Research Proposal

On
Nature of the Use of Social Network: A Study of DU Students

1 Abstract:
Social media are web-based services or networking sites that mainly connect individuals and
through which people can express their opinions and feelings regarding any contemporary issues.
The pattern of use of social networking sites like Facebook varies from person to person.
Every user has some sort of purposes behind of using social media such as commercial purpose,
educational purpose or recreational purpose. However, this study will be carried out with the
aim of examining the nature of the use of social media, mainly Facebook, of the students of
University of Dhaka. In order to find out the pattern of using social media, survey method will be
used as a most widely used method in social sciences. As an effective data collection tool, a
mixed questionnaire will be developed based on previous researches and literatures. As a sample
of the study 100 current students from the different departments of Faculty of Social Science of
University of Dhaka will be selected using weighted stratified sampling method where the
sample ratio is expected to be 50/50 (Male/Female). This is an endeavor to explore the current
trends and pattern of using social media among the students in the light of the previous studies.

Keyword: Nature of usage, Social network, Students, Academic performance

2 Introduction:
Do you know what is considered as the Oxygen of young generation? Yes, this is facebook,
which is the most used social media throughout the world. Bangladesh is not out of the purview
of this craze. Vindication of the previously mentioned statement is proved through the current
second ranking of Bangladesh in using facebook. As Dhaka University is the focal point of
Bangladesh, it is not backward to adopt the latest version of social media, Facebook. Student
without facebook identity is rare in this institution. However, the nature and degree of using this

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media vary from faculty to faculty and even department to department. It is so due to the
variance of pressure of study based on department.

2.1 Statement of the Problem:

In spite of, having many positive aspects of this social networking, it shows adverse indication
among students of Dhaka University. It is said that more inclination to Facebook, often disrupts
normal flow of interpersonal relationship, academic study, keeping good health etc. Many
experts in their studies suggested increasing family recreation arrangements, to nurture the
culture of cultural programs including poem reciting, essay competition, sports, study tour,
musical program, dancing program, staging drama and so on. Young generation goes to astray
due to having insufficient arrangements of sound recreational items aforementioned.

2.2 Justification of the Problem:

The role of Dhaka University students is worth importance in Bangladesh. As the central source
of intellectuals of Bangladesh is this university, time management in student life is a priceless
thing. However, is a matter of alarm that most of the students are addicted to Facebook. They
indiscriminately spend their valuable time every now and then. Even it is also seen that students
now a days have started using Facebook in the mosque. In a word, they have become Facebook
freak. The expense of purchasing books is being replaced by the expense of purchasing internet
data. Now, many students are involving in dirty pages and groups, cybercrime, fake relation,
spreading rumor and unrest and even terrorist activities. Being excessive virtual, the natural
bondage of friends and relatives is weakening in a great extent. The Students are so busy with the
virtual device that they cannot interact even with their parents enough. Consequently, a gap
between the students and their guardian is created. Therefore, to explore the underlying truths of
such abnormal fascination to Face book, a comprehensive study is the demand of time.

3 Research Objective:
1. To see the pattern and purpose of using social network by students
2. To know the frequency of usage of social network
3. To identify the variation in use of social network due to the academic maturity of the
students.

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 4. To see the differences of using social network from gender perspective
5. To explore the changes in the pattern of interpersonal relationship and communication.
6. To examine the effect of social network on the academic performance of the students.

4 Research Question:
What are the purposes of using social network of the students?
What is the effect of social network on the academic performance of students?
Is there any change in the pattern of interpersonal relationship and communication caused
by social network?
Is there any variation in use of social network due to the academic maturity of the
students?

5 Operational Definition:

Nature:
Nature can be defined as characteristics of something or someone which is expressed
spontaneously. A person can be defined by his/her nature. Nature differs from person to person.
So in general we can see different types of nature of students in case of using social network.
Like among various kinds of social networks students as well as young generation prefer to stay
connected through facebook than other social networks.
Student:
It is known to all that student means who is studying in enrolled school, college or university. In
our study we will focus on the students of University of Dhaka specially the students of social
science faculty to know their nature of use of social network.
Nature of use:
Nature of use means how something is used, the process, the details of use. In this study our
target is to find out the nature of use of social network specifically Facebook. So we will try to
see how students use it that means what they like to do in facebook , how much time they spend

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for it, why they prefer facebook as social network, their purpose, pattern of use, frequency of use
etc.
Social Network:
Social network can be defined from two perspectives one a network of individuals like friends,
family connected by interpersonal relationship and another one an online service or site through
which people create and maintain interpersonal relationships for social purpose or business
purpose or both. In our study we will concentrate on Facebook as the social network which is
used both for social purpose and business purpose. Nowadays it is the most preferable network
belonging two billion active users to stay connected with the near and dear as well as with the
whole world.

6 Literature Review:
Dhaka is ranked 2nd position among top cities with active facebook users after Bangkok. ( The
Daily Star). 80% of internet users are on facebook according to Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission.( Business Habit). Facebook is giving the opportunity to all to
communicate with their friends within second, and that lead them to build relation with known as
well as unknown which give them the opportunity to access various culture and others.
Boyd and Ellison (2007) described facebook as a web based services that allows individual
people to make a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a view and connection. It gives a platform through which youth
generation can chat, share various scraps, videos, pictures, upload profile/ cover photo, comment,
tag, like, dislike etc.( Chowdhury & Saha).

Facebook has become a worldwide phenomenon for individual which has changed to become a
social norm and existence-style for students around the world (Nicole, 2007). According to
Nicole, (2007), students and teenagers have especially recognized these social media platforms
to be able to contact their peers, share information, reinvent their personas and showcase their
social live. As well as accoding to Konetes and McKeague in 2011, came up with certain
revelations about the uses of the social networking sites especially, facebook, The researchers
reported that,students are using Facebook and other channels to develop their identities, beliefs

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and stances on various issues. Social Network improve a students sense of community, sharing
and collaboration that brings an additional responsibility and workload. (Minocha, 2009).

According to Brennan (2001) and Notle (2009) social networking help in the school and
universities to leverage and complement formal education activities and enhance learning
outcomes. In other words, Social networking can provide opportunities for new relationships as
well as strengthening existing relationships. Also, Joseph Barker (2013) noted that social media
offers plenty of opportunities for learning and interactivity and it is not too hard to see how
students and its users benefits from using social media. Joseph said that they are learning and
adapting to the world using a relatively new form of communication.

On the other hand, Having positive interpersonal relationships is an important predictor of well
being (Hartup & Stevens, 1999) and can buffer individuals from many of the key stressors that
characterize the transition from childhood to adulthood (Bukowski, 2001: Hartup, 2000). Social
networking generally, has been found to strengthen individual interpersonal relationships.(
Gross, 2004).

Along with this, Email, instant messaging and social networking can address new barriers people
may face to forming and maintaining public places together, limited transport to get there, and
time free of structured activities such as school and sport. Social networking sites have caused
some problems for their users, individuals, families, groups and students. Most of their users ,
these days, prefer to communicate via the sites rather via face-to-face contact or oral
communication, thus, making social network their preferred socializing forces. Additionally,
social networking sites likeFacebook and Twitter create the illusion of familiarity and intimacy
on the internet. The result is that people may be inclined to share information on which they
would have preferred to keep private. (Omekwu, Eke and Odoh).

Social Networking sites like facebook has different usage among the students. Its a technology
that is available in their hand and they can use it according to their wish. Some researcher
founded that social networking has a very important role in the academic life of the student, and
some stated that SN has a great impact on the health, relationship and others. In this paper we are

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trying to see the pattern of usage among the DU students and what is the effect of fb on them, it
may be positive or negative.

7 Conceptual Framework:
The use of Social Network such as Facebook, Twitter has become a popular and integral part of
everyday communication of the students of Dhaka University. Vast majority are engaging on a
daily basis with Social networking via a computer or mobile phone. The area is now a significant
emerging field of research and studies identifying the negative impacts as well as benefits
associated with social networking. The following paper summarizes current indication
concerning the enabling effects of Social networking in the context of everyday lives of the
students of Dhaka University. This framework encompasses the conceptual briefing of
significant variables and their interrelationship. The report draws upon a clear image of impacts
of SN on students identifying the behavioral changes and pattern of relationship and addressing
the knowledge gaps.

Social Networking:
Social Network is generally an online-based service or site which gives the opportunity to people
to create and maintain interpersonal relationships.Social networking services can be defined as a
web-based service that permits individuals to create a profile (either public or semi-public)
within bounded system (terms and policy). The sites communicate a list of other users with
whom they share a connection. Users view and go across their list of connections and those made
by others. The nature of uses and pattern of these connections may vary from site to site (Boyd
& Ellison 2007).In addition to communication, Social networking enables the creation and
sharing of a variety of content like podcast, illustration, blogs, video, photos and more.Social
network sites consist of personal profiles of users (Pempek et al. 2009). Users of social network
present oneself to others through their self-constructed profile showing text and pictures. They
view and comment on the presentations of other users, and they deal with others comments on
their own presentations (Espinoza and Juvonen 2011; Pempek et al. 2009).

Interpersonal Relationship:
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It is the social associations, connections or affiliations between two or more people . It includes
friendships, family, romantic relationships, professional relationships, neighbors etc.
Social network system works through the interpersonal relationship of the actors. A social
network consists of a set of actors (nodes) and the relations (ties or edges) between these
actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994).

Using pattern of social network by students:

Nowadays a large quantity of students of DU use social network like Facebook, Twitter etc.
using Computer or Mobile phone. They spend a remarkable amount of time on these sites. An
study conducted on European adolescents shows that 70 % of European adolescents aged 1417
use social network sites and 40 % of these users spend over 2 hours per day on these websites
(Tsitsika et al. 2014). In this paper we will conduct an in-depth surveillance on DU students to
know the pattern of usage of social network.

The effects of social network on students:

The effect of social network sites on the lives and the development of adolescents are important
to investigate given the role social network sites currently play in adolescents lives (OKeeffe
and Clarke-Pearson 2011).Social network is simultaneously beneficial and detrimental to the
students. Benefits of social networking are largely associated with the participatory nature of the
contemporary digital environment. Substantial evidence of the benefits associated with SN on
students is largely neglected in public debate. There are also a number of bad effects of social
networking on students including time killing, obsession etc. The following report summarizes
current evidence relating to the enabling effects of social networking the context of Dhaka
University students everyday lives encompassing a range of variables including pattern of
relationship, using hour of Facebook and behavioral change etc.

8 Theoretical Framework:
For explaining our research we will use Media System Dependency (MSD) theory or
simply Media Dependency Theory which was developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin
Defleur in 1976. This theory is a systematic approach to study of the effects of mass media on

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audiences. According to this theory, media, audience and broad societal system have a
dependency relationship with each other. In our modern information based society,
industrialization have decreased the influence of inter personal communication and therefore
people tend to develop a dependency relationship on media to satisfy a variety of their needs.
Consequently the role of media system and its effect on people is also increased.
The Media dependency theory assumes that more a person depends on media to meet needs, the
more important media will be in a person`s life and therefore the more effects media will have on
a person. Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur described two specific conditions
under which people`s media needs and consequently people dependency on media and
therefore probable effects of media are heightened. Two basic proposition of the theory which
heightened media need, are:
i) The number of media and centrality of media functions in a society are high
ii) The grater the instability of a society, the greater the audience`s dependency on the
media.
Little-John (2002) also explained that people will become more dependent on the media
that meet a number of their needs than on the media that meet a number of their needs than on
the media that touch only a few needs. The more an individual relies on the media for the
expression of thought and sharing of ideas, the more that individual is influenced by the media.
Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur discussed about three types of effects
cognitive, behavioral and affective effects which media put upon people.

The more people depend on social media, the more their attitudes, cognition, emotional states
or behavior will change. In our present world, social networks are the most popular means of
communication. People use various sites of social network for both interpersonal and public
communication. Social networks are modern interactive communication channels through
which people connect to one another, share ideas, experiences, pictures, messages and
information of interest. Facebook is the most popular and most used social network sites
because of its applicability for various purposes. Especially students now a day use
Facebook for various purposes like for academic discourse, interpersonal communication,
sharing information, views and ideas. Their pattern of usages of Facebook is also different

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from one another. Consequently effects of Facebook or social network are also different on
them.
The general or overall objective of our research is to identify the usage pattern of Facebook by
students of Dhaka University and to see its impact on them. For this, the independent variable of
our research will be the usage pattern of social network by students and dependent variable
will be the effects of social network on students. Through identifying the frequency and
duration of usage and explaining their activity in social media we will try to identify the usage
pattern of social media of students. This identification will help us to find out the various effects
of social media such as effects on academic life and interpersonal relationship of students. And
for this we will use Media System Dependency Theory which is related to our study and will
be helpful for explaining our research.

9 Analytical Framework:
An analytical framework is devised for this study based on the review of the relevant
literature and existing theory of social networking. All these endeavors are aimed at assessing
the variables of nature of the use of social network sites. Once the data will be available for
the proposed study it will help to examine the significance of discrete variables to the
dependent variable of the nature of the use of social network of students.

1. Nature of usage
2. Frequency of usage
3. Purpose of the use Effect on Academic
4. Academic Maturity of the Performance,
students Interpersonal
Relationship &
Communication

Figure: Variables of the Research.

Notwithstanding that there are so many independent variables of social networking are available
for convenience we have only selected the above mentioned four variables.

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10 Research Methodology:
10.1 Research Design and Method:
Research method is the functional action strategy to conduct the study in the light of the
theoretical framework and research questions or imposed hypothesis (Aminuzzaman, 2011). In
every research, a certain research method and design have to be followed to conduct the study.
This study is a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative design. However, the selection
of research method mostly depends on the nature of the issue or the problem being studied.
Sometimes a single method cannot demonstrate the fact properly. Every research method has
some sorts of limitations. In order to ensure methodological soundness, the researcher of the
social sciences use a combined method and devise an inclusive research style. Moreover , it is
assumed that survey method is one of the most commonly used methods in social sciences. It
helps the researcher to identify not only the variables which are inter-related but also how those
relationship take shape over time. For this very reason, this study will be conducted through
employing the survey method to find out the intended outcome and relationship among the
variables.

10.2 Sources of Data:

To serve the purpose of this study, necessary data will be collected from both primary and
secondary sources. Quantitative primary data will be gathered from the potential respondents
through conducting the survey. On the other hand, essential and relevant secondary data will be
retrieved from various sources. It includes books, academic journals, articles and other published
documents and relevant reports.

10.3 Data Collection Method:

Data collection is the most phase of the research. There are several modes of data collection. A
researcher has to consider many things like types of information needed, availability of data,
budgetary support as well as the timeframe of the research, to choose a particular method.
Among the leading data collection methods, questionnaire is a very effective tool that facilitates
in collecting data from large, diverse and widely dispersed sample (Aminuzzaman, 2011). Tull
and Kawkins (1990) said that the survey method can supply researchers with data on
attitude, feelings, beliefs and Envisioned behavior. Hence, the assembling of different kind
of info from the respondents, questionnaires will be appropriate for this research which will

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enable get the actual info from the target population. In this study, a semi-structured
questionnaire will be constructed to gather the empirical data. It will be a mixed questionnaire
with the combination of both open and close-ended questions.

10.4 Sampling Method:

Sampling is the process of picking up the suitable respondents from the population under study.
Samples of a study represent the entire community and reflect the belief, nature, interest of the
study population. There are several types of sampling methods which are commonly used to
choose the sample. In this research, weighted stratified sampling method will be used which is a
technique to choose an equal number of items from each group. Targeted respondents will be
picked up randomly through maintaining an equal ratio of male and female students.

10.5 Sample size & Research Area:

Validity and accuracy of the research findings highly depend on the size and homogeneity of the
sample. This study will be conducted on the students of Dhaka University. 100 students will be
chosen as the sample of the study. To ensure the homogenous character of the samples, The
potential students will be chosen from different departments of the faculty of social sciences. To
fulfill the provision of the objectives, 50 male students and 50 female students will be taken as a
sample.

SL. No. Sex of the Respondents Distribution of sample

1. Male 50
2. Female 50
Total 100
Table 1: Distribution of sample

11 Limitations and weakness of the study:

The purpose of this research is to find out the nature of use of social network (facebook) of
students of Dhaka University by using questionnaire survey under the survey method. But some
limitations and weakness will always prevail in every research. There can be various possible
limitations to this study based on the situation and nature of the respondents as well as their

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nature of using this popular social networking media. Some possible limitations and weakness
can be listed following:
As a new comer in the research field it cannot be expected that ones overall research
will be perfect. We will be unable to collect enough information due to academic
schedule of the students of those departments under the social science faculty because
most of the departments follow the semester system to run their academic program in a
year where students remain always in pressure with various academic activities like
midterm exam, class test, assignment, presentation, viva, field work, final exam and
others related to the department. So we cannot be insisted them to provide time for
collecting information if they are not interested.
The student status will be one of the barriers to collect data because respondents will not
be paid proper importance to our words or questionnaire as we are not professional
researchers.
Time and finance are related to this study. It will not be possible for us as a student to
collect and expend huge amount of money within this limited time for conducting the
research.
Questionnaire, the data collection tool of the research will be mixed ended which is
constructed by the both of close and open ended questions. Using close ended questions
also means the limitation of choice for the respondents as they are forced to choose an
answer from the options provided by the researcher. This means that some possible
answer will remain outside of the study and as a result research will be somewhat
incomplete. On the other hand using open ended questions mean that some options are
available for the respondents to express their desire opinion but problem is that it will be
made someone more interested to provide exaggerated as well as irrelevant information
or be made someone apathy to answer the questions which will be both time consuming
for researchers to find out the exact information and difficult to collect enough
information for apathy of the respondents.
In simple random sampling under probability sampling method with 100 respondents it
cannot be possible to keep balance in case of gender, department, semester or year of the
students during picking up the respondents. There is no guarantee that we will be able to

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 cover that biggest sample size in limited time period to provide a desired outcome in the
form of research.
The respondents may not give true answer about their nature of using face book.
Excessive addiction in using social media, personality, characteristics, entertainment
behavior, gender, educational level, geographical area, age and educational tools of
departments may be influenced the nature of the use of Face book of the students of
existing departments under the social science faculty. It will be difficult to find out exact
information and present condition of using face book from 100 respondents by using
questionnaire survey if they are not interested to co-operate in each question or hide
important information. In this case we cannot be forced students for desired information
to find out how face book has bought changes in life style or academic life as well as
pattern of relationship of the students. On the other side it is quite impossible to visit
each profile of every respondent. It is known to interesting that many students have
several numbers of face book ID in different name.
It can also be happened that some of the selected respondents have no face book ID or
they are not interested to open it and use it as a popular communication media in time. In
this situation the purpose of the research may derail in the initial stage of the conducting
research.

12 Data Processing & Analysis Plan:

In order to get meaningful inferences and comprehensive conclusion, the collected data must be
processed properly and analytically presented (Aminuzzaman, 2011). Therefore, this is the core
part of the entire study. In this regard, to make the analysis fruitful and goal oriented a special
attention will be given in this part. Data will be analyzed with the help of the literature of the
previous research in the same field and in the light of our research questions and objectives. We
will use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel as well Microsoft Access. To get different chart and
percentage we will use SPSS software also. The data processing and analysis will go through
following these sequential steps.

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 Preparing the Data for Analysis
Setp-1

Analysing the Data

Step-2

Interpretaion & Reporting the Findings

Step-3

Figure: Steps of data analysis.

To interpret the data to be gathered, we will use the following statistical formulae: Percentage
to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire.

Percentage (%) = 100

n Number of responses
N Total number of respondents
To generate the mean value of different variables of the collected perceptions, the following
formula also will be used.

Mean () =

X=Values of responses
n= Total Number of respondents
Furthermore, how data will be analyzed which is followed by findings can be graphically shown
below.

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 Data collection

Secondary sources: Primary Sources:

Books, journal, Questionnaire,
internet interview, discussion,
observation

Analyzing data

Findings

Figure : An overview of data analysis plan.

13 Implementation Time Frame:

Stage 1: Research Proposal , August to 23rd September

Timeframe Students or Group Supervisor
1rst week of August Selecting a tentative topic for the Tentative research group of 10
research by the students members was formed
2nd week of august Final topic was selected and a
group of 9 members was
formed
September-12 Group members sit together to
discuss about the research topic,
identify research objectives and set
the research questions
September-13 Consultation with supervisor Provides effective opinion
August 14-19 Research proposal: start writing
August -20 Final submission of research

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 proposal

Stage 2: Data collection, 3rd week of September to October

Stage3: Analysis, Writing and Submission of Research, November to last week of December
Timeframe Students or group Supervisor

November to first week of Critical Reflection course,

December Writing on individual chapters
in consultation with supervisor
3rd week of December Final draft and final
submission

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