By: George Sikin (ICS Student)
03rd of May, 2013
The role social
media/network has come to play in this information age is an issue no
individual can ignore. It has huge impact on the personal and professional
lives of people. Indeed, its influence spans globally and it is rapidly growing
in terms of its users, applications, innovations, and modifications. Of course,
it is an information and communication tool. For the purpose of clarity and
coherent sequencing in the context of this presentation, the terms ‘social
network’ and ‘social network’ shall be interchangeably used because they can be
taken as synonyms. Examples of social media tools in this contemporary age
include Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln and Ning only to name a few.
This paper bears
my findings regarding the use of Facebook as information and communication tool
by doing a mini research on randomly selected students here in the University
of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). I interviewed them with respect to time usage, the
financial cost, what Facebook means to their personal and professional lives,
and their perceptions on the effectiveness of this tool.
I carried out an
interview on 20 fellow students of equal gender participation. They all
admitted to having exposure on Facebook. A mere 10% said they deactivated their
Facebook accounts whereas the rest can be summed up in the humorous reply of
one who said, “Facebook is our life, our very breath.” That fascinated me and
caused me to ask them (the 90% currently on Facebook) the very next logical
question: How often do they go on Facebook? Using a closed-interview method, I
gave them to choose from a range of time frame. Surprisingly (maybe because I’m
not on Facebook), almost all except 3 interviewees replied by saying they
‘surf’on Facebook once every 10 minutes, even in the classes and while
interacting physically with their environment. Indeed, my generation swims
along with the tide of this technological age. In unified chorus of gesture,
they all claim to like Facebook.
I was all the
more overwhelmed when they responded to my query of how much money in terms of
their sim card units they can estimate spending just to ensure they go on
Facebook. 15/17 currently on Facebook admitted they lost track of either the
actual or approximate spending on accessing this tool. The other two students
were financially manageable enough to say they spend roughly around K20/week on
Facebook accessibility. The ones that deactivated expressed that one of the
very reason they did so were not because they disliked this social media tool,
but that because they seemed not to have any control over their spending when
it comes to keeping up friends, events and news on Facebook page.
Worthy for
consideration was the fact I found that all of them admitted that Facebook is a
very important information and communication tool. Of the 20 I interviewed, 6
of them happened to be current executives in their respective association and
affiliation groups on campus (UPNG). They all admitted Facebook helps them in
posting their notices or ‘Toksave’ as they put it in pidgin, out to their
members. One brave respondent among them sarcastically commented it’s about
time we do away with the notice boards in the campus. He made a profound
statement that students are now more phone/technologically conscious. He
convinced me greatly because I myself get tired of seeing a lot of papers pinned
on the notice boards. In many instances, it looks so untidy and unworthy of our
claim to be the Premier University in the Pacific. The responses from the rest
of the others said they now feel they can be anywhere at any one time- thanks
to Facebook. 4 others (all female respondents) jokingly said they are able to
communicate with their mothers about the ‘girls stuff’ frequently. All of them
find this tool very effective for information and communication purposes.
Asked about
their general perception of this tool, they all agreed that Facebook is an
excellent information and communication tool that synchronizes well with the
demand of the time we’re living in. They believed the designer of this tool saw
a vast need and purposed in his heart to resolve it. However, with mixed
feelings of sadness and anger, they spelt out their sentiments with regard to
the attitude of its users. Criticisms uncalled for, images that are morally
degrading, and relationships that once embraced the essence of loyalty but are
not anymore, are some of the evil effects of ‘sick’ users of this well-intended
tool.
On a personal
level after conducting this research, I came to appreciate this tool, Facebook.
I deactivated my account therein because of the immense negativeness that
violated my Christian ethics. However, a critical evaluation of the responses
from my participants revealed that it is more benefiting to be on Facebook.
There’s a lot more to gain- professional affiliations, current social
developments, and a wider community of people who may share common interests
with me. Almost all my research respondents maintained that despite the
negatives one shall encounter, it is ‘a sin of the age not to keep up with the
relevant tool of the age- Facebook’ (The National, p.34). Of course, my
perception changed while in the course of carrying out my research. I must also
state my conviction that my findings can and must be treated as a great
reflection of the use of this tool in the lives of many citizens of this
nation, especially the student population.
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