Facehooked : a study on excessive social networking and contentment

Abstract

In recent years, usage of social networking sites (SNS') has increased rapidly, especially amongst young adults, to the point where it may be considered a "second you". How much time do young adults spend on social networking websites? And does this affect their contentment? This dissertation seeks to discover the current situation amongst young adults regarding their temporal use of social networking sites and factors which affect high usage; as well as discovering the relationship, if any, between high usage of social networking websites and contentment. The research was conducted in a quantitative manner through the medium of online questionnaires, filled out by a total of 53 respondents between the ages of 19 and 30 years. The findings of this research suggest that social networking usage amongst young adults is indeed extremely high, with only 16.4% of respondents spending less than 2 hours a day on social networking sites. There is also an evitable link between low usage and feelings of contentment. Factors such as having a computer in your room, and leaving your social networking page on even when not in use seem to affect one's usage. What the literature and research of this study implies is that, although social networking sites do have positive effects, spending too much time on them may indeed affect your feeling of wellbeing.