The impact of social networking on behaviour development among secondary school students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the impact of social networking on behavior development. This study also focuses on four factors; loneliness, social anxiety, social influences and addiction. The dependent variables of this study are the self-esteem, social skills and learning behaviours. Respondents were 220 students from seven schools in Johor Bahru district. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17. Descriptive statistics show that social influence is the dominant factor. The study also found that the dominant effect is self-esteem. Instant Messenger is an online social site that contributes to selfesteem, social skills and learning behaviours. Inferential statistics show that there is a significant impact between social networking sites (β=.50, p <.05) and loneliness (β=.31, p<.05)towards the effects of social websites. In addition, there is a significant impact between loneliness (β=.37, p <.05) towards selfesteem. There is also a significant impact of social networking sites(β=.33,p <.05) and addiction (β= -.23, p <.05) towards social skills. Social networking sites (β=.55, p <.05) and loneliness (β=.23, p <.05) also brings a significant impact on learning behaviour. Apart from that, addiction (β= -.30,p<.05), social influence(β= -.30 p <.05) and loneliness (β=.16, p <.05) gives impact towards online social networking.