Augustinian

Recollect Sisters
IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY ACADEMY
Minglanilla, Metro Cebu 6046
Tel. No. 272-88-62

“THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL

NETWORKING SITES ON THE
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF
STUDENTS IN IHMA”

SUBMITTED BY: VILLETA, ROSE P.

SUBMITTED TO: ENGBINO, RUMELL

 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Social Networking Sites (SNS) are one of the most popular topics being talked about by

the students in IHMA. Examples of social networking sites are Friendster, Facebook, Twitter and

Pluck . Social Networking Sites help us to communicate with our friends, classmates, and

relatives but they also allow us to communicate with other people who share common interests

with us. For instance a person added another person as a friend on Facebook since both of

them is addicted on playing Restaurant City. Through these SNS, we develop virtual

interpersonal relationships.

An interpersonal relationship is a relatively long-term association between two or more

people. This association may be based on emotions like love and liking, regular business

interactions, or some other type of social commitments. Interpersonal relationships take place

in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, marriage, acquaintances, work, clubs,

neighborhoods, and churches. They may be regulated by law, custom, or mutual agreement,

and are the basis of social groups and society as a whole.

Social networking sites influence the interpersonal relationship of students in many

ways. Through social networking sites, users come to meet other people worldwide. These

people can affect the user’s interpersonal relationship with other people close to him/her. This

influence can either be good or bad for the user.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aimed on determining the Influence of Social Networking Sites to the

interpersonal relationship of the students. Particularly, the researcher’s seek for the answers in

the following questions:

1. What is the influence of SNS to interpersonal relationship of students toward their:

A. Family

B. Friends

C. Teachers

D. Others

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM

The researchers determined the role of social networking sites on the social aspects of

students.
Guidance Counselors. This study will help the guidance counselors to be aware of the

influences of social networking sites to the students in IHMA. By informing them of this

matter, they will be able to relate more with students and to give accurate advices to

students that have problems involving SNS’s.

School Administrators. This study will help the school administrators, like the

guidance counselors, to be aware of the influences of social networking sites to the

students in Rogations College. With enough information about SNS’s and their influence

to the students, school administrators can help in solving problems of the students

regarding this topic and give advices that are appropriate to the situation when SNS’s

affect the interpersonal relationship of students.

Social Networking Sites Developers. The result of this study will make the developers

of different SNS’s aware of the influences of the SNS’s that they are maintaining and

making. Because of this, they will be trying their best to develop a social networking site

that will only have good effects to the user and will help them to develop a strong

interpersonal relationship of the user to other people.

Students. The result of this study will make the students aware of how does social networking

sites influence them and how does it affect their interpersonal relationships. This will

educate the students regarding the proper usage of social networking sites. This will help

the students to improve their social life with the use of social networking sites.

Teachers. This study can help the teachers by suggesting some ways in order for them to relate

with student’s social activities especially with regards of using social networking sites. In

line with this, teachers, as student’s second parents, will know a way how to help the
 students if they will be encountering a problem regarding the relationship of their

students with other people.

Parents. This study will help parents to understand their child’s purpose of using social

networking sites and for them to be aware of the influence from social networking sites

that might affect their children. With enough knowledge, parents can think of possible

preventive ways if their child is prone to develop a weak interpersonal relationship with

other people because of too much usage and dependence from social networking sites.

Future Researchers. This study can help the further studies of future researchers regarding the

influence of social networking sites on the interpersonal relationship of students. This

can serve as a reference for further improvements to be done in their study.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

The researchers conducted a study about the influence of social networking sites on the

students of IHMA. This study considered every aspect of students including the age, gender and

year level in terms of social networking sites and their social interaction at home, with
classmates, teachers and friends. They also studied the interpersonal relationship of students

toward their friends, teachers, and parents as well as the influences of social networking sites to

their interpersonal relationship. This study focused on the influences of social networking sites

to the interpersonal relationship of students. This research involved 200 current senior high

school students of IHMA within the school year 2019 to 2020 who use social networking sites

every day. This study used purposive sampling to determine the respondents since everyday

users of SNS are only considered.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

This study, which is about the influence of social networking sites to the interpersonal

relationship of the students, used the following terms defined conceptually and operationally.

These terms are used within the context of the study.

Face – to – face friendship. It is a type of friendship wherein you can actually be with

them and see them more often and you know about them well enough.

Offline Friend. It is a term used to call a person who is your friend in real life.

Online Friend. It is a term used to call a person added on your Social Networking Site

account.

Privacy. It is the ability of an individual or group to secure their personal information

and activities apart from others.

Profile. This is offered by social networking sites that contains all the personal

information about the person and their activities.

Social behaviour. It is behaviour directed towards society, or taking place between,

members of the same species.

Social Games. They are defined as games found in social networking sites which allow

social interaction with friends during the gameplay. (e.g. Pet Society)

Social Networking. It refers to making a social structure made of nodes that are tied by

one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial

exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter contains the review of related literature of the study and the justification of

the conceptual and research literature gathered from books, journals, researches and online

sources.
 Social networking sites have added entirely new meanings to interpersonal interaction

and community. It is the interplay between internet and real life communication and its

subsequent effect on interpersonal relationships. Popular social networking websites such as

Facebook have bundled many of the internet communication standards such as e-mail, forums,

and instant messaging into one resource. However, its usage has become a staple activity in a

young adult’s life. While it varies slightly among gender and race groups, overall, young adults

(college aged) who have internet access use Facebook regularly for some type of social contact.

With this mass assimilation into daily life, it has already begun to change the way in which

interpersonal relationships are defined. It is one of the, if not the top medium for young adults

to “scope out” and “research” potential partners. With Facebook playing a large role in many

romantic relationships, it’s important to see how this will continue to shape interpersonal

communication in the future. The importance of this research proposal is to look at how

Facebook is an extension of real life.

This aims to discover how far Facebook is used to define, cultivate, and maintain real life

interpersonal romantic relationships. Through looking at previous research on Facebook, online

romantic relationships, and disclosure through internet communication, we will see what

direction research needs to go to find valid conclusions on the interplay of real life and

Facebook in the development of interpersonal romantic relationships. Internet based

communication has been incorporated into the development of interpersonal relationships.

Likewise, as popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook have cropped up over the

years, affecting the way in which people communication, so has limited research on the social

mediums. It was found that 28% of the students in the study had been deceptive in their
internet communication. The students were found to do this through both direct

communication using the wall post and private message features as well as indirectly by the

viewing of others profiles. While Facebook is used to cultivate old and new relationships, it is

also used by students in romantic relationships to display and check the status and commitment

of their relationship. When people write and develop their profile, choose their profile picture,

and publicly write on other user’s Facebook “walls,” Research has shown that when college

aged males posted information about culturally negative moral behaviors (partying, sexism,

etc.) that they were participating in on other users “walls.” their perceived attractiveness went

up. However, when females did it, their attractiveness went down.

HYPHOTHESIS
After analyzing the data gathered by the researchers, they arrived with the following

conclusions:
1.) Using social networking sites helped the respondents to develop a strong interpersonal

relationship with their family, friends, teachers, and with others.

2.) Most of the respondents are using Facebook just to have fun and entertainment because of

its available features for the users.

3.) The respondents are cautious with the strangers that they meet in SNS's because of having a

limited friends added to their account that they know.

4.) The respondents intend to open-up more with their friends in social networking sites than

with others.
5.) Most of the respondents use social networking sites for only 1-2 hours in a day.