Is Social Media Still “Social”?

Abstract

Social media has come to be one of the most important platforms to connect human from everywhere in the world as an interactive and effective communique device. It has been broadly used as a communication tool in numerous forms. It is created to construct and preserve relationships regardless geographical or time constraints. However, social media has been increased its function as basically, a socialization too to greater utilization and functions in diverse fields. As a result, these studies discussed the utilization and role of social media, whether it serves as a socialization tool among the users, or it has been diluted to other purposes consisting of in educational or organizational fields. The result collected indicates the relationship between the pattern of use in social media and the purpose of using social media. Uses and gratifications theory and media dependency theory are used in the theoretical framework of this research. This research is carried out by using survey questionnaire on Facebook users aged between 18 and 27 years old who live in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The result confirmed that the social media users are less contributing contents in social media, which has directly affected the socialization role of social media.

The authors acknowledged the raw material provided by May Wong.

Appendix

Survey Questionnaire

Is Social Media Still Acting as a Socialization Tool?

This survey is for academic purpose only and the data gathered will be analysed and used for my research paper. Respondents aged between 18–35 years old who are the user of Facebook are eligible to answer the questionnaire. Your efforts and time in filling this survey is highly appreciated. Thank you.

Please contact me if there is any question regarding this research and questionnaire at chanet@tarc.edu.my.

Consensus

• □ I am qualified for this survey and I agree to answer all the questions truthfully and adhere to the instructions in this questionnaire.

Part I: Demographic

• 1. What is your gender?

  • $\square \;{\text{Male}}\quad \square \;{\text{Female}}$

• 2. What is your age?

  • $\square \;18{-}22\quad \square \;23{-}27\quad \square \;28{-}32 \quad \square \;33{-}37$

• 3. What is your current employment status?

  • □ Student

  • □ Self-employed

  • □ Full time employment

  • □ Part time employment

  • □ Unemployed

  • □ Retired

• 4. What is the highest level of education you have completed?

  • □ SPM or below

  • □ STPM/Foundation/A-Level

  • □ Diploma

  • □ Bachelor degree

  • □ Master

  • □ PhD

Part II: The usage of social media

• 1. How long have you been a member of Facebook?

  • □ Less than 1 year

  • □ Less than 5 years

  • □ Less than 10 years

  • □ 10 years or above

• 2. How often do you visit Facebook?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 3. On average, how much time do you spend on Facebook daily?

  • □ Less than 1 h

  • □ Less than 2 h

  • □ Less than 3 h

  • □ 3 h or above

• 4. I often used these devices to visit Facebook. (rank from mostly used to least used)

  • □ PC/laptop

  • □ Tablets/iPad

  • □ Smartphones

• 5. I used Facebook mainly for these purposes. (rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree)

  • □ Time-passing entertainment

  • □ Information contribution

  • □ Gathering information

  • □ Relationship development

  • □ Relationship maintenance

  • □ Business/organization development

  • □ Educational purpose

• 6. I tend to follow these contents on Facebook. (rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree)

  • □ Daily life events and updates

  • □ Social news

  • □ Entertainment videos

  • □ Product advertisement

  • □ Education articles

  • □ Job and recruitment

Part III: The pattern of use in social media

• 1. Do you own a Facebook page?

  • $\square \;{\text{Yes}}\quad \quad \quad \square \;{\text{No}}$

• 2. Do you own a Facebook group?

  • $\square \;{\text{Yes}}\quad \quad \quad \square \;{\text{No}}$

• 3. Did you create a Facebook event before?

  • $\square \;{\text{Yes}}\quad \quad \quad \square \;{\text{No}}$

• 4. Did you use Facebook advertisement before?

  • $\square \;{\text{Yes}}\quad \quad \quad \square \;{\text{No}}$

• 5. How often do you upload status on your timeline averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 6. How often do you upload photos on your timeline averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 7. How often do you upload videos on your timeline averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 8. How often do you use Facebook live video broadcasting averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 9. How often do you use Facebook instant messenger averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

• 10. I used Facebook instant messenger mainly for these purposes. (rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree)

  • □ Playing games

  • □ Chatting

  • □ Creating polls

  • □ Sharing files and information

  • □ Discussion for educational studies

  • □ Business/organization advertisement

• 11. How many Facebook group have you joined?

  • □ 0

  • □ Less than 5

  • □ Less than 10

  • □ 10 or above

• 12. I joined Facebook mainly for these purpose. (rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree)

  • □ Files and information sharing

  • □ Updates on social news and issues

  • □ Discussion on educational studies

  • □ Collecting feedback or opinions by polls

  • □ Business/organization advertisement

  • □ Events sharing

• 13. How many Facebook page have you followed?

  • □ 0

  • □ Less than 5

  • □ Less than 10

  • □ 10 or above

• 14. I followed Facebook page mainly for these purposes. (rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree)

  • □ Entertainment purpose

  • □ Follows the life events of celebrities or public figures

  • □ Get product updates

  • □ Social news consumption

  • □ Gathering information

  • □ Trend-following

• 15. How often do you create or joining a Facebook event averagely?

  • □ Daily

  • □ More than once a week

  • □ Once a week

  • □ Less than once a week

Part IV: Impact of social media

$1{\hbox{-}}\;{\text{Strongly}}\,{\text{agree}} \quad 2{\hbox{-}}\;{\text{Agree}} \quad 3{\hbox{-}}\;{\text{Disagree}}\quad 4{\hbox{-}}\;{\text{Strong}}\,{\text{disagree}}$

In Socialization Aspect:

No.	Statements	1	2	3	4
1.	I think Facebook is useful in keeping me updates for current statuses with my friends
2.	I think Facebook is useful in contacting my friends instantly
3.	I think Facebook is useful in sharing life events with my friends
4.	I think Facebook is useful in planning activities with my friends
5.	I think Facebook is useful in uploading and sharing photos with my friends
6.	I think Facebook is useful in uploading and sharing videos with my friends
7.	I think Facebook is useful in sharing different opinions with my friends
8.	I think Facebook is useful in collecting different opinions with my friends
9.	I think Facebook is useful in maintaining my relationship with my friends
10.	I think Facebook is useful in further developing my relationship with my friends
11.	I think Facebook is useful in improving my socialization skills

In Educational Aspect:

No.	Statements	1	2	3	4
1.	I think Facebook is useful in keeping me updates with social news
2.	I think Facebook is useful in collecting news and information
3.	I think Facebook is useful in sharing coursework documents with my classmates
4.	I think Facebook is useful in discussion session with my classmates
5.	I think Facebook is useful in collecting feedback and opinions from the public
6.	I think Facebook is useful in gathering educational articles
7.	I think Facebook is useful in researching on journals from different scholars
8.	I think Facebook is useful in improving my educational studies

In Organizational Aspect:

No.	Statements	1	2	3	4
1.	I think Facebook is useful in keeping public current updates for an organization
2.	I think Facebook is useful in improving sales and revenues for an organization
3.	I think Facebook is useful in increasing public awareness towards a product or service
4.	I think Facebook is useful in increasing public awareness towards an event
5.	I think Facebook is useful in increasing public engagement towards an organization
6.	I think Facebook is useful in collecting public feedback towards an organization
7.	I think Facebook is useful in collecting customer data for an organization
8.	I think Facebook is useful in promoting business or organization