How Does Online Social Networking Affect Offline Human Social Interaction?

How Does Online Social Networking Affect Offline Human Social Interaction?
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Abstract
The purpose of the study is to investigate how online social networking affects offline human social interaction in an era where technology influences every aspect of human life. Understanding how online social networks affect offline social interactions will enable people to make informed decisions on how they spend their time while carrying out online activities. The study adopted a qualitative research approach where focus groups were used to test the hypothesis on whether a significant relationship exists between online social networking and an individual’s offline social interaction. Thirty-two participants were selected for the study from a list of applicants from the campus. The results indicated that there exists a significant relationship between online social networking and offline human social interactions.
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u How Does Online Social Networking Affect Offline Human Social Interaction? PAGEREF _Toc525305747 \h 4Statement of the Problem PAGEREF _Toc525305748 \h 5Objectives of the Study PAGEREF _Toc525305749 \h 6Hypotheses PAGEREF _Toc525305750 \h 6Significance of the Study PAGEREF _Toc525305751 \h 6Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc525305752 \h 7Methods PAGEREF _Toc525305753 \h 9Procedure PAGEREF _Toc525305754 \h 10Participants PAGEREF _Toc525305755 \h 11Ethical Consideration PAGEREF _Toc525305756 \h 11Results PAGEREF _Toc525305757 \h 11Discussion PAGEREF _Toc525305758 \h 12Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc525305759 \h 14References PAGEREF _Toc525305760 \h 16
How Does Online Social Networking Affect Offline Human Social Interaction?
Technology has facilitated online social networking and communication among other things. People are now able to communicate with each other from any part of the globe using online platforms such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. This is where the concept of online social networking comes from. According to Pantic (2014), online social networking refers to the interaction of people through online platforms where people share information. Such interactions have been facilitated by technological innovations, and it is important to investigate how such interactions affect the human behavior regarding offline social interactions.
Human social interaction refers to the exchange between groups or individuals. According to Newcomb, Turner, and Converse (2015), the process of human social interaction involves interpersonal communication, where information or energy flows from one individual to another. Human social interaction is important because it provides individuals with the support that influences both their physical and mental health. Human social interaction creates relational intimacy between individuals (Pantic, 2014), and the lack of such intimacy can have dire consequences for the individual. Social interactions also determine how people respond to different social situations because such interactions influence human behavior.
The increased usage of online social networking platforms is evident in the number of new social networking platforms that are being developed. Facebook, for instance, is the largest online social networking platform with over one billion users, a number that is only expected to rise in the future (Pantic, 2014). Even with the increasing number of users, Facebook has gone further to acquire other online platforms such as Instagram, which allows people to share pictures and videos with their followers, through what is commonly referred to as instant-stories (Kamel, Giustini, & Wheeler, 2016). It also acquired WhatsApp, which allows people to make voice calls, voice calls and exchange text messages via their smartphones. This is an indication of how online social networking has grown, and how more innovators are looking for ways to improve users’ experiences by providing more application features.
Online social platforms have created health, social, and economic impact, especially due to the regular innovations, making it a global phenomenon. For instance, Kamel, Giustini, and Wheeler (2016) noted that the health sector uses Instagram and WhatsApp to share health information and communicate to the general public due to the ease of access and affordability of these platforms since they are accessed freely on users’ mobile phones. Online social platforms are also used in a business context by providing opportunities for marketing and research and development (Heidemann, Klier, &Probst, 2012). Further, online social platforms are also being used by companies to analyze and predict consumer buying behavior, thus enabling companies to anticipate consumer needs. However, these impacts of online social networks only explore how people’s lives are changing, without addressing how their behaviors are changing. This paper, therefore, seeks to address the impact of online social networking on human behavior, specifically when it comes to offline social interactions.
Statement of the Problem
As the world continues to experience technological advancement, more people are spending more time on online social networking platforms. As indicated by Bright, Kleiser, and Grau (2015), more people are posting more online content, and the number of consumers is also increasing because almost everyone wants to have an online presence to keep up with others. Data from Statista (2017) indicate that in 2017, the usage of social media had risen in comparison to 2016, with an average user spending 135 minutes online per day which was higher compared to 2016’s 126 minutes per day. As more people are allocating more time to online activities, it is important to determine the effect this is having on their offline activities. The use of online social platforms is becoming ingrained in society because children are now becoming more conversant with the internet, a scenario that was rare in the past few years after the introduction of social networking platforms. According to Lahikainen, Malkia, and Repo (2017), children and young people are spending more time online than they are spending on watching TV, which is an indication that online usage is increasing at a high rate. The problem with this increased online usage is that it has affected other aspects of people’s lives. For instance, as young people spend more time online, the amount of time spent studying, interacting with their friends, and exercising has decreased (Lahikainen, Malkia, & Repo, 2017). Thus, it is evident that spending more time online is affecting other aspects of people’s lives, especially when it comes to offline activities. Failure to address the issue can result in a situation where human interaction is limited, thus affecting offline social interactions.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to analyze the effect of online social networking on the social interaction of people while offline.
Hypotheses
H1: There is a statistically significant relationship between online social networking and an individual’s offline social interactions
H2: There is no statistically significant relationship between online social networking and an individual’s offline social interactions
The significance of the Study
This study will provide information to scholars and also people who need to make decisions regarding social media usage. For instance, psychologists can use this information, whether as literature for research or practice, because it will give them an insight on how the human behavior is affected by online social networking.
Further, individuals who are interested in the effects of online social networking can use this study to make informed decisions. For instance, parents can use the information presented in this study to regulate the amount of time spent by their children online. Finally, people interested in joining online social networks will do so while armed with information, because they will be able to determine how such a move will affect their human interaction, thus enabling them to utilize the good and minimize the bad of online social interactions.
Literature Review
This section describes prior research on the effects of online social interaction on social media users. Many studies have been conducted on the impact of online social networking on the life of users, ranging from emotional to mental health, but there is limited academic research on the effect of the same on offline human interaction. The literature articles used in this study were selected from published journal articles that have addressed the various effects that online social interactions or social media have on human beings.
In their study, Oh, Ozakaya, and LaRose (2014) analyzed the effects of online social interaction on the life satisfaction of online users. The study focused on efficiency, which is a psychological principle, supportive online interaction, and perceived online social support. The momentary sampling technique was adopted in the study to allow all participants to record their feelings during their day-to-day activities. The findings of the study revealed that supportive online interaction has a positive impact on an individual’s effect. Further, the results indicated that online social networking has a positive impact on perceived social support.
Moreover, the study revealed that the number of online social networks friends led to positive psychological results when the interaction was supportive, leaving the user with positive feelings. In conclusion, the study revealed that online social interaction had a positive effect on life satisfaction of the users. However, the study did not determine how online social networking affect human social interactions offline, which is what the current study seeks to determine.
In another study, Fox and Moreland (2015) examined the relationship between social networking sites and psychological stress experienced by users, in what they referred to as the dark side of online social networks. The focus was on Facebook users, and the study revealed that more people are using the site because of the pressure of missing out, despite some of the negative feelings they experience while using the site. For instance, the study revealed that users experience jealousy as a result of social comparison on the site. Further, it was revealed that some users post information on the site that leave their followers or online friends haunted, thus imposing psychological stress on those users. The study’ s results also indicated that in some instances, users were forced to maintain their accounts with Facebook because of the pressure to have online relationships with their offline friends, family, and romantic partners. Although the study revealed that offline relationships were also being maintained through online social networks, it did not dig deep into how these online social interactions affected the users’ offline relationships.
Social media fatigue is also another impact of online social networks as examined by Bright, Kleiser, and Grau (2015). Their study addressed how increased usage of Facebook affected users life, by forcing them to withdraw from online interaction as a result of too much information. The study adopted an exploratory research design and revealed that a relationship exists between social media usage and fatigue. The study indicated that users who were efficient in social media had a higher degree of social media fatigue than the less efficient users. Further, users with high helpfulness on socia...