1. INTRODUCTION:

In the age of the Internet, popular social network sites are assumed to have the potential for increasing influence to all the age group. The Internet helps to spread information with minimum costs and this information reaches a very high number of individuals. The Internet provides the two-way communication between the individual and public in a direct connection by writing a post and receiving the comments. In this way, more discussions can be encouraged by using Social media. This study argues about the Children Using Social Media. This is an analytical study between the most followed social networking websites which are most used by public in the world; according to the most credible Research Centres on cyberspace.

The main objective of this study is to examine the Communication Usage Patterns on Social Networking Sites by Children and their Parents. The study is a systematic analysis and method of the study is Quantitative and Qualitative. For this purpose, content analysis takes to consideration and data collection is based on Observation.

The power of media in today’s world is impossible to control. We have transcended the world of new media from traditional media. It is contended that expansion of media is critical in democracies. Since its origin, media remained a pivotal element for the smooth functioning of democracy and a non-ignorable crusader of a participatory form of government in a country like India. Words such as “CLICK”, “SHARE”, “POST”, “TREND”. “VIRAL” and “LIKE” have come to occupy a prominent place in the vocabulary of media. Media have become the backbone for the operations of markets and societies.

Keywords: New Media, Communication, Online Participation, Public Diplomacy, Social Networking Sites, Media Usage Pattern, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Tik-Tok, Instagram, Tinder.

2. OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH:

Academies often regard children and youngsters as future of a nation. It is generally understood that they hold an important place in the human life chain and hence, demand a special attention. It is one of the reasons that governments every year introduce various schemes and policies for the well-being of the children. In India, according to the Census (2011), 20.9% of the total population constitutes adolescents (10-19 years) and 19.2% people are young (15-24 years). Moreover, it is predicted that by 2020 India will be counted as the youngest country. Not only state governments even United Nations (UN) is framing such policies since its inception. Despite all these concerns, it is believed that, family is the first institution any child embraces after birth. It is the family which is responsible for the 3 upbringing of a child, governs his or her behaviour and determines his/her outdoor and indoor activities.

Now, two pertinent questions that require answers are: what would be the results if role of a family get partially replaced by some other entity? Will there be changes in the upbringing of a child, food habits or behaviour? In the 21st century, one cannot ignore the power of media and other technological developments occurring in our society. This age is making us breathe in saturated media atmosphere. Media, along with other market forces, are playing multidimensional roles in structuring society and shaping individuals.

Scientific developments, technological advancements, job opportunities, scarcity of natural resources, rise in population, and efforts to sustain oneself in this competitive world have altered the roles of human beings and also that of a family as an institution. Keeping the periphery of this research intact, the focus here would be to understand the reach of media, their effects and testify them on school students.

With change in the family structure, media have taken a predominant place in every home. In many cases, if not all, media have become a baby-sitter too. Earlier, in a traditional family setup, elder members used to act as a guiding force in the lives of children. But the disintegration of the extended family structure has given rise to nuclear families and the said force has been diluted. Even Janssens (1993), while talking about the process of industrialisation emphasises, “Industrialisation …resulted in the disintegration of the family groups into smaller units of nuclear families consisting of parents and their unmarried children.”

Nuclear family setup has its own pros and cons. In addition to it, one cannot ignore the place of media in this family setup. Media not only have blurred the boundaries of interaction, but have also become a necessity for the survival of humans. Available literature documents in detail that in the current age of media technology children grow up in front of screens. It may be a television screen, computer monitor screen or mobile screen.

Earlier traditional media were altering the sense ratios of their users, but technological advancements have provided people, especially teenagers (students in this study), with more powerful tools of communication. It is an undisputable fact that these days one can consume and use traditional media on new media platforms. For instance, anyone can read a newspaper on the Internet using either mobile phone or personal computer. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have just revolutionised the way we communicate.

The extent of media effects depends upon the nature of the content students consume and the purpose for which they make use of various media. Effects also depend on the proportion of time students spend with different media and on outdoor activities. Literature has acknowledged that children and teenagers do get influenced by the content they consume and use while spending time with various media. Whether this influence is progressive or regressive there is a need to study it. Spending time with various media has both positive and negative effects on the health of students as users. This research has tried to explore this relationship. If school students are spending considerable amount of time with media, it is evident that their social, physical and mental health would get affected.

Main Objectives of Research:

(1) To study the general profile of the selected adolescents.

(2) To study the various sources of mass media.

(3) To assess the different media used in creativity and personality of the selected adolescents.

(4) To compare the creativity and personality between various groups of mass media among the selected adolescents.

(5) To correlate the quantitative characteristics of the selected adolescents with creativity and personality in various groups of mass media.

Main purpose of this study is to show the integral role of media in our daily lives and adolescents’ constant exposure to various types of media contents and this is an evaluation of T.V. and other source of mass media as an important factor in the development of adolescents. It also helps in shape their personality (Introversion-extraversion) and creativity.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW OF RESEARCH:

A review of pertinent literature was conducted in order to find the roots of the problem. Existing literature not only provides direction for research but also helps in measuring the present situation and move accordingly. From research point of view, literature, including books, research papers, news articles, news reports-tell us about the research gap and provide leads for further investigations. It tends to bridge the gap between independently existing findings and connect disciplines. Wimmer and Dominick in their book titled Mass Media Research‘ discussed about the importance of literature review as they mentioned, Experienced researchers consider the literature review to be one of the most important steps in the research process. It allows them to learn from (and eventually add to) previous research and saves time, effort, and money (Wimmer and Dominick, 2003, p.24). Here, the researcher has attempted to conduct thematic review of the literature. Variety of written material, that talk about the importance of family in the life of a child; how media find a place in the family setup; all - pervasive and irresistible nature of media; how media affect the health and the reason children/adolescents/youngsters (here school students) fall prey to media messages have been accessed and scanned.

To begin with, entertainment can be one of the significant reasons for which teenagers (students) remain glued to media. „Entertainment via media‟ stands true for all age groups. However, students being technologically advanced groups, make optimum utilisation of media for entertainment purpose. Entertainment as a function of media is not new.

Students get hooked to TV and other forms of media to seek pleasure, quench their thrust for information and knowledge. The new media, including the Internet, mobile phones and social networking sites offers diverse content, e.g. - funny clips, sitcoms, witty text messages, humorous pictures and others- to relax, reduce tension and stress, this can be one of the reasons why students spend a considerable share of their time with media.

Browsing social networking sites clears the picture in this context. Incidents, happenings, events related to any arena, say social, political or economic, the moment any of these occur social networking sites get flooded with trolls, witty messages, videos and comments. Students like and share them on their Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, WhatsApp and many other digital platforms available. They act as agents to make such materials viral.

For instance, United Progressive Alliance (UPA)–II with so many scams to its credit and its bad performance in 16thLokSabha elections, remained a hot topic of discussion among social networking sites (of all age groups). The government was criticised using black humour, drawing parodies of Congress chief and former prime minister. Politics, though a serious domain, yet media provided an opportunity to their users to create humour out of them.

Students learn about the government functionaries, organisations, latest marketing trends and techniques, food items, fashion statements, socio-political issues, incidents, and events through multimedia. These include advertisements, movies, songs, documentaries, news programmes, blogs, and social media, apart from other channels. Depending upon their preferences and tastes they consume the information (media messages) using various mediums. And as a result they indulge in discussions during elections; imbibe what their role 19 models are up to; or may follow what is in trend. For instance, boys like to wear „green pants‟ if their idol is supporting the same. Similarly, other examples may be if girls get their hair curled or straightened up following their onscreen role models. Students may prefer „Thums Up‟ over other soft drinks because Akshay Kumar endorses the product. They want to become a part of some NGO because Aamir Khan is endorsing it. They play a particular “game” since their favourite player is best at that. Scores of promotional advertisements related to the FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil, persuaded football lovers to buy the new football and plethora of merchandise with embossed logos of various teams. Not only that, the whole process turned a large number of non-fans into fans of football. Various retail outlets like Big Bazaar encashed the opportunity and sold a large amount of the merchandise and sports gear and a lion‟s share of buyers was youngsters. Hence, if after gathering knowledge and information about things happening around the world students try to reproduce some of them in their environment, it is because they use and consume the content dished out to them by media.

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Multistage stratified sampling technique will be used for the selection of the school students in the present study. Bhilai (Chhattishgarh) city will be selected purposely as it is convenient to the researcher and need of the study in the first stage.

4.1 Type of Data:

Primary data was used for the current study. Data was collected after conducting two surveys. One survey was conducted among school students between 13 and 17 years of age. The second survey was conducted among parents of the school students.

4.2 Methods of Data Collection:

Two kinds of questionnaires, one for school students, and one for parents, were developed and used for the purpose of data collection. In case of students, self-administered questionnaire was used as a technique for the collection of responses. For the purpose of measuring the mental health of students the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-42 (DASS-42) was used. DASS-42 is “a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress” (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995). School students, those constituting the sample for the study, were given the questionnaire that was developed for parents and were instructed to get them up filled from either of their parents. The questionnaires consisted both close- and open- ended questions in order to provide quantitative and qualitative evidences respectively.

4.3 Universe and Sampling:

The universe for the study was Bhilai (Chhattishgarh). The population for this study consisted students between 13 and 17 years of age, studying in 53 senior secondary schools (as per the website of the UT Education Department), and each parent of the selected sample. The target sample size was 500, of which 250 were school students and 250 were parents. In case of students the response was cent per cent, but the response rate suffered in case of parents as 27 did not fill the questionnaire. Hence, the final sample size is 473. Using stratified sampling procedure 10 schools were selected. Further, using simple 59 random sampling from grade VIII to XII five students from each grade were selected for the study. One parent from each chosen sample unit was taken for the purpose of the study.

4.4 Data Analysis:

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data.

4.5 Tools of The Study:

Two standardized tools and the one schedule developed by the researcher will be used for the collection of the data.

The standardized tool `verbal test of creativity thinking' developed by Baqer Mehdi will be used for assessing the creativity of the adolescents.

The standardized tool for assessing the personality developed by Y. Singh and H. M. Singh – “Personality Inventory” for the adolescents will be used.

One schedule containing general information of the selected adolescents and type of mass media used will be developed by the researcher with the help of guide and expert of the subject.

Interview method will be used for collecting the required information.

5. HYPOTHESIS:

H (1) -Majority of school students are exposed to multimedia.

H (1a) - Majority of private school students have more than one television set at home as compared to government school students.

H (2) - Students spend more time with mobile phones than television.

H (3) - Students spend less time on physical activities.

H (3a) - Government school students spend more time on physical activities as compared to private school students.

H (4) - Students prefer mediated communication than the interpersonal form of communication.

H (5) - Students who spend more time with mobile phone exhibit higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress.

H (6) - Mothers monitor media usage and consumption of their child/children more as compared to fathers.

H (6a) - Parents with higher educational qualifications guide their child/children more as compared to those who have comparatively lower educational qualifications.

6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:

The discussion and research on media began in 1930s in the Western world. When western societies were undergoing a shift from traditional structure to the modern one, theorists indulged in understanding the cause and effects of this „change‟. Meanwhile, focus on media studies too gathered momentum. Amidst all the developments in mass communication, the Payne Fund studies began their research works in 1926 and published 8 volumes of their work on effect of media on American youth from 1933 to 1935 (Petersen, 2012, pp 1-10). However, they later drew flak from contemporaries for not adopting scientific approach for conducting such researches.

The 21st century students have access to various media. Students, taken as a sample for the present study, admitted to have at least one television set at home. Majority of the students have their personal mobile phones, internet connection at home and on mobile phones, accounts on social networking sites including Facebook, and WhatsApp. Students do make use of search engines for various purposes ranging from academic to personal.

The endeavour of this thesis was to gauge the effect of media consumption and usage on the health of school students, studying in both, government and private, schools in Bhilai (Chhatishgarh). Various studies have established that media have both direct and limited effects on its users. The nature of media effect depends upon diverse factors. These factors include nature of societies, active and passive audience, availability of latest technology, media reach and access.

This study found that the students, who spent time with different media, found to be suffering from depression and anxiety. Even majority of parents agreed that media have both positive and negative effects. The Common Sense Media Report published in 2008 concluded that children, on an average, spend 45 hours per week with various media. That works out to be around 6.4 hours per day.

Interestingly, the levels of depression and anxiety were found high among those students who spent more time using and consuming various media. Besides, this study reinforces the contention that media messages influence its audiences. Students affirmed that they have tried smoking and indulged in drinking after being influenced by media messages. Despite all the issues, as discussed above, there is notable difference between media usage and consumption of the government school students and the private school students. Media are powerful, alluring and enchanting enough to make students addicted to them. Students have become multitaskers. During the research, students were found using various media simultaneously. Even the views of parents of government school students and private school parents varied to an extent.

During data collection process, the researcher had interacted with school principals and found that the schools are fighting hard to curb usage of mobile phones by students. Principals, mostly of private schools, put forth that V standard students bring mobile phones to school campus even though they are not allowed. Sensitisation of parents and students is required. Parents should be responsible to monitor the media usage and consumption by their child/children.

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Received on 27.01.2021 Modified on 15.02.2021

Int. J. Rev. and Res. Social Sci. 2021; 9(2):65-70.

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