By Acadia Otlowski
A recent study by Dr. Chris Steele of Keete University suggests that Facebook may have a positive effect on undergraduates who interacted frequently with others on Facebook.
Facebook effects many factors of your life including such things as college admissions; the same social medias may be partially responsible for an easier transition into college.
The study was conducted on 141 college students and were questioned about factors such as self-esteem and stress levels. The result of the study was that most students who reported frequent Facebook interact had higher self-esteem and were less stressed than those who used Facebook less.
Dr. Jason Sikorski, a Psychology professor at CCSU, indicated that he was not surprised by these findings.
“One thing that we know in the field of psychology is that social contact and social support is a very important predictor in positive outcomes in people,” said Sikorski. “We know that people who have social contacts, or individuals that they can discuss things with, tend to live healthier lives, not just physically, but also emotionally.”
A second portion of the study was conducted midway through the academic year where 169 students completed the same questionnaire from the former part of the study. This time, the amount of social interaction that students performed on Facebook had far less of an impact on their emotional well-being.
Experts suggest that this stems from the use of Facebook as a social support structure during the adjustment period into college. When students create a social support structure in college, they become far less dependent on social media for those same interactions.
Samanthat Tanasi, a freshman, is one of those students who believes that Facebook was crucial in her transition to college life. She used the “CCSU Class of 2015” Facebook page to find out about local events and to get to know some of the class.
“I definitely went on it a lot in August to check out the CCSU page,” said Tanasi. “But now I spend a lot less time on Facebook.”
But even with such positive benefits, Facebook still has drawbacks. According to a similar conducted by journal Cyberpsychology, Behavioral and Social Networking students that use social media, namely Facebook, tended to view others as happier and perceive that they led better lives than their own.
“People get too immersed in Facebook, such that it becomes a real distraction, to their real lives,” said Sikorski. “ I see a lot of students as a professor that they’re constantly checking their Facebook in class. They’re not paying attention, or perhaps they are spending too much time of Facebook when they could be studying.”
“We have all witnessed this as students and perhaps have done it ourselves. But social media addiction touches all parts of our lives. It interferes with our real life social interactions even while it connects us to those that are far away,” said Sikorski. “So, its almost really had to predict whether Facebook contact is a good thing, because we don’t know what the future is going to hold.”