In doing my research, I found that my results were very interesting. The questions in the survey hit all the topics I discussed in my blog posts. I had so many responses to my online survey and I found the results varying throughout. Some outcomes were what I expected and others surprised me. For each age category, the results differed. In the teenage age group (12-20), 22& said they spend 1-2 hours a day on Social Media, 22% said they spend 2-3, and 19% said they spend 3-4. What actually surprised me was that 35% of people said that the probably spend more than 4 hours a day on social media and What didn't surprise me at all was that 0% said they spend 0 to 1 hour a day on social media because what teenager doesn't check their accounts at least once a day? These results proved my research and my blog post about teenagers being addicted to social media. Spending more than 4 hours a day on social media is a lot of time out of one's day, especially someone who is already busy with a million other things. Social Media consumes so much time specifically teenagers as my results found. I also found that Twitter was the number one used social media site among teenagers. 48% said they used twitter the most, 36% said Instagram, 6% said Facebook, 6% said Snapchat, 3% said tumblr and 3% said Pintrest. The results supported my hypothesis that Twitter would be the number one social media site used among teens. I found myself that Twitter is extremely addicted and this could be an issue among teens for many reasons. In the 21-30 age group, I found that 67% of people said they spend 1-2 hours a day on social media and 33% said they spend 3-4. I predicted that this would be the result because people 21-30 have less time to go on social media between college and work and people 21-30 are grown up and know that social media shouldn't be controlling their whole lives. I also found that Facebook was the number one used social media site, then twitter, then Instagram, among that age group.
I asked people if they knew all of their followers on any of their social media sites because usually they don't. A majority of people accept friend requests they don't know or let people follow them that they don't know simply because they want more followers. In the teen age group, 70% of people said they didn't know all of them. I predicted that more people would say no because I know myself that I don't know all of my followers on any of social media accounts. These results are concerning because you never know who could be viewing your pictures or information and they could be predators or sick people. On another hand, I asked people if they had posted anything on the internet that they have regretted. 55% said yes and this was concerning because there are many things to be careful of when posting things on the internet like ruining your reputation or harming someone. The number one reasons teenagers said that the number one reason they go on social media is because they're bored and then the second number one reason was to see what others were doing. This result was interesting to me because there are so many people why we use social media and it was funny to me that being bored was the number one reason because even when I'm not bored and I'm actually really busy, I still manage to use social media. I'm sure this is the case for others too. The number one reason in the 21-30 age group category was to see what others were doing.
Out of everyone that took the survey, 98% of people said that they think social media is controlling the world. This could either be a good or a bad thing. it could be a good thing because it is improving the world and making things easier by delivering news faster, and communicating. On the other hand, it could be a bad thing because it could be too addicting and controlling. For example, I asked what people thought of social media addiction. 37% of teens said that it is seen all the time and is a serious issue, 27% said it is seen all the time, 23% said it is a serious issue, and 13 percent said it is seen all the time but isn't a big issue. It was good to discover that many people are aware of social media addiction and know that it is an issue but the thing is can we stop it? the age group 21-30 said that social media addiction is a serious issue. Another con about social media controlling the world is that it is taking away from real life communication with people. I asked if social media was a primary way of keeping touch with friends and family and 61% of teens said yes and 67% of people ages 21-30 said yes. Thats more than half of the people from each age group that would only know what's going on with their friends and family if it wasn't for social media.
Cyber bullying is another issue typically displayed with social media. 78% of teens said they were victims of cyber bullying or have known someone who was and 100% of people ages 21-30 said they did also. This is a large amount of people but it wasn't shocking to me because we see it go on all of the time. I also asked for people's views on cyber bullying. 93% of teen said it should be stopped, 6% said it wasn't a big issue, and then one person said it is unfortunate but inevitable. In the 21-30 age group, everyone said it should be stopped except one person who said that it is a small fraction of a much larger issue which I think was very interesting. Cyber bullying should be stopped and it is seen more often than it should.
The other age groups I asked was people 31+. Almost everyone said that they only spend 0-1 hours a day which makes sense because adults really aren't addicted to their phones or the internet. Facebook was also the most common social media site among them and they knew who all of their followers were. This was the result I was expecting. 75% said that social media wasn't the primary way to keep in touch with family and 100% said that they see social media controlling the world. All of the results in this category were what I expected accept for 90% of them saying that they have never been a victim or have know somebody who has been a victim of cyber bullying because I figured that maybe if they had kids, their kids would have? All in all, this survey was very interesting and a fun way to learn about the pros and cons of social media in our world around us today.
