ial Scien oc ce S s d J n o u a r s n t a r l Zareen et al., Arts Social Sci J 2014, 5:2 A Arts and Social Sciences Journal DOI: 10.4172/2151-6200.100080 ISSN: 2151-6200 Research Article Open Access Usage of Social Networking Sites: Interpersonal Communication Motives of Youth Saima Zareen* , Arshad Ali and Muhammad Ali Junjua Department of Communication Studies and Media Center, University of Gujrat, Pakistan *Corresponding author: Dr. Saima Zareen, Department of Communication Studies and Media Center, University of Gujrat, Pakistan, Tel: +374 10 23-72-61; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: September 11, 2014, Accepted date: September 27, 2014, Published date: October 10, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 Zareen S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract The study was conducted at the university of Gujrat to examine the role of social media specially facebook is creating awareness among students about political system of Pakistan and possible change in political behavior of students after exposure to political content on facebook. Survey research method was adopted in this research. A pilot study was conducted before choosing sample. During pilot study survey method was used to find out that student of which departments of University use facebook the most. It was found that students of CS/IT and MCM department use facebook. Through Survey Research, data was collected from 120 respondents, among which 67 were male while remaining 53 were female. A clear majority of 65% of the respondents belong to age group from 22-24 years. 30%, 19-21.56.7% of respondents belongs to Urban area, 30% from Sub Urban area while only 13.3% belong to Rural area. Keywords: Media; Communication; Society development; Political make money on them. Now, more than half of the giant social behavior network's advertising revenue is coming from ads for its 1.2 billion users on smartphones and tablets. And it's buying WhatsApp after Introduction outbidding rival Google Inc. for the most popular mobile app for sending messages on smartphones. Media has a powerful and significant role in human life. It is the source of information, entertainment and education. Objectives of the Research Role of media in the life of people and in the society development The objectives of this thesis are: can’t be overlooked. Media is considered as the mirror of society. It has now become an important pillar of society as well as state. • To calculate relationship between online political participation and facebook usage. Media is considered as the most influential tool of communication. Its duty is to promote the right thing on right time. A new kind of • To find out the relationship between facebook usage and media, social media, has become an important phenomenon around traditional political participation. the globe. It has got immense importance after its effective role in 2008 • To investigate the effects of online political participation on social Presidential elections of U.S and its role in Arab Upspring. This study media and traditional political participation. will examine the role of social media specially facebook in creating awareness among students about political system of Pakistan and • To evaluate the change in attitude of students after exposure to possible change in political behavior of students after exposure to political content on facebook political content on facebook. Social network sites started emerging in • To find out the level of change in behavior of students after 1990s and now become an important online tool. Social networks exposed to political content on facebook through social networking sites provides a platform to its users to communicate with each other and share personal information, beliefs thoughts, experiences, knowledge ,interest and affiliations. It also Significance of the Study allows the users to form their online communities. Social networking Present era is the age of internet and New Media. This new media sites allow users to present themselves in the form of text, videos and has opened new platforms and communication channels for its users multimedia content. Social media includes cell phone and worldwide around the globe. web bases technologies which give birth to interactive online communities. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlich [1-5] defines The use of Internet as a private advertisement campaign started in social media as a group of Internet based application that build on nineties but the advent of social media including facebook, YouTube, ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allows twitter, blogs and discussion boards has demonstrated the true creation and exchange of user generated content. strength of this medium. Less than two years ago, disillusioned investors were fleeing Today it is no more difficult for a common person to make his Facebook Inc. stock, worried the company would never figure out how views on any of the current happening wit in the country as well as to make the leap to mobile devices from personal computers, let alone around the globe. People use to discuss ranging from economic crisis Arts Social Sci J Volume 5 • Issue 2 • 100080 ISSN:2151-6200 ASSJ, an open access journal Citation: Zareen S, Ali A, Junjua MA (2014) Usage of Social Networking Sites: Interpersonal Communication Motives of Youth. Arts Social Sci J 5: 80. doi:10.4172/2151-6200.100080 Page 2 of 13 in country to international political paradigm shifts without any Research Question censor and fear. It can be said easily that Social media has now become a new hub and platform for communication. Social media has become Whether and to what extent exposure to political content on a new phenomenon in the political spectrum of the world. Only a facebook affects, Political Behavior of Students of University of Gujrat? decade ago television and internet were considered new media but today we are living in the age of facebook, twitters and blogs; a new Hypothesis social media. • More the exposure to political content on facebook more is the Social networking has been described as the contemporary way that online political participation by students. people interact. While that may be true, an individual's social success • Intensity of exposure to political content on facebook usage is in the virtual world doesn't appear to carry over into the real world, directly related to traditional political participation. according to a new study. Previous studies on how the Internet affects relationships have produced mixed findings. Some research shows that • Students would be more vigilant to cast a vote in coming elections. lots of social networking activity has a negative effect on social life • Students would be more vocal to discuss political conditions of the while others suggest it enhances one's social circle. The new study, led country with parents and friends. by Thomas V. Pollet of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, examined 117 people age 18 to 63. They filled out an extensive questionnaire about the time they spend on instant Facebook messaging and social network sites, the number of relationships they Facebook is a social networking website which was launched in had overall and the closeness of those relationships. 2004. Initially membership was only available for the students of Social media has got immense importance after its role in political Harvard College and within one month, more than half of the degree campaign of U.S presidential elections 2008. Many of the political students at Harvard got themselves registered on Facebook. Like other scholars termed these elections as “facebook election”, “twitter social media website facebook provide its users a formatted page in election” and “New media elections”. Facebook and You Tube were which users use to enter his or her personal information like name, used as a tool to deliver messages and share the timings and venues of age, gender, education, place of birth, religious and political views, meetings and public addressees by the presidential candidates. marital status, likings and disliking and his personal or family pictures According to many political scholars of U.S.A the biggest factor which etc. Facebook also provide services like “private messaging” system as boosted up the campaign of Barack Hussain Obama and provides him well as public messaging system in the form of “Wall”. platform to communicate with his supporters and voters was the use of social media specially facebook. Facebook user in Pakistan Facebook also played a pivotal role in Tunisian and Egypt Pakistan has a huge chunk of population using Facebook. Pakistan revolution. Protestors couldn’t get proper coverage from the national has 6898720 facebook users which make Pakistan 29 in the ranking of TV so they used the platform of social media like facebook and twitter Facebook statistics (socialbaker.com). According to social badker.com, to not only communicate and deliver message to mainstream 3.89 of total population of Pakistan use facebook. Astonishingly the international media but also to gather protestors and inform them largest age group is currently 18-24 with total 073368113 users about the next place of protest. followed by the users in the age 25-34. Out of 3.89% of facebook users 69% are male and 31% female users in Pakistan. According to Pakistan Pakistan has a democratic parliamentary federal system of Telecommunication Authority, more than 20 million Pakistanis are government. Although it has a democratic system of choosing public online, which means that the number using Facebook is only 32.86% representatives but three military coups of 1958-1971, 1977-1988 and of the total online population.