Facebook Addiction Levels at Aurora University

The purpose of the study is to examine the level of Facebook addiction of 15 students at Aurora University in Woodstock USA. Facebook addiction levels is examined against a number of variables.

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Students’ Facebook addiction levels
Facebook addiction levels at Aurora University
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Facebook addiction levels
ABSTRACT
A lot of hours is spent in technological
equipment and continues to grow with rapid
technological advancements. Unfortunately,
social media addiction is growing and has
become an imperative issue. The purpose of the
study is to examine the level of Facebook
addiction of 15 students at Aurora University in
Woodstock USA. Facebook addiction levels is
examined against a number of variables.
Descriptive analysis was used in the study and a
single factorial model was used as used the
instrument for data collection. The results of the
study indicated that the students at the
University had a low level of Facebook
addiction. Male students were found to have a
higher addiction compared to Facebook than
female students. Students between the age of 18
and 24 were found to have a higher level of
addiction than studenaddictseen the ages of 25
and 34 and those above 35 years. Although
Facebook addiction has not reached critical level
among students, it is clearly emerging problem
and proactive measures need to be taken to
increase student awareness to help manage
addiction to Facebook problem.
INTRODUCTION
Addiction is repeated engagement in an activity
or a substance despite the perceiving the
substance to be harmful, because the substance
was gratifying or valuable. Addiction is
characterized with the user developing a
dependency to the substance [6]. Individual(s)
attempt to quit the substance several times
without success, continued engagement despite
knowing its detrimental effects and spending a
lot of their time and effort in search of the
substance. Addiction comes in many forms.
Substance addiction, such as addiction to
cigarettes and alcohol is the most popular form
of addiction. However, other forms of addiction
that don’t involve dependence to substance
exist. These are based on behavior and include
game, computer, internet, shopping, and
television social media addiction [5]
Since its invention in 1983, the internet has
grown rapidly over the years in terms of
products offered and number of users. Internet
addictions occur when users are not able control
their usage of the internet and experience
withdrawal symptoms when they have no access
of the internet product causing the addiction.
One of the major and developing type of internet
based addiction is social media addiction. Social
media has many numerous definitions within its
literature [1, 2]. Social media may be defined as
the collection of online communication media
designed for community-based input, exchanges,
content-sharing and cooperation. [3]
Facebook is a charge free networking website
that permits users to upload pictures and videos,
send text messages, make video calls an connect
with friends, Facebook is the most popular
Facebook addiction levels
Author

Facebook addiction levels
social network in the world [4]. According to
statistics from a study by Nielsen group internet
users in the United States spend more time on
Facebook than any other network. The task of
this research is to determine level of Facebook
addiction among students at Aurora University.
CCS CONCEPTS
 Networks
 Network types
 Connection and network systems
 Social networks
 Facebook
KEYWORDS
Addiction levels, dependency, withdrawal
symptoms, students, social networks.
RESEARCH DESIGN
1.1 Participants
I5 students of Aurora University participated in
this study that aimed to assess the level of
Facebook addiction among students. Sample
selection was done through non-probability
purposive sampling. For the gender variable 8
participants (53%) were female and 7
participants (47%) were male. For the age
variable 5 students were aged 25-34 years
(33.3%), 5 participants were aged 25-35 years
(33.3%) and 5 participant were aged above 35
years (33.3%). A sample of 15 participants was
chosen as it was representative of the population
and possessed all the characteristics under test.
The results would therefore be a extrapolated to
the whole stud population.
1.2 Data collection tool
Facebook addiction was assessed based on a
single factorial model. Response variables
collected were numbers of hours spent on a day
on Facebook, how often the user visits the
Facebook, depression when not using Facebook
and effect of Facebook in studies. Data to assess
the purpose of visiting Facebook and the most
used Facebook features was also collected. Data
on age and gender variables were also collected
and their effect of on Facebook addiction levels
addiction assessed.
1.3 Data collection process
Data collection was aimed to assess the level of
Facebook addiction among students. Data
collected for the analysis was collected from 15
continuing students of Aurora University in the
fall of 2018-2019. Data was collected through a
survey and was done in a period of 2 weeks.
Participants volunteered to take part in the study.
Main results
Table 1 below represents the main results of the
study. The frequency at which the choices of
each question of the survey was selected by
participants was recorded.
Table 1
Main results of the survey
Question choices
A B C D E
1. 8 5 2 - -
2. 7 8 0 - -
3. 1 7 5 3 0
4. Mean 2hrs
5. 7 4 0 3 1
6. 6 2 4 3 -
7.. 2 3 5 5 -
8. 2 5 3 4 -
DISCUSSION
Findings from analysis on Facebook addiction
level and variances based on age and gender
variables is discussed in this section.
Facebook addiction levels
Author

Facebook addiction levels
Table 2
Facebook addiction levels among students
According to Table 2 Facebook addiction levels
among participating students was at 33.3%. The
statistic indicate that there is a low level of
addiction to Facebook at 33.3%.
The figure below is a graphical representation of
the Facebook addiction levels.
Facebook addiction levels
addicts non-addicts
Table 3
Research questions analysis
Thefrequency of students visiting Facebook was
measured on a scale of 1-5 representing never-
once or twice day. The study indicated that
students visits Facebook often with a result of
3.83. Students under study were found to spend
1hour 20 minutes on Facebook on a typical day.
How often students felt students felt depressed
or stressed when not using Facebook and if
Facebook addiction levels
Author
X Mi
n
Ma
x Sd %
Facebook
Addiction
Levels
5 3 9 0.8 %33.
3
Items X
How often in each day do you log
to Facebook?
3.83
How often do you feel yourself
depressive, down or tense when
you are not browsing Facebook?
2.76
In a typical day how many hours
do you spend on face book?
1.2
How often do you feel Facebook
affects your studies?
2.57
Mode
What’s your main purpose of
using Facebook?
1
What are the Facebook features
that you used most?
1

Facebook addiction levels
students felt Facebook was affecting their
studies was measured on scale of 1-5
representing never-always. The results of the
analysis showed that students felt stressed or
depressed when not using with a statistic of
2.76. Moreover, the study showed that student
felt that Facebook affected their studies with a
statistic of 2.57.
The numbers 1-5 were used to represent the
choices A-E of the purpose visiting Facebook
question in the study. Based on the analysis
communicating with friend was the mode
purpose of visiting the platform. Messenger was
the feature visited most by students under study.
Table 4
Addiction levels with regard to gender variable
The analysis show that male that the mean
Facebook addiction were found to be
significantly higher in male compared to
females. However since the results indicate low
level of addiction, male students are not
regarded as Facebook addicts
Table 5
Addiction level with regard to age variable
Table 6 lSD test output
There were significant differences based on the
age variable on Facebook addiction levels. LSD
test was applied to identify which age group the
difference occurred.
The results of the LSD test show that Facebook
addiction levels are higher in ages 18-24
compared to ages 24-35 and 35+
CONCLUSION
The study findings indicate that students’
addiction at Aurora University had not reached
critical level. Although addiction level was low,
there were significant variances with reference
to students’ age and gender variables. Male
participants were observed to have a relatively
have a higher level of addiction than female
students. Students aged between18 and 24 were
had a significantly higher levels of addiction
than students aged between 25 and 34 and those
aged above 35 years.
Facebook addiction levels
Author
Gender N X Sd t P
Fb
Addiction
Female 8 2.34 0.74
1.67 .005
Male 7 3.71 0.93
Age N Variance df Squares
Mean F P
Fb
Addi
ction
18-
24 5 External 3
.052
24-
35 5 Internals 12 255.2
2.26
35+ 5 Total 15 59.25
Age Mean Dif. P
Facebook
Addiction
18-24 24-35 0.73 .008
18-24 35+ 1.23 .012

Facebook addiction levels
Previous studies [7] show that Facebook
addiction may cause stress and a feeling of
loneliness. However, since the study result
indicated there were low level of Facebook
addiction, Students under study were
collectively regarded as not be bearing Facebook
addiction symptom
Increase in the time spent on the internet
increases with more usage electronic gadget and
internet in learning institutions. Unrestricted
access to the internet through mobile gadgets
allows students to access the internet anytime
anywhere. These results to higher levels of
Facebook addiction. To prevent unsupervised
access to the internet, there needs to a level of
restriction on time spent on social media.
Educators therefore need to go take measures to
curb Facebook addictions these may include
Seminars, counselling sessions and forums
aimed at increasing awareness of the students,
teachers, parents and other involved parties
about the dangers of Facebook and general
social media addiction.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the 15 students of
Aurora University that took part in the study.
REFERENCES
1. Boyd, D. M. and Ellison, N. B. Social
Network Sites: Definition, History and
Scholarship. Journal of Computer-
Mediated Communication, 13(1), 2007
210-230.
2. Buss, A. and Strauss, N. Online
Communities Handbook: Building Your
Business and Brand on the Web. USA:
New Riders Press, 2009, 34-68.
3. Hormes, J. M, Kearns, B., and Timko, C.
A. Craving Facebook. Behavioral
addiction to online social networking
and its association with emotion
regulation deficits. Addiction, 109(12),
2014, 2079-2088.
4. Huang, H. Social Media Addiction,
Academic Performance, and Social
Capital. Social Media Generation in
Urban China, 2013, 103-112.
5. Kim, S. and Kim, R. A Study of Internet
Addiction: Status, Causes, and
Remedies- Focusing on the alienation
factor - International Journal of Human
Ecology, 3(1), 2008 1-19
6. Uddin, M. S, and Mamun, A. A.
Facebook Addiction Disorder: Is
Facebook Really Addictive? Abnormal
and Behavioral Psychology, 04(01).
2018, 5-67
PREFIX
Comments from planning sheet.
Survey
1. What is your age?
A) 18-24 B) 25-34 C)35+
2. What is your Gender?
A) Male B) Female C)
prefer not to say
3. How often in each day do you log on to
Facebook?
A) never
Facebook addiction levels
Author

Facebook addiction levels
B) once or twice a day
C) three or more times a day
D) About once a week
E) once a month or less
4. In a typical day how much time do you
spent using Facebook? Please write your
answer
5. What is your main purpose of using
Facebook?
A) Communicating with existing
friends
B) Meeting new people online
C) Work (business, college etc)
D) Following celebrities
E) Other
6. What are the Facebook features that you
used most?
A) Messenger B) Marketplace
C)Events D) Games
7. How often do you feel depressive or
tense when you are not using Facebook?
A) Always B) Sometimes
C) Rarely D) Never
8. Do you feel using Facebook is effecting
your studies/ Daily activities?
A) Always B) Sometimes
C) Rarely D)
Facebook addiction levels
Author