De La Salle University - Dasmariñas

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Effects of Social Media on Interpersonal Communication of First Year

Engineering Students of De La Salle University-Dasmariñas

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements in Research Project

Submitted by:

Ditchon, Roniel Ken Cedric M.

Libao, Christian Adrian R.

Macaspac, John Joselle V.

Manalo, Denzel R.

Rosales, Shiela Mae P.

Salvatierra, Jillian Pauline R.

Submitted to:

Sir Raymond Ibasco

March 2019
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT

Students are in need to improve their interpersonal communication skills for developing

relationships with others, but more people have been inclined to the trend of using social

media for communication. Several studies have showed that it is considered as a factor

that affects the relationship between others. Difficulty in developing communication

skills may have impaired the interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, when

communicating on social media sites like Facebook, what does it help in the society,

people instantly accepted a communication platform with no boundaries, the social

media. Regardless of their benefits in connecting people around the globe, Researchers

have been studying its impact on user’s mental health and society using quantitative

approaches with other university students. However, the social media users stated that

their behaviors do no harm to their relationships. This study aimed to know the effects of

social media to interpersonal communication, with the use of quantitative method by

selecting and conducting survey to the respondents, the students along with their

interpersonal communication skills. Quantitative method was chosen to gain

understanding of the effect of the social media to interpersonal communication. The

survey was conducted in a sample population of first year engineering students, consisted

of 45 respondents in total. Results are that social have both positive and negative effects,

while it virtually brings people together but also makes the far from each other personally.
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 1

PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

This chapter includes the background of the study, statement of the problem,

hypothesis, significance of the study, scope and limitations, conceptual framework of the

study, and definition of terms.

Background of the Study

Social media utilize internet technologies to create interactive platforms via which

people share, discuss, and modify personal-generated content (Kietzmann, Jan H.;

Kristopher Hermkens 2011).

As Facebook arise the communication of people have changed a lot. Social media

allows users to share their events in lives by posting and updating status; also, to

communicate to other people even in far distances. Seemingly, communication have

moved to different level and ways. Vocabulary of people have increased, and others have

followed the trend due to social media. Regarding that, the effect of social media to

communication have been sought in different ways.

A few heroes state that there is no returning. So, if you happen to look around an

eatery you will be hard-pressed to discover individuals who don't have their heads down

utilizing their mobile phones to content, Tweet, or refresh their Facebook statuses—all

while offering a feast to others at their table. Internet has been the part of daily life of
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

people which have a great impact to the society. According to Paul Booth, PhD (2010),

an associate educator of media and film contemplates in the College of Communication

at DePaul University in Chicago, internet-based life positively influences how we draw

in with each other over all settings and ages. "There has been a move in the manner in

which we impart; instead of eye to eye cooperation, we're having a tendency to lean

toward intervened correspondence," he says. "We'd preferably email over meet; we'd

preferably message over chat on the telephone."

Three key issues are surfacing regarding the job online life currently plays in

individuals' correspondence styles. To begin with, when we convey through online life,

we will in general trust the general population on the opposite end of the correspondence,

so our messages will in general be increasingly open. Second, our social associations are

not reinforced as much through online networking as they are eye to eye, so we don't will

in general develop our connections—they will in general exist in business as usual. Last,

we will in general pursue and communicate with individuals who concur with our

perspectives, so we aren't getting indistinguishable assorted variety of perspectives from

we've gotten previously. Specialists agree that the individuals who have a sharp feeling

of perception must know that individuals are changing the way they impart.

Online networking would be continuously improving as people advance to an easy

living life. They will keep on expanding the volume of the human correspondence

procedure, and we will keep on figuring out how to utilize them for good and for worse.
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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer the question:

What is the effect of Social Media to the Interpersonal Communication of First

Year Engineering Students of De La Salle University – Dasmariñas?

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope and limitation of this research focus on the first-year engineering

students of De La Salle Dasmarinas University. It is to determine how social media affects

the interpersonal communication of the students.

Significance of the Study

This study is significant to the following persons:

Engineering Students. This study can help them know what and how social

media affect their communication skills.

Netizens. This study will help inform the netizens how the communication skills

of engineering students improve or worsen.

Future Researchers. The proposed study will benefit and help them future

researcher as their guide. The study can also open in development of this study.
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Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter holds related articles and studies used as a guide and reference in

conducting the current study.

Ideas and knowledge from the previous studies will provide more meaning of

what the main variables of the study. Some familiar things have been found in the studies

reviewed such as the positive and negative effects brought by the social media to the

communication skills of the social media user.

The Use of Social Media

According to Carson (2017), the publication of different social media apps and

software, the style and method of how people speak to one another has changed. As we

know, social networks allow different users to post different events of their everyday lives

through shaving images and constructing messages that shows their current status on

different social media platform. This allows people to keep track on a certain people and

gives us the freedom to communicate to those people who are out of reach, and most

important of all, it gives us the freedom to express our feelings publicly.

Based on a research study conducted by a professor on West Virginia, actions

made by an individual can be amplified by the use of social media. Significantly,

messages now a day’s does not have a specific place like in real life which has more
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

contact on the sender and receiver, and the individual has the power to divide himself

from the conversation temporarily. Unlike on social media, the person cannot withdraw

temporarily because social networks are everywhere. Also, communications held on a

social media platform is delivered in a more publicize way.

Effects of Social Media to Interpersonal Communication

Communication has evolved, and it causes large changes on our communication

skills adding persistence to a single conversation with a person. This kind of way of

communicating might lead to a build-up overtime and it might increase the rate of cyber

bullying cases.

Positive Effects of Social Media

Of course, social media effects do not only bring more negative effects to the

surrounding and that is because we also have good benefits that we can get from this

technological advancement. One of the positive effects of using the social media is the

expansion of their social lives. Social media increases the number of possibilities to

interact with other people across the whole world.

According to Zaher (2009), interact among other students through social media

platforms and other conditions such as online activities are used by learners or students

to improve their skills in generating ideas to.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Respectfully, Other researchers regards this activity as a multimodal

communication through internet and computer as part of educating and learning. In

relation to this, Abu Ghareeb (2007) stated that social media is a way to understand and

adjust on having online assessments as part of new generation learners. Also, it is

associated to a theory that was dependent on the student’s adaptation as it helps them to

interact and communicate between learners and others. Furthermore, Zamel (2013)

emphasized that social media is a way to improve the skills of users in terms of emotional,

behavioral and cognitive that would contribute to utilize active ideas and thoughts.

Evidently, social medias brought a more positive effect on communication skills

of everyone; for it allows reach out to those people who are physically far from them and

gave an opportunity to those people who can’t share ideas personally speak for

themselves.

Negative Effects of Social Media

Dwyer (2007) suggests that people misinterpret others, especially on social media,

for they have lacked social cues and they tend to be direct in expressing their thoughts

even without considerations. This leads to misunderstanding and offensiveness towards

each relationship and might have been prevented if social cues were present.

Although, many research studies show that social media only brings negative

effect on the user’s communication skills such as the distortion of communication process

which builds more conflict relaying one message to the other instead of making it easier.
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Some scholars have suggested that social media lessen the interaction among

people personally. Kraut, Brynin and Kiesler (2006) stated that communication platform

has been changed to internet ones that replaced interpersonal relations. Berker (2006) also

discussed the effects that social media and the internet on the families: “The people within

the family have been more open to social media rather than on family, in which they

cannot determine the behavior of a person within their scope.”

Another Negative cause of the social media to individual communication skills is

the internet addiction. This addiction is now labeled as mental illness which deters

someone to interact with people personally with the person around them which leads to

an emotional shutdown.

There are also effects that are neither positive nor negative, like the changes it

brought to this generations writing style. It makes writing more summarized allowing us

to construct shorter messages and disregard things like grammar use.

Synthesis

As of today, millennials can now interact with hundreds of thousands of people

simultaneously without having to speak to them face to face. It also increases the speed

and reach of the messages as if the world is getting tinier and tinier as our technology

grows. Even though social network does contribute on establishing first contact and helps
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us unite, it also provides a bunch of problems too. Particularly, interpersonal interactions

are moderately accepting that one of its dominant form todays is nonverbal

communication which affects the proficiency of a person to personally interact and

witness the emotions of different human beings in the real world. This, along with all the

loss verbal communication is very terrifying, and it needs enough and appropriate amount

of care in using social media.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter shows a detailed presentation of the methods and procedures

employed in the conduct of this study This chapter represents the research design,

respondents of this study, research locale, research instrument, data gathering procedure

and statistical treatment of study were all used in conducting the current study.

Research Instrument

Online survey forms were used to gather data in this study. A questionnaire

containing 10 questions, was adapted on the study of Britt, Milissa. (2017), S, A. M., &

V. L. (2017), and Drussell, John. (2012) and used to gain the information that will come

from the answers of the respondents.

Research Design

The research design to be used is an instrumental case study because the study

will be focusing on the insights of a topic or issue, redraw generalizations, or build theory.

In this study, the group would be evaluated are the 1st Year Engineering students of De

La Salle University-Dasmarinas. The group is to be given a set of questions that would

lead to the effects of social media in their interpersonal communication.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

The independent variable in the study is the effects of the social media to the

interpersonal communication of the students whether it be positive or negative, while the

dependent variables would be the participants for the survey.

Respondents of the Study

The Freshmen Engineering students in De La Salle University – Dasmariñas

were the respondents of the study. The population sample of accommodated by this

research is 45 students.

Research Locale

The study was conducted in De La Salle University – Dasmariñas Campus,

DBB-B, 4115 West Ave, Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Research procedure

The data is going to be collected by conducting surveys on 1st year Engineering

Students of De La Salle University-Dasmarinas. A portion of the research group will be

assigned to distribution and collecting of survey forms to the respondents. The data

collected from the survey will then be tallied and analyzed.

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Chapter 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents, analyzes, interprets, and discusses the data gathered in this

study. This chapter also presents the information that give answers to the questions raised

to identify the correlation between the two variables being discussed.

Problem. What is the effect of Social Media to the Interpersonal Communication

of First Year Engineering Students of De La Salle University – Dasmariñas?

Way of Communication

According to the data gathered, 97.8% or 44 out of 45 of the sample population

have agreed that the way of speaking interpersonally was affected by the social media.

According to a survey (Hanke 2018), 74 percent of Millennials prefer communicating

using social media and mobile phones rather than in person. Regardless that, 68.9% of

the respondents have also agreed that social media reduces social distance. Moreover, the

social media do not hinder the way of having face to face communication of Freshmen

Engineering LaSallian Students. Out of 45 students, 26 have prefer to keep in touch with

others by talking personally which help builds better relationships.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Generally, it has affected student’s communication skills either improving or

being depreciated. The want for instant information changes the ability to clearly

understand ideas implied when speaking to others.

Positive Effect of Social Media to Interpersonal Communication

Students have positively affected by the social media by having their

communications skills and interpersonal relationships improved, and their self-

confidence increase. Most of the first-year engineering students, strongly agree that their

communications skills have improved with the percentage of 40, 37.8% remained neutral

and less have disagree. Respondents have also agreed that their thinking skills have

improved with the help of social media, 20 students have remained neutral, 19 students

have agreed, and others have disagreed.

Social media help improved the quality of relationship between users (Sponcil

and Gitimu 2012) Somehow, students tend to use one-way interaction instead of two-way

interaction. Most of their time of surfing social media simply to read others newsfeed and

profile. According to Zaher (2009), social media accessible for learners are helpful for

making their thoughts and ideas organized for communication purpose, as for De La Salle

University – Dasmariñas, the school offer the Schoolbook for alternative learning agent.
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Negative Effect of Social Media to Interpersonal Communication

Students of De La Salle University – Dasmariñas responded dominantly neutral

on relying too much on social media, out of 45 first engineering students 20 have been

neutral, 15 students agree that they rely too much on social media and 10 do not rely. This

shows that most students have been communicating through social media rather than face

to face interaction. People depend much on the use of internet platform rather than having

a personal communication to other people, and “as Social media become more developed,

its movement of another activities becomes more significant” (Brynin and Kiesler 2006).

Also, more studies supported that more people have been engaged more on using social

networking sites rather than face-to-face meeting to other people for learning, business

and personal purposes.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION AND RECCOMMENDATION

This chapter includes the summary, findings, conclusions, and recommendations

of the research study.

Summary

The main objective of the study is to determine how social media affect the

interpersonal communication of first year engineering students. The study also wants to

determine the positive and negative effects of social media and determine how

engineering students can improve their interpersonal communication skills. The

respondents in this study focus only the first-year engineering students of De La Salle

University Dasmarinas and among all the first year engineering students only 45

students are the respondents which are picked randomly. A questionnaire was used to

fulfil the objectives.

According to the data gathered, 97.8% or 44 out of 45 of the sample population

have agreed that the way of speaking interpersonally was affected by the social media.

Out of 45 students, 26 have preferred to keep in touch with others by talking personally

which help builds better relationships.

For the positive effect of social media to interpersonal communication, most of

the first-year engineering students, strongly agree that their communications skills have
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improved with the percentage of 40, 37.8% remained neutral and less have disagree.

Respondents have also agreed that their thinking skills have improved with the help of

social media, 20 students have remained neutral, 19 students have agreed, and others have

disagreed.

For the negative effect of social media to interpersonal communication, Students

of De La Salle University – Dasmariñas responded dominantly neutral on relying too

much on social media, out of 45 first engineering students 20 have been neutral, 15

students agree that they rely too much on social media and 10 do not rely.

Conclusion

Social media has been here for a short period of time. It has both positive and negative

effects especially for the users, majority are teenagers and young adults. In this study

the researchers find the effects of social media on intrapersonal relationship of freshmen

engineering students of De Lasalle University Dasmarinas by conducting a research

questionnaire.

In conclusion, the social media effects the intrapersonal communication both

positively and negatively. Social media affected intrapersonal communication a lot.

Majority of the students improved their communication skills by using social media. It

boosts their self-confidence while communication to others and it affected them

positively. On the other hand, social media slowly is dominating communication rather
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than face to face communicating. Majority of the students rely on social media rather

than face to face communication. The internet or the social media has become the better

platform for communication and replaced the face to face communication.

Recommendation

The researchers recommend to the future researchers to augment more ideas and

have more respondents who will participate in the study for better and more concrete

results. The future researchers can also add questions for the questionnaire that can help

for getting the results.

The researchers also recommend that future researchers should expand the scope

of the variables they would use and the factors they would consider and check to produce

results that could be even more universally accepted.

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References

 “The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Skills.” New York Behavioral Health.

N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017

 “The Negative Impacts of Social Media on Face-to-Face Interactions.”

Rampages.us. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

 “Viewpoint: Why Social Media is Destroying Our Social Skills.” USA Today

College. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 18 July 2014. Web. 27 Apr.

2017.

 Abu Ghareeb, A. (2007). Trends in pre-school child education in some countries

of the world. Fifth Annual Scientific Conference, Pre-school Child Education,

Reality and Future Aspirations Cairo: The Book Center for Publishing in

cooperation with the National Center for Educational Research and Development.

 Berker, T. (2006). Domestication of Media and Technology. Maidenhead, UK:

Open University 
 Press.

 Booth, P. (2010). Digital Fandom: New Media Studies. New York, USA: Peter

Lang.

 Britt, Milissa. (2017). Effects of Social Media Use On Interpersonal Relationship

Satisfaction.

 Drussell, John. (2012). Social Networking and Interpersonal Communication and

Conflict Resolution Skills among College Freshmen. Retrieved from Sophia, the
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St. Catherine University repository website:

https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/21

 Dwyer, C. (2007). Digital Relationships in the ‘MySpace’ Generation: Results

From a 
 Qualitative Study. In Pace University.

 Hanke, Stacey (2018). “How Social Media Affects Our Ability to Communicate.”

Thrive Global, thriveglobal.com/stories/how-social-media-affects-our-ability-to-

communicate/.

 Kietzmann, Jan & Hermkens, Kristopher & McCarthy, Ian & Silvestre, Bruno.

(2011). Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building

Blocks of Social Media. Business Horizons. 54. 241-251.

10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005.

 Kraut, R., Brynin, M., & Kiesler, S. (2006). Computers, Phones, and the Internet.

Oxford 
 Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press.

 S, A. M., & V. L. (2017). Impact of Social Media on Interpersonal

Communication. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 3(7). Retrieved

from https://www.onlinejournal.in/IJIRV3I7/027.pdf.

 Sponcil M, Gitimu P. (2012) Use of social media by college students:

Relationship to communication and self-concept. Journal of Technology

Research; 4:16-28.
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 V. V. (2015). IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INTERPERSONAL

COMMUNICATION PATTERNS (Master's thesis, Institute of Philosophy and

Sociology, University of Latvia, 2015) (pp. 134-136). Lomonosova 1/5, Riga,

Latvia: The University College of Economics and Culture. DOI:10.13165

 Zaher, G. (2009). Electronic Approaches. Cairo: The World of Books.

 Zamel, M. (2013). Trends of students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences

(UNRWA) towards integrated learning. Journal of the Union of Arab Universities

in Amman, 59.
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APENDIX

Questionnaire
Gender: ___Male ___Female

1. Do you think that social media influences way we speak and write in our everyday
lives?
o Yes
o No
2. Do you use smileys or other inserts when writing e-mails, SMS, twitter messages?
o Yes
o No
3. When text messaging do you think of the grammar rules and punctuation?
o Yes
o No
4. Do you post personal information on social media?
o Yes
o No
5. Do you agree with a statement that social media minimize social distance?
o Yes
o No
6. “I prefer to keep in touch with others by” Please rank the statements using a scale
1-5, with 1 being your most preferred choice and 5 being your least preferred
choice.
_____Texting
_____Facebook
_____Talking in person
_____Phone
_____Email
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Please read each statement and mark the number that most applies to you using the
following scale:

1-Stongly Disagree 2-Disagree 3-Neutral 4-Agree 5-Strongly Agree

7. I’ve improved my ability to work

1 2 3 4 5
out problems by using social media

8. I rely too much on social media to

1 2 3 4 5
stay in touch with people

9. I’ve improved my ability to

1 2 3 4 5
communicate by using social media

10. I feel out of touch with others

1 2 3 4 5
because of social networking (texting,
Facebook)