A qualitative study on the Facebook experience of young adult university students in Metro Manila

ABSTRACT

Objectives@#The purpose of this study was to explore qualitatively Facebook engagement amongyoung adult university students and the perceived effects of their use.@*Methodology@#The study utilized a qualitative design using in-depth interview. Recruitment wasdone using maximum variation purposive sampling via Facebook advertisement and posters withinthe university. Interested students were asked to contact the principal investigator for aninterview schedule. Prior to interview, the respondents answered a socio-demographicquestionnaire.@*Results@#Among the 19 students, the average time spent on social media was 4.3 hours or 260minutes. On Facebook, specifically, the average time spent daily was 2.9 hours or 176 minutes.Positive and negative experiences when viewing Facebook posts was found to be influenced bythe level of closeness between the student who posted and the reader. Commemoration posts byclose friends elicited happiness and benign envy. Factors that point to a positive experienceinclude positive social comparison, ease of communication and purpose of use, especiallyacademics. However, negative experiences also included witnessing meanness online and readingabout opposing views on sociopolitical issues, which led to depressive symptoms. Negative socialcomparison also led to feelings of envy and sadness, which the respondents described to be moresevere in adolescence than in young adulthood.@*Conclusion@#The study explored how social media, especially Facebook, has shaped the way inwhich people engaged with the world. Positive experiences were related to the level of closenessof relationship while negative experiences were mostly due to negative encounters with friendsand the general tone of the feed. The study also determined that experiential change fromadolescent to young adulthood influence their perception of Facebook.