The use of online social networking sites among Malaysian teenagers: What impact does it have on our classrooms?

Zarina Samsudin Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia

There is no doubt that more and more teenagers are spending more of their time socializing and networking online. This is due to the availability of mobile devices and services at an affordable price and also the availability of online facilities. Teachers and instructors can use this new online trend to their advantage within the boundaries of their classrooms. This paper will discuss how the current trends of online socializing and networking among teenagers can benefit both students and teachers/instructors. The activities students do online can often be applicable and taken full advantage within the classroom teaching and learning environment. Teachers should be aware and be more open of using technology and all its facilities to create a more meaningful classroom experience. An online experience that is relevant, appropriate and meaningful to students at a very impressionable age. Thus, classroom content and activities will always stay relevant and up to date together with the current ICT technology and trends.

Introduction Technology has played an integral part of our daily lives. The fact that technology is becoming more readily available at a lower cost has given more options and alternatives for us to conduct our daily lives and activities. The invention of the computer and the introduction of the internet have made our world borderless. Communicating, sharing of ideas and information from around the world lies at the tip of our fingers. Now with the recent introduction of Web 2.0 with its blogs and social networks sites, our world has definitely becomes smaller. Almost anyone that has access to the internet can communicate with anyone who also has that accessibility. However, current trends have shown an increase in the use of the internet and specifically those social networking sites. This increase in use is making major impact with our teenagers. One of the reason is some social networking sites are reducing the signup age to as low as 13years old (Social Networking Websites Review, 2009). Teenagers and online social networking are becoming inseparable items in our world today. More and more teenagers are spending their time online socializing. It has been reported in a poll that suggests teenagers are checking social network sites more than 10 times a day, posting pictures and videos and partaking in online bullying and hacking into others accounts (The Sun Daily, 2009). It is creating a different form of social-community compared to the ones we as educators are familiar with. Normal face-to-face social activities are slowly

being taken over by online socializing activities. Since there is no such thing as time factor or curfew involved, teenagers can freely carry out their online activities 24 hours a day seven days a week without even leaving their homes. As teachers and instructors we need to be aware of this new trend of socializing among our young students. It is extremely important as teachers/instructors we are not only aware of the trend but also be prepared to deal with the impact ICT and technology has on our young students. Acknowledging the fact that teenagers do spent a lot of time online, it would be interesting to take advantage of this new trend and utilize it for the classroom more specific to the teaching and learning process. Is there something that could be utilized to benefit our students quest for knowledge and experience? When students logged-on to the Internet, they learn, acquire and utilize new found skills. Not only their ICT skills improved tremendously but other soft skills like writing, reading and communicating with their peers and general public could easily be improved as well. Social Networking Social networking is often seen as a grouping of individuals into specific groups similar to a small rural community or neighborhood. Now social networking has a new twist with the intervention of technology online social networking was born. Social networking websites now functions as an online and virtual community of internet users from around the world (Social Networking, 2009). It has been reported by Nielsen ratings (Bausch & Han, 2009) that social networking sites has seen a growth of 47% year after year reaching 45% of web users. The benefit of this new form of socializing includes the diversity of the individuals who are able to access the internet anywhere around the world. Someone can literally make new friends with just about anyone who is also connected to the internet regardless of where they are physically. The danger with this form of socializing is that the person you have befriended may not be who they say they are. This is one important factor teachers/instructors need to be aware of when it comes to promoting or encouraging any online activities with young students such as teenagers. Thus, this form of social networking has its dangers for teenagers aged 13-15 years of age as they have the tendency to be very trusting in accepting anyone to be their online friends. There is often the danger of these young students inviting predators into their circle of friends. Teens should not be sharing any private information and details that puts them at risk of victimization (Pew Internet 2009). The most commonly used online social networking sites among teenagers are Face book, Friendster, Twitter and MySpace. These top four online communities are becoming popular not only among the adults but kids as young as 12-13

years old are creating their own accounts. The normal age limit is being lowered from the normal 18 years of age (Social Networking Websites Review, 2009). According to Owyang (2009), it has been reported that 90% of traffic on Friendster comes from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. However, there is a slight drop from 32 million unique monthly visitors in August 2008 to 13.7million August 2009. The drift has shown a big increase in Face book with a jump of 24.8 million in 2008 to 71.1 million in 2009. That is almost three times within a year. Friendster also dropped below MySpace which collected 15.1 million visitors in 2009. (Social Networking Websites Review, 2009). Method This study was conducted among a small group of Malaysian teenagers ages 1315 years old in Penang, Malaysia. A total of 48 students responded to an invitation sent out by email and web-links appearing in their friends social networking sites such as Face Book, Friendster, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, etc. These students are from five secondary schools within a radius of 10kilometres from each other. These five schools are categorized as grade A schools by the State Education Department. A set of online survey was created using surveymonkey.com and placed online for students to access. A time period of one week was given to collect their responds. Upon the completion of the survey 10 students were randomly selected for a detail look at their daily online activities. The students were randomly selected from students owning Face book accounts. A common social networking site had to be selected to help to facilitate the data recording. Different social networking may not have similar feature thus the need to find a common social networking site. Students were monitored for a period of one week. A list of the activities they carried out within that period was recorded. This data is to provide the actual online activities that each individual carried out within a week. This would later give some insights on what teenagers actually do when they loggedon. Data Analysis A total of 48 secondary students responded to the online survey. Twenty-nine female students and nineteen males responded to the week-long survey from four areas schools. Data collected showed that a majority of 36 out of the 48 students that responded to the online survey access the internet on a daily basis (Figure 1).Both 2-3days

and 4-6days a week had five students each logging-on for that number of days per week. Only one student logged-on once a week.

Figure 1. Days per week students accessed the Internet. From the above data there is no doubt that a majority of the students are frequently online. Over two-thirds of the students are online on a daily basis. It would be interesting to find out whether there might have been a difference between weekdays and weekends. The students were also asked the amount of time they spent each time they logged-on to the internet. The following results are indicated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Amount of hours students spent when they logged-on. The data above shows the number of hours spent each time the students loggedon to the Internet. A total of 21 students spent 3-4 hours each time they loggedon. This is 44.7% of the respondents. The second highest respond showed 11 students (23.4%) spending more than 5 hours each time they logged-on. Another eight students (17%) spent about 1-2 hours each time they logged-on.

Finally, seven students (14.9%) spend 4-5hours each time they were online. It is rather alarming that students actually spend over 4 hours each time they get online. This is about half the time they spent in school. The survey also asked about the types of social networking sites accounts the students owned. It is rather interesting that a number of them do own multiple accounts. It would be worth while to find out why they have multiple accounts. But for the purpose of this research it is limited to just knowing if they own more than one account. (Figure 3)

Figure 3. The types of account owned by the students. The highest account holder is Yahoo Messenger with a total of 41 students or 87.2 %. This is followed by the top three most popular online social networking sites Friendster with 36 students (76.6%), Face book is owned by 35 students (74.5%) and MySpace has a slightly lower score of 34 students (72.3%). It is definitely interesting to find out why these students owned multiple accounts since these three online social networking sites (Face book, Friendster and MySpace) are very similar to each other and have similar applications. The students were also asked on the types of activities they do when they access internet. Data collected indicated that the students do the following activities:

Figure 4. Online activities carried out by the students. The most common activity shared by all 48 of the students 72. is updating their profile in Face book, Friendster, MySpace, etc. The data also showed that chatting ranks very high with 45 students (93.8%). Downloading files ranks third with 35 students (72.9%). In regards to the nature of activities that are carried out when the students logged-on to their social networking site, students listed the following activities as illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Student activities when they logged-on to their social networking sites (Face book, Friendster, MySpace, etc.) A majority of the students listed Read other peoples profile as the most common activities shared by 42 students (91.3percent). This in such a way indicates that students like to visit other peoples profiles to keep in touch online.

This is similar to visiting friends and keeping in touch in the real world, except in the virtual world it is done quietly and sometimes discreetly. Chatting also ranks very high with a total of 39 students (84.8%) indicating that they chat within their social networking sites, Another high ranking activity among the students is uploading of pics onto their social networking sites with 37 students (80.4%) responding. Playing games is another major activity that students do while their logged-on to their social networking sites with a total of 26 students (56.5%) responding to the survey. Emailing has a total respond of 22 students (47.8%) followed by Uploading of files with 21 students (45.7%) responding. Twenty students (43.5%) indicated that they watch videos. Downloading pictures has a total of 13 students (28.3%). Finally, 12 students(26.1) responded for each category of the downloading files and sharing files. Given the above data there is no denying that teenagers do spend a lot of time on the internet and they definitely do socialize online and they seemed to have good ICT skills by just looking at the numerous activities that they carried out online. The next stage of this research was to look into details the daily online activities that students do when they logged-on their social networking sites. The following data was recorded and summarized in Figure 6.
Amount of individual activities carried out within a one-week period Activities/Student Change Status Update Profile Make New Friends Play Games Online Quizzes Make Comments Upload/Download/Share Files Upload/Download/Share Pics Upload/Download/Share Videos Posted Links Tag Friends Join Groups Become a fan on 1 19 29 2 7 71 2 13 15 13 21 26 3 5 6 3 14 4 11 7 2 15 52 12 1 1 4 4 5 2 5 1 2 6 4 1 4 3 1 1 1 2 1 7 1 2 1 5 6 1 11 4 12 1 7 4 2 8 4 1 8 23 2 16 12 16 79 9 6 4 1 6 18 10 6 12 4 1 20 Total 89 104 46 91 282 4 25 7 9 7 13

1 1

Figure 6. The amount of activities while logged-on to Face book carried out in a week Ten students were randomly selected from a group of students using Face book. The intent is to find a common social networking site so as to facilitate the

recording of their daily activities. Thus, only students with Face book were randomly selected for a detail look at their day-to-day activities. By looking at the data, it is clear that students spent a lot of time in making comments to one another online. This actually shows that they communicate by writing quite frequently to each other. Data also showed that another major activity that they like to do is making friends. Over a week period Student 1 made 29 new friends through face book. Imagine the amount of friends he/she will be in contact with within a month. On the average we could say students make about 10 new friends a week. Another interesting fact is that students like to take online quizzes with a total of 91 responses by 10 students in a week. A surprising fact is that playing games is fifth from the list of the number of activities carried out in a week. Students are doing other activities besides playing games like we most adults think they do when they get online. Discussion In looking back at the data collected above, there is no doubt that this group of Malaysian teenagers is very active within their online community. Whether this is a good indication of good ICT skills and good use of technology remains to be said. Thus this is where teachers/instructors may play a major role . As educators we know that students are communicating online and the rate increases every day. They have indicated sharing and exchanging information and even collaborating. They chat with each other, they make comments to one another. They write to one another and maybe on some occasions even speak to each other. Some students indicated that they took online quizzes and play online games. As classroom teachers/ instructors we can take advantage of these activities and bring this into the classroom as part of the teaching and learning process. One good classroom related activity is to use the IT skills students acquire online. We can encourage online research and collaboration among their classmates or even beyond their own classroom or circle of friends. Encourage students to go online to look for information and resources. Ask students to do online interviews with their peers from within their own online community, country or even anywhere around the world. You can also encourage students to create online surveys by using the numerous free online survey sites. Students can learn about how to conduct research and even collect data online. These data can easily be distributed and most of the time it can be done free of charge. Not a single paper is printed out to be handed out as a survey.

Looking at some of the students profiles, they have friends from around the world. People they never met but only known online through their own network and circle of friends. Another option is to organize teams and do collaboration with other teams or individuals from anywhere around the world. The classroom teaching and learning knows no boundaries given this technique. Students can communicate and discuss among their peers around the globe on topics being discussed in class. Other activities may include reading and writing blogs and this not only provide a platform to share ideas and information but also provide practice on reading and writing skills. Students can either create their own blogs or a group of them can create a blog on a specific topic and everyone can visit and make comments whenever they want. This is a very good platform for topic discussion and everyone can provide their input or feedback. Teachers can create online quizzes for students to do individually or in teams. There are ready made online quizzes on school subjects especially those about the environment and the sciences. Take advantage of those ready-made quizzes and bring it into the classroom. You can also create your own quizzes by using any of those online quiz application. Another activity is the sharing of files from uploading, downloading files, pictures and video. Majority of the students in this small research indicated they have done a lot of file sharing with their peers. As part of our teaching learning process teachers/instructors can upload videos related to the subject and leave a link to the students to access. Students themselves can search and locate videos to share with the classmates. Videos can easily be found on almost any subject although as educators we need to filter the proper ones for use in the classroom. There is no doubt that the amount of soft skills students acquire and sharpen can also be done online. How they write and how they communicate among themselves or in their online community can definitely be focused on. Students who are shy in person may be the talkative one online. As teachers and instructors we could use some of the feature in the social networking sites to our advantage. As educators we can engage the shy non-talkative students to maybe write comments or share ideas online. The possibilities are limitless. Although with all the hype and advantages of ICT in the world today there is always a downside to it. One very important factor is to be aware of online predators. Teachers must also play a role in cautioning students about the dangers of online activities. Remind students about personal information and details that may fall into the wrong hands. Students within the age group of 1315 years of old are very young and trusting. They may sometimes overlook the possibility of others preying on them. Preparing the students to be on a lookout for suspicious individuals or behaviors among the circle of friends may be good

practice. Also a reminder to students to choose their friends from people they know rather than making friends with total strangers. Conclusion Online social networking is a phenomenon that is hard to deny its existence. It is here and its being used by our young generation who are born post-technology. Teens today are so technologically oriented with gadgets we may not even have imagined twenty years ago. As educators and even parents we are responsible that such phenomenon is beneficial and safe for our young generation. These students are at a tender age stepping towards being young adults and sometimes we have to warn them about the dangers the world is out there. And the world they know now is no longer restricted to four walls. Communicating in todays world is as simple as a touch of a button. Social networking sites may have its positive side but it also leads itself to being abused by irresponsible individuals. It is our responsibilities as educators and parents we need to keep a close eye on any danger this new trend may lead to. References: The Sun Daily, (August 27, 2009). Teens going wild on social networking sites. Available at: http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=37439. Accessed on 24th October 2009. Owyang, J. (2009) A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009. Available at: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/01/11/a-collection-ofsoical-network-stats-for-2009/ Accessed date 24th Oct.2009 Pew Internet and American Life Project. (2002). Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks. Accessed date 24th Oct.2009 Available at:http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Teens-Privacy-and-OnlineSocial-Networks/4-Teens-and-Online-Social-Networks/03-Social-networksprovide-public-and-private-communication-tools.aspx?r=1 Social Networking Websites Review, 2009. Available at: http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/ Accessed date 24th Oct.2009 Bausch, S . & Han L. (2009). Successful Sites Drive High Visitor Retention Rates Available at:http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_060511.pdf Accessed date 24th Oct.2009 Social Networking.com. What Is Social Networking? Available at: http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/ Accessed date 24th Oct.2009

About Author Associate Professor Zarina Samsudin is currently lecturing at the Center for Instructional Technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. She lectures in Multimedia production courses, Copyright Issues in Instructional/Multimedia Production Materials and Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology. Her current research interest is looking into the use of online social networking sites and other Web 2.0 applications for potential classroom use.