1

TOPIC PREFERENCES IN VARIED MODES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

Student Researchers: J. Zaldivar, P. Garcia, R. Marco
Faculty Researcher: Dr. Maria Dolores Dela Cruz
ABSTRACT:
Keywords:
Introduction
Communication now varies
for the different generations. There
are those who lived through beepers
and gigantic cellular phones, while
there are those who have lived with
internet all their lives. These
variations
in
communication
produced
different
interaction
behaviors regarding communication.
Social media is the most popular
tool for social interaction in the
society. In here, communication is
enabled virtually through digital
programming. Some say that this
virtual interaction only broadens
and expands the interaction in ways
that non-digital interaction cannot.
Despite this, many still argue that
face to face communication still goes
beyond that of digital.
Methods and Procedures
The researchers used the
descriptive method of research in
conducting
the
study.
The
descriptive method was used to
determine the differences in the
topics preferred by a specific age
group for a specific mode of
interaction. The respondents in this
study are thirty (30) college students
of Centro Escolar University, Gil

Puyat, Makati City and thirty (30)

young adults who are working in
Teleperformance
in
SM
City
Masinag, Cainta, Rizal. The ages of
the respondents are limited only to
17-24 years old. This research is
based
on
purposive
sampling
technique; it is a non-probability
sampling technique which involves
the conscious selection of certain
subjects to be included in the study.
For the purpose of this study, the
researchers respondents are those
who are late teens and early adults
who are within the age of 17-24
years old. The respondents are those
who
use
social
networking
applications/sites
in
conversing
with other people. The Topics
Preference Questionnaire is selfmade and it was used to determine
topics preferred by a specific age
group for a specific mode of
interaction.
The
topics
were
validated through a survey from
different people. The questionnaire
was given to three professors of
Psychology
in
Centro
Escolar
University to validate the items.
The respondents was asked to
rank the topics preferred in face to
face and online conversation from
the Preferred, rated 3 to the Least
Preferred, rated 1.`

Results and Discussion

Top topics preferred by

Late Teens and Early Adults in
Face to Face Conversation and
Online Conversation
3.1

3.3 Topics preferred by Late

Teens and Early Adults in Online
Conversations

Late Teens and Early adults

preferred events and hangout with
their friends and families to be
talked about in
Weighted
Standard
TOPICS
V.I
online
Mean
Deviation
conversations
The
FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION
using
social
data
School Life
3
0.33
Preferred
networking
gathered by Daily Activities
3
0.31
Preferred
applications
or
the
Trends
3
0.31
Preferred
sites.
Giles
researchers
ONLINE CONVERSATION
(2005) suggested
showed
Events
3
0.34
Preferred
that
a
mass
that the top Hangout
3
0.31
Preferred
medium is the
topics
one
that
brought
together
preferred by their respondents in
technology,
culture
and
mass
face to face conversation are School
communication and the internet
life, Daily Activities and Trends,
does all three of them. Giles also
while the top topics preferred by
said
that
e-mails
and
chat
Late Teens and Early Adults are
environments are communication
Events and Hangout.
media allowing synchronous and
3.2 Topics preferred by Late
asynchronous communication. Most
Teens and Early Adults in Face to
technologies improve human work
Face Conversation
and communication in some way,
such as disseminating information,
Late Teen and Early Adults
overcoming long distances, or saving
preferred daily activities, school life,
time and effort.
and trends being talked about in a
face to face interaction. Most of the
respondents were neutral in the
topics preferred in face to face
interaction. Pew Internet data shows
3.4 Topics preferred by Late
that face-to-face interaction is
Teens in Face to Face Interaction
holding relatively steady. In 2006,
31% reported daily face-to-face
The topics preferred by Late
interaction with their friends. In
Teen in Face to Face Interaction,
2007 this rose to 39%, in 2008 it fell
based from the results, are daily
to 29%, and in the 2009 survey, it
activities, love life, and school life.
was 33%.
According to Miller, every time
period has contributed to the many
forms of communication that society

has developed today. The medium is

different, but the drive is the same:
the desire to connect with others,
explore friendships, delve deeper
into ones emotions, and understand
and develop relationships. The
discerning of communication will
never be final due to the obvious
fact that technology is forever
thriving.
3.5 Topics preferred by Late
Teens in Online Conversation
Late Teens preferred events
and hangout as the topic in online
conversation. In the study of Mary
Madden at Pew concluded that 55%
of teenagers, 12-17 years of age,
want feedback and they can get that
feedback on social networking sites.
Feedback comes in many forms in
social networking sites. Wall posts,
photo albums, comments, blogging
and video posts are among the most
popular.
3.6 Topics preferred by Early
Adults in Face to Face Interaction
The researchers obtained
data showed that early adults
preferred trends as their topic in
face to face interaction. According to
Krug
(2005),
technology
has
transformed the world and the
language with we understand and
symbolically manipulate it. As a
consequence, social relation and
institutions are changed as well as
the subjectivity of people existing
within
these
relations
and
positioned by these discourses is
similarly altered.

3.6 Topics Preferred by Early

Adults in Online Conversation
Topics preferred by Early
Adults in Online Conversation are
events,
hangout
and
movies.
According to Pfeil (2009), the usage
of Social Networking Sites has also
been found to differ with regards to
age group. A study comparing 50
teenagers (1319 years) and the
same number of older MySpace
users (60 years and above) revealed
that teenagers friends networks
were larger and that their friends
were more similar to themselves
with regards to age. Furthermore,
older users networks were smaller
and
more
dispersed
age-wise.
Additionally, teenagers made more
use of MySpace web 2.0 features
(i.e., sharing video and music, and
blogging) relative to older people.
Conclusions

Based on the data gathered by

the researchers, it was proven
that:
1. Overall, the top topics
preferred in face to face
conversations of both the
late teens and early adults
are more subjective to the
respondents because the
topics
(Daily
Activities,
School Life, Love Life)
involve
a
persons
experience while the topics
preferred
in
online
conversations are more
objective
because
the
topics (Events, Hangout,

Movies) are possibly quick

conversations or plans of
the
said
events
and
hangout.
2. The topic Trends are
more preferred in face to
face conversations in both
late teens and early adults
because it is usually a long
discussion and is in need
of others opinion. It is also
mostly
the
topic
of
conversation on a regular
day when in the presence
of people a person is with
most of the days.
Recommendations
Future researchers should
use a larger sample size to ensure
accuracy of results.
Future researchers should
add other age groups that make use
of the two modes of social
interaction in order to further
understand
how
preferences
transition through age groups.
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