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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE

EATING PATTERN OF THE
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF
DHAKA CITY
Asif Al Mashrur Srabon

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE
EATING PATTERN OF THE
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
OF DHAKA CITY
SUBMITTED TO
TANIA RAHMAN

SUBMITTED BY
MD. ASIF AL MASHRUR
172 1069 0 30

DECEMBER 15, 2017

 (ii)

ACKOWLEDGEMENTs
By the cordial mercy of Almighty, I was able to submit my research paper to our honorable miss
Lecturer Tania Rahman. I strongly believe that it would not be possible preparing such a research
without Almighty's grace.

Now I would like to thank our honorable miss Lecturer Tania Rahman, for her keen efforts and
invaluable guidance, helped us to understand, the complicated issues related with research and
advanced English and also its technicalities and about the importance it bears everywhere in
Bangladesh and in the world, which facilitated the successful completion of the research.

I would also like to express gratitude to the people in my surrounding who helped me thoroughly
through helping me in the research by filling up the questionnaire and also giving me time for
conducting an one-to-one interview which gave me a better understanding of my topic. They
should be remembered, because they produced the platform of my better understanding and the
opportunity to enhance my level of knowledge.
 (iii)

Table of Content
Title Page ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ii
Table of content ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iii
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1

1.0 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1

2.0 Background …………..……………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

3.0 Research Questions ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

4.0 Hypothesis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

5.0 Research Methodology …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

5.1 Research Design ………………………………………………………………….. 3
5.2 Research Tools ………………………………………………………………….. 3
5.3 Research Procedure ………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.4 Research Respondents ………………………………………………………………….. 4

6.0 Analysis of Data ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

7.0 Results & Findings ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

8.0 Discussion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

9.0 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

10.0 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

Impacts of Facebook on the Eating Pattern of Undergraduate Students of Dhaka City

Md. Asif Al Mashrur

1721069030, BBA, SBE
North South University, Dhaka
Bangladesh
Abstract:
The main objective of this research was to figure out if Facebook influences people to shape their
eating pattern by attracting them with the advertisements and reviews. For the purpose, it targeted
the undergraduate students of Dhaka City, since they are the ones who get exposed to Facebook
the Most. Five research questions were designed to guide this study and figure out if Facebook
actually put any impact on them or not. Triangulation was used to match the result of the
questionnaire and interview results. The study failed to display any significant difference between
who gets influenced by Facebook towards food of foreign culture or fast food and who does not.
But it clearly showed that undergraduate students are getting highly addicted towards fast food
and food of foreign culture due to the advertisements and reviews, since it showed a significant
number of 75%.
Keywords: Facebook, traditional Bengali food, food of foreign culture, fast food, advertisement,
reviews, eating pattern, influence.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh has a reputation for having tasty foods of its own tradition and culture. Bengali people
always enjoyed our traditional food and felt proud of it. Foods of foreign culture and fast foods
didn’t have much exposure or much attention in Dhaka city a few decades back. But with the birth
of a few local chains and a few foreign chains joining the market has changed the situation a lot.
Facebook has been a very vital thing in this aspect. All of the entities mentioned above used
Facebook as a marketing platform for doing business. Meanwhile what they did is promoted foods
of foreign culture to our undergraduate students, especially the ones of Dhaka city, and distracted
them from the traditional Bengali foods.
One of the best gifts of modern technology is Facebook. From its beginning it has been working
to bring the world closer. It provides a platform to keep connected with our beloved near and dear
ones. People all around the globe has accepted Facebook and made it a part of their daily lives.
The situation is quite the same in our country as well. Majority of our population cannot go a day
without it. The major part of which is the undergraduate students. They cannot but rely on it for
almost everything. Out of numerous activities that are performed here, promoting ones business is
something people have rapidly adapted. Undergraduates are seen to get attracted to these
promotions highly. Another Facebook activity which is common in undergraduate students here is
giving check-ins at places and putting reviews of food. These cause Facebook to create impact on
them and promote foreign food and fast food over traditional Bengali food.

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

2.0 BACKGROUND
Social media has made the world smaller and is putting its impacts on it. Facebook is the leading
social networking site based on Comscore Agency Reports (2010). Nowadays Facebook is used
for various purposes. Advertising is one of the most common things on Facebook. Moriarty et al
(2009, p. 342) submit that,
“The reason these social networking sites are so attractive to marketers is that they engage the
power of relationships. Because of these relationships, network members are more likely to
respond to message on the sites, including advertisements, if they are effective at becoming part
of the social context. Marketers are interested because these relationships also are influential in
consumer decision making”
Internet plays a big role in people’s everyday life (Abedniya and Mahmouei, 2010) and especially
so in students life’s (Deatherage, Servaty-Seib and Aksoz, 2014). Several types of products are
displayed over Facebook in the form of audio visuals, posters, GIFs etc. The restaurants of Dhaka
has not missed out this opportunity and used Facebook as a platform for advertising their products.
Furthermore a few groups on this platform, e.g. “Food Bank”, are places where people seek for
reviews of restaurants.
The focus of the research will be on how the abovementioned activities influence the
undergraduate students of Dhaka city and put impact on their eating patterns. I wonder if these are
promoting fast food, e.g. burger, pasta, etc. and foods of foreign countries, e.g. pizza, nachos etc.
or not; whether this means that we are gradually losing our interest and attraction on our traditional
foods. I hope to find answers to such questions through my research work.
Finally we can state that Facebook didn’t have a negative purpose but the way we use it is causing
us harms in different ways. Putting impact on our food preference and eating pattern is definitely
one of them.

3.0 RESEARCH_QUESTIONS
In my research I plan to investigate on undergraduate students who use Facebook and are losing
their healthy eating pattern. My research will address the following research questions:
1) How do they come across these fast foods and foreign foods on Facebook?

2) How does this change their personal preferences for food?

3) How do they get distracted from our traditional Bengali food and become fond of foreign
food cultures?

4) Is there any interaction between family members with them when deciding what they are
going to eat?

5) How does the fast food eating habit affect them to become overweight or to suffer from
obesity?

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

4.0 HYPOTHESIS

1) Undergraduate students of Dhaka city spend a lot of time on Facebook, during which they
come across fast foods and foreign foods.

2) Exposure to several ads on Facebook make undergraduate students of Dhaka city change
their preferences for food.

3) Watching these on Facebook several times they gradually get distract from traditional
Bengali Food and become fond of food of foreign culture.

4) Majority of the undergraduate students of Dhaka city did not get the opportunity to visit
restaurants on their own which they get now, resulting into no interaction between them
and their families while deciding what food they are going to eat.

5) Fast food and majority of the foreign foods are full of calories and fat, which makes
undergraduate students become overweight and causes them to suffer from obesity.

5.0 RESEARCH_METHODOLOGY
The research this study best fitted was survey. As it required the primary data from the
undergraduate students of Dhaka city, it had to be implied to obtain result of the study.

5.1 Research Design

The research required a lot of information coming directly from the respondents. Using a survey
research would provide us numbers to deal with resulting into a quantitative research. But taste of
individuals is something that cannot be measured in any scale. Therefore this study also required
qualitative research in form of the interview results regarding taste preferences.

5.2 Research Tools

For the primary research, this study conducted a survey of a representative sampling of the
undergraduate students from different universities of Dhaka City to find out how their eating taste
and eating pattern is and how much influence Facebook has behind it. The study designed a
questionnaire with different types of questions to get much useful data to find answers to the
research questions. And also took interviews for triangulation.
For the secondary research, this study used the resources from existing researches and besides
published materials. It also required browsing on the internet and visiting several blogs and
websites of different NGOs who are working related to this issue. In addition this study used some
journals and newspapers to help.

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

5.3 Research Procedure

As this study conducted survey research it had a questionnaire of 11 questions which broke down
the five research questions and provided answer to them. Moreover the survey was designed to
collect information from undergraduate students of different universities. This would consume
much time. Thus, to save time and increase accuracy the survey was conducted online and the
answers to the questionnaire was collected online through google doc.
For getting a better understanding and to achieve triangulation, interview of four respondents were
taken, out of which one respondent is the owner of a website which gives reviews on tourist spots
and foods. All of the respondents, including the survey questionnaire and interview session, reside
in Dhaka city and are students studying in undergraduate courses.

5.4 Research Respondents

The number of respondents and from where were they picked are as follows
Sample Respondents : 44
Interview Respondents : 04
Questionnaire Respondents : 40
Gender : Male 12 Female 28
University Type : Public 20 Private 20
Concentration of study : Engineering 12 Business 18 Others 10
University : BUET 04 NSU 20 DU 04
IUT 04 IBA 04 BUP 04

6.0 ANALYSIS OF DATA

The survey questionnaire of the study contained 11 questions consisting a combination of both
open ended and closed ended questions all of which together provide answers to the five research
questions of the study.

6.1 Answer to: How do they come across these fast foods and foreign foods on Facebook?
Survey question no 1 and 2 are analyzed to answer the first research question of our study.

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

Q.1: How much time do you spend on Facebook every day?

47.5% undergraduate students use Facebook for more than 4 hours. 89.5% use it for over 2 hours
every day. Surprisingly 100% respondents use Facebook everyday.
Q.2: How many sponsored Food Ad(s) and review(s) do you see every day on FB?

95% respondents are exposed to the advertisements and reviews related to food. Thus it is a
matter of great concern in our case.

6.2 Answer to: How does this change their personal preferences for food?
To analyze the second research question we have analyzed survey question no 3 and 4.
Q.3: Has these Ad(s) and review(s) changed your preference from Traditional Bengali Food to
Fast Food or Food of Foreign Cultures?

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

It is just a portion of the respondent’s votes. Though this figure shows that respondents don’t
think the ads influenced them to prefer fast food and food of foreign culture over Bengali food,
the further questions provide a different answer to the research question.
Q.4: Which are the foods you got to know about from FB?

6.3 Answer to: How do they get distracted from our traditional Bengali food and become
fond of foreign food cultures?
To analyze the second research question we have analyzed survey question no 3, 5, 6 and 7.
Q.5: Do you like fast-food more than traditional Bengali food?

Respondents were divided in their responses and we couldn’t find any answer with a
significant amount of responses to make it a sure answer. Which is contradictory to the
responses we got for Q.3 in our survey questionnaire.
Q.6: How often do you visit restaurants to have Bengali food every month?

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

40% respondents never go to restaurants to have Bengali food. Only 40% go more than once
every month.
Q.7: How often do you visit restaurants to have fast-food or food of foreign culture every month?

47.5% respondents go to restaurants to have fast food or food of foreign culture more than twice!
Whereas 87.5% respondents go to restaurants to have fast food or food of foreign culture at least
once every month.
6.4 Answer to: Is there any interaction between family members with them when deciding
what they are going to eat?
Q.8: Do you consult with your family before going to a restaurant?

This is really alarming that majority of our respondents never consult with their families before
going to any restaurant.
Q.9: How often do you go to restaurant with your family each month?

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

Out of the 87.5% respondents who go to restaurants once every month, 27.5% never go to
restaurants with their families.
6.5 Answer to: How does the fast food eating habit affect them to become overweight or to
suffer from obesity?
Q.10: Did your weight change in last couple of years?
82.5% have admitted that they have put up weight after they got into universities and
started their undergraduate lives.
Q.11: What is your opinion on Facebook's impact on your eating pattern?
75% agreed on the point that they get influenced Facebook and it brings a change without their
consent in their eating patterns.

7.0 RESULTS AND FINDINGS

The findings from the different survey questions individually or combined provide answer to all
the five research questions of this study. The study tried to focus on undergraduate students with
an assumption that they must be somewhat active on Facebook. But the outcomes where surprising
and shocking. The result show that they spend more time on Facebook than the time they need to
stay in their universities, which makes them more exposed to marketers on Facebook and
becoming victim to the darker side of the social media sites. It’s not only causing them to suffer
from obesity but also is creating a distance between them and their families.
Moreover, the Bengali were known to love their traditional food over anything on earth. This
culture is getting lost nowadays. The undergraduate students are preferring fast food or food of
foreign culture over our traditional food based on taste, convenience, availability and what not.
These answers collected from the survey questions are pretty clear to relate them with the research
questions.

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

8.0 DISCUSSION
The findings of the five research questions are found from the analysis of data part. Answer
generated to research question one shows that the undergraduate students of Dhaka city use
Facebook as if it’s a part of their daily life, which agrees with the study found from Comscore
Agency Reports (2010). The undergraduate students of Dhaka city are also highly exposed to
advertisements on Facebook, which refers to the study from Moriarty et al. (2009, p. 342).
Since the students spend almost one-fifth of the time they stay awake on Facebook, it is really easy
for marketers to position themselves in the consumer’s mind. Inevitably they become successful
in doing so, because that is what the answer to the research question two tells us. They keep posting
advertisements and reviews on Facebook which gradually changes the preference of the
undergraduate students.
Research question three’s answer also gives us a similar answer that undergraduate students of
Dhaka city are getting distracted from traditional Bengali food and becoming fond of fast food and
food of foreign culture slowly.
Research question four is the one which is giving us the most alarming answer. It shows that all
the respondents of this study are at a distant state from their families. None of the respondents
consult about food or restaurants with their families. Only a few of them hardly go out with their
families to have food in restaurants. The answer to the research question five shows that the
undergraduate students are also not much concerned about their health since they are consuming
fast food despite its deadly friendship with obesity.

9.0 CONCLUSION
The birth of Facebook took place to bring people closer and reduce the distance between them. It
was designed to let people staying away from the beloved ones keep in touch. But people have
been using it for various purposes. One of all the different purposes was advertisement. Somehow
it is now one of the biggest business on Facebook, enabling people to stay on Facebook and do
multiple stuffs.
The age group that uses Facebook the most is the undergraduate students. In Dhaka, it’s
unbelievably surprising that they are already so much reliable on Facebook that they don’t even
go anywhere to even eat without watching what review it has. Not only this but also it is shaping
their preference from traditional food to fast food.
People from all age groups, especially the future generations might grow in a state where they will
dislike or hate our traditional food, if no measure is taken. The government can imply rules to
promote Bengali cuisine on social media as well as foreign cuisine to reduce the possibility of this
problem before it occurs.
Also, the students should be aware of what opportunities they are giving up while spending hours
on Facebook. They shouldn’t be so reliable on Facebook that they can’t go even a day without it.
Rather they should utilize the opportunities Facebook provides and make the best of it for a better
future for not only them but for the society, for the nation.

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IMPACTS OF FACEBOOK ON THE EATING PATTERN OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF DHAKA CITY

10.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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U.K.-Ad-Networks on 9th September, 2010.
Deatherage, S., Servaty-Seib H. L. and Aksoz, I. (2014). Stress, Coping, and Internet Use of
College Students. Journal of American College Health, 62 (1), 40–46.
doi:10.1080/07448481.2013.843536.
Larose, R., Mastro D., and Eastin, M. S. (2001). Understanding Internet Usage A Social-
Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications. Social Science Computer Review 19 (4),
395–413.
doi:10.1177/089443930101900401
Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N. and Wells, W. (2009). Advertising principles and practice. (8th ed.)
New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Steptoe, A., Pollard, T. M., and Wardle, J. (1995). Development of a Measure of the Motives
Underlying the Selection of Food: The Food Choice Questionnaire, 25 (3), 267–284.
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Wood, S. (2010). The Comfort Food Fallacy: Avoiding Old Favorites in Times of Change.
Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (6), 950–963.
Zellner, D. A., Loaiza, S., Gonzalez, Z., Pita, J., Morales, J., Pecora, D., and Wolf, A. (2006).
Food Selection Changes under Stress. Physiology & Behavior, 87 (4), 789–793.

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