more. According to the findings of our research we can say that Youngsters really feel the need of social networking websites in order to keep them updated with the current happenings of the world and often use these services via Mobile Phones as well.

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The research was done in the locality of KIIT University and Schools of Patia Area of Bhubaneswar and the sample frame mainly consists of School and College students. So, it was assumed that it will show the impact of using Social Networking Services on Youngsters of this area. Young people in the age group of 14-25 years prefer to use Social Networking Websites. Any study based on survey through questionnaire suffers from the basic limitations of the possibility of difference between what is recorded and what is truth, no matter how carefully the questionnaire is designed and field investigation has been conducted. Recording the information personally minimized the error of respondents not reporting their true preferences. The main source of the data for the study was primary data collected from the respondents with the help of self-administered questionnaire. However, some of respondents were unwilling to share the information.

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Acquisti, Alessandro, and Gross, Ralph. (2006). Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook. Acquisti, Alessandro, and Gross, Ralph. (2009). Predicting Social Security numbers from public data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (27), 10975-10980. Ajith Sundaram. (2011). Can Social Networking Keep Students In School A Proposal for an Ideal Social Networking Site for an Educational Institution. Boyd, danah. (2008). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. (pp. 119-142).Cambridge MIT Press.

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