Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Research Method

This study seeks to understand whether the use of Facebook among teenager’s
adolescents can have a role in their well-being and self-esteem. The methodology section
of this paper will discuss the design of this study including justification for the selection of
early adolescent participants and Facebook and the findings that the research expects to
discover.

3.2 Respondents/Participants

The current study examined a group of random undergraduate students (twenty males
and twenty females) Undergraduate students teenagers and older were encouraged to
participate.

3.3 Research instruments

The independent variable in this study is the social media usage of people. Computer
mediated communication, such as Facebook has gained millions and millions of users in
the past decade and now it has proven to be “one of the most trafficked site in the
world”

Twenty paper survey questionnaires for random people and twenty people in social media
were asked to fill up the questionnaires online.

Self-Esteem Scale measures self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-liking using ten general
statements that participants are asked to rank. Examples include, “On the whole, I am
satisfied with myself” and “I wish I could have more respect for myself.” Participants use
a Likert 27 scale ranging from one (strongly agree) to four (strongly disagree). Higher
scores indicated higher self-esteem.

Online intensity scales, the social media Intensity Scale is a tool used to measure Facebook
usage, frequency, and duration. It also measures emotional connectedness to the social
networking site. Examples of questions used in this measure include “how much hour do
you spend on social media?” and “how often you comment on other people’s post?”
Participants are asked to rank each item on a scale from one (strongly disagree) to five
(strongly agree). Scores are computed by calculating the mean of all items in their level of
satisfaction in example “I am satisfied with myself”. And that “I am a person of worth”
3.4 Data gathering procedure

Students who are in 13-19 years old were participated and another participant/s who is 20-
23 years of age were answered the survey questionnaire for comparing of results. The
measures were administered online and students who participated remained anonymous.
The measures were scored accordingly and used to determine if there is a correlation
between Social media usage and self-esteem of teenagers.

3.5 Data analysis

The current study explored the relationship between self-esteem and Facebook usage by
administering an on-line survey to random people survey question consisted of questions
from existing research for references. The survey was anonymous and posted online for
one week, and students earned research credit for their participation. And random gender
participated in the online survey.

The hypotheses for the current study, first were that more frequent Facebook use and
interaction would negatively affect self-esteem levels. Secondly, females spend more time
on Facebook than males. Finally, self-esteem influences Facebook interaction and
psychological well-being. More specifically, there is a relationship between the number of
Facebook friends, overall Facebook usage, and self-esteem levels.

Correlational analyses computed between the overall time spent on Facebook per day over
the course of the week prior to taking the survey and individual self-esteem levels were not
significant. However, correlational analyses between gender and overall time spent on
Facebook per day were significant, in figure 1, the most hours they’ve spend on social
media specifically on Facebook was 1-3 hours only based on the gathered data and the
least hours’ people spend was ‘more than 5 hours’

3.6 Survey results

Figure 1.
3.7 Conclusions

Social media has a very strong impact on the self-esteem of individuals. Students use these
social networking sites for information, communication and building and maintain of
relationships. But majority of the people end up making upward and downward
comparisons with others. The upward comparisons make people envy others and their
lifestyles and also feel less obliged.

As a result the self-esteem of such people gets negatively affected. Social media is growing
very drastically in almost every country in the world. So it is impossible to keep people,
especially students who use Facebook on a daily basis, away from social media for a very
long time. Parents and teachers should play an active role here by guiding students
regarding self-esteem, self-recognition, self-actualization and self-confidence.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect that social networking sites such as
Facebook have on self-esteem and body image satisfaction. Specifically, this study sought
to discover a link between frequency of Facebook use and negative self-esteem, especially
among females. The hypotheses for the current study, first were that more frequent
Facebook use and interaction would negatively affect self-esteem levels. After reviewing
the data from survey questionnaires there did not appear to be a significant correlation
between the time spent on Facebook and self-esteem levels. These results indicate that in
this particular group of random people, frequent Facebook use does not negatively affect
self-esteem levels. Past research has indicated that frequent use of social networking sites,
such as Facebook, has a direct effect on self-esteem levels due to overexposure,
communication overload, and social comparison. However, the results of this study
differed from these past studies, and, in the case of hypothesis one, there was no direct
effect of more frequent Facebook use on overall self-esteem levels. The second hypothesis
posited that females spend more time on Facebook than males.

On a daily basis, females do spend more overall time in minutes on this social networking
site than males. This research has indicated that females do spend more time on Facebook
than males do, and they tend to spend more time uploading photos, posting statuses, and
viewing others’ profiles.

3.8 Limitations

This study had several limitations. A major limitation was its on survey, only random
teenagers who has been asked. Another limitation was that in using the undergraduate
subject pool, only students enrolled in technological institute of the Philippines(TIP) during
only one week. Therefore, these findings may not be representative of the Teenagers
population. Finally, while this study was anonymous, it did rely on the honesty and integrity
of the participants. Rather than monitoring time spent on Facebook, participants were
asked to report how many minutes or hours they spend on the social networking site on a
daily basis. This is also another limitation, as students were only asked to report overall
Facebook usage for the course of the week prior to them completing the online survey.
Due to any number of circumstances, the amount of time student’s reported may differ
from other weeks.

References

1. https://researchhub.uitm.edu.my/pdf/3114.pdf
2. https://education.nova.edu/Resources/uploads/app/35/files/arc_doc/writing_chpt3_qualitative
_research_methods.pdf
3. https://rdw.rowan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1283&context=etd

Appendix

Survey Questionnaire

NAME: DATE:
COURSE PROGRAM: AGE: YEAR:

Please check the circle for your desired answer (Be honest)

1. How much hour do you spend on Facebook?

Less than hour 1-3 hours 3-5 hours

more than 5 hours

2. How often you comment on other people’s post?

Daily weekly monthly yearly never

3. While viewing other people’s profile do you compare yourself

to them?

YES NO SOMETIMES

4. Does the number of likes on your picture/status affect you?

YES v NO SOMETIMES

5. Why do you use Facebook?

Building relationship communication

information personal needs

Others (please specify):

6. Beside Facebook what social media you are using

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Instructions: below is a list of statement dealing with your general feelings about yourself. Please
indicate the level of your satisfaction on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the highest level of satisfaction

1 2 3 4
I am satisfied with myself
At times I think I am no good at all
I take positive attitude toward myself
I wish I could have more respect for myself
I am able to do things as well as most other people
I feel that I have a number of good qualities
I feel that I’m a person of worth
I feel useless
I feel I do not have much to be proud of
All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure

THANK YOU

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