Information from Social Media and the Socio-political Awareness of Students

Information from Social Media and the Socio-Political Awareness of Students

¹Ria I. Dela Merced*, ²Allen Grace M. Sarmiento, ³Janine Crystal C. Sayo-Villavicencio, ¹Kristine Analiza P. De Vera, ³Arjay P. Capitle, ¹Catherine L. Roxas

¹College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Bulacan State University

²College of Business Education and Administration, Bulacan State University

³College of Criminal Justice Education, Bulacan State University

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.8120361

Received: 16 December 2024; Accepted: 23 December 2024; Published: 24 January 2025

ABSTRACT

The pandemic compelled classes to shift online, specially through social media, hence it is imperative to analyze its role in our information gathering. This descriptive narrative research delved into the social media usage and sociopolitical awareness of college students. Students spend an average of four to six hours a day on social media, primarily Facebook (67.9%) and for doing nothing (42.3%), class related activities (35.9%), when with friends or family (37.2%), school or job-related assignment (30.8%) and reducing mental stress (29.5%). Majority of the students were slightly aware of the socio-political issue and showed embarrassment of being unaware, even resorting to feigning knowledge. Corollary, it is proposed that students undergo an internet literacy program.

Keywords: Social Media Usage, Information, Socio-political awareness

INTRODUCTION

The Philippines is deemed as the “Social Media Capital of the World” (Philstar, 2018). With more than 100 million Filipinos in the country, 44 million are internet users while a whopping 40 million are active social media users (Duque, San Antonio & Brazil, 2017). Furthermore, Filipinos use social media for over four (4) hours a day on the average (Statista Research Department, 2021). This indicates that almost 16% of our day is spent on the use of social media. Further, Filipinos are connected to the internet for a total of 166 days in a year, and out of this, 65 days were spent on social media (Philstar, 2022). This goes to show that the use of social media has become an essential part of our daily lives.

With the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, a lot of our usual daily transactions shifted online in view of the safety protocols implemented by the government. Even our educational system was affected and was compelled to hold online classes. Discussions, activities, and exams were held virtually, and communications among students and teachers are primarily coursed through social media. With this, students are now more exposed to online information.

The sudden popularity of the use of social media in all ages, paved for an abundance of information within reach with just a click away. In fact, it was discovered that the utilization of social media by students to communicate and interact with a wider audience yielded positive effects to their study habits (Valdez, et al., 2020). However, the unmoderated nature of social media might lead to an array of invalidated and unverified information, including news involving speculation and uncertainty regarding social events (Ye et al,. 2018). This is better known on the internet as fake news.

As students are required to use social media to keep up with their studies, they are also bombarded with various information online, which may or may not be verified. Oftentimes, students rely on online information to facilitate their studies. The internet serves as an information superhighway and has made it possible for students to accomplish research efficiently, deal with several assignments, widen the scope of reading and learning, promote self-learning, encourage and enhance peer learning (Apuke & Iyendo, 2017). This reliance poses both benefit and harm as students may take information online as fact even if it may have been from an unreliable source or is fake news. With this, it is high time to look into how online information plays a role in the way of thinking of students.

To elucidate, social awareness pertains to the mental state wherein one is knowingly aware of a specific social experience and completely comprehends the contextual situation at present. In this study, social awareness is conceptually defined as a person’s consciousness to a specific social event that happened in a particular period. The awareness in the social and political events in this study shall be based on the headlines of primary news outlets with the biggest claimed daily circulation which are Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star. These headlines consist of nine months’ worth of weekend publications (Saturday and Sunday) immediately prior to the in-depth interview of the respondents since  implicit memory becomes stable after nine months (Vöhringer, et al., 2017). Three major headlines were chosen based on timeliness and popularity at the time of the in-depth interview were selected to assess the sociopolitical awareness of the students.

This undertaking described the frequency of search for information through social media, social media sites most frequently used and the reason for social media use. Likewise, it described the socio-political awareness of the students and the role of social media in their awareness using indepth interviews. Finally, devised a program based on the results of this study. In determining the thought process of students in terms of social media use for learning and how their thinking is molded or affected by such information, the advantages and disadvantages of the use of social media for learning and studies may be properly streamlined for the guidance of the students.

METHODS

The methods of this study include narrative inquiry and descriptive approach. In a narrative inquiry, the stories involving culture, history, lifestyle, and the likes from the participants comprise the raw data of the research (Butina, 2015). Since this study sought to determine the role of social media to the socio-political awareness of the students through their narratives, the narrative inquiry approach was appropriately used. Corollary, it utilized descriptive statistics to ascertain the student’s use of social media as to the most used social media site and the reason for use through the on-line survey and modified Social Networking Time Use Scale (SONTUS) with reliability coefficient of 0.826.

This study assessed the role of information sourced from social media to the socio-political awareness of college students through survey and interview. The respondents for the survey were chosen through simple random sampling among the population of different programs offered by different colleges in Bulacan State University. On the other hand, the participants were selected through convenience sampling to enable participants to choose their own free time to participate. The participants were fully informed of the nature, purpose and process of the research, and their respective rights prior to voluntarily consenting to participate. Seventy-eight  (78) students participated in the survey, whereas ten students were involved in the in-depth interview.

The researchers employed an unstructured in-depth interview and on-line survey to gather detailed data from the participants. The interview was designed to be unstructured to encourage free flow of ideas and perspective from the participants to fully assess the role of social media to their sociopolitical awareness.

Thereafter the survey responses were encoded, and the interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed through thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is utilized to identify, analyze, organize, and report themes, domains and codes found within the transcribed data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the present study, the role of social media in the socio-political awareness of the students was obtained through in-depth interviews. These were transcribed and assessed, compared, and coded based on similarity of themes and domains among the responses of the participants. Meanwhile, the social media use was described through descriptive statistics. Thereafter, the results were drawn and reported to the participants of the study prior to publication as courtesy to their cooperation in the research.

RESULTS

Frequency of search for information through social media. Based on the results of the study, the participants spent an average of four to six hours using social media platforms in a day. This is relatively higher compared to the average daily usage of 147 minutes or 2 hours and 27 minutes per day as mentioned by Dixon (2022) in her article entitled Average daily time spent on social media worldwide 2012-2022. In relation to one of the the interview responses: “Everyday po, ginagamit na po yung social media tsaka parang nagiging alternative na po siya sa newspaper na nakakapag update po sa mga issue po.”, it appears that the use of social media is now part of the normal student routine and has ultimately replaced the traditional reading of newspapers. Accessibility of social media platforms especially during the time of the pandemic provides students ample time browsing their cellular phones. Since cellphones are handy and mobile, this paved the way for students to easily gather information or news.

Social media sites most frequently used. As gleaned from Figure 1, Facebook is the social media site mostly used by the students at 67.9%, followed by Instagram at 26.9%. This stark difference is notable and congruent with the findings of the Balita (2023) wherein Facebook is deemed as the most used social media in the Philippines.

Figure 1. Frequently Used Social Media Sites

Reason for social media use.  This study discovered that while the students spend an average of four to six hours on social media, the use of social media is usually for the following reasons: (1) When at home doing nothing at 42.3%; (2) When doing class related activities at 35.9%; (3) When in the company of friends or family at 37.2%; (4) When doing school or job-related assignment at home at 30.8%; and (5) When you need to reduce your mental stress 29.5%.

Based on this, it appears that idly browsing through social media was the primary reason for its use. While there is extensive use of social media, the purpose is not entirely for gathering online information, considering that such landed only at the second spot (for class related activities) and fourth spot (doing school related assignment). With this, it can be presumed that the socio-political awareness of the students might not be immensely affected by their exposure to social media considering that gathering information is not the primary purpose of the use.

Notably, one of the top reasons is “When in the company of friends or family.” This means that most of the students succumb to the use of social media when they are in the presence of their family and friends. Technology, through the use of social media is depicted for connection to people who are far from us, however, with this discovery, it appears that it also causes disconnect to people who are close to us. Ironically, its use has been linked to social isolation ( Whaite et al., 2018), and what has been termed as phubbing or an occurrence wherein a person is distracted by their mobile phone during face-to-face interactions (Chatterjee, 2020).

Socio-political awareness of the students. The awareness of the participants of socio-political issues inquired during the interview was divided into four categories, which are: aware, slightly aware, feigning awareness, and unaware. Out of ten participants, only five were able to fully elucidate at least one socio-political issue based on their knowledge from social media. Meanwhile, most of the participants had surface knowledge of the issue but were not able to tackle it in-depth. For instance, one of the participants said: “Yung kay Remulla naman po, nahuli po yung anak niya if I’m not mistaken po siya pa po yung nakausap, tas millions po yung halaga…”  In this response, the participant shows knowledge of the issue but was not able to fully discuss the topic.

On the other hand, there were participants who made it appear that they know the socio-political issue, to wit: “Ah ayun po for me it is questionable po, since sa ano po siya diba may dugo siyang ano, yung mga Soriano, ayun po questionable for me dahil siya lang ba yung mas fit dun sa posisyon na yun, and also po yung pagdating dun sa siya lang ba yung may kakayahan or may mas malalim na kaalaman pagdating dun sa posisyon na kung saan siya itinalaga.” Based on this, in the participant’s attempt to appear knowledgeable, the participant responded with off-tangent responses. This may be explained by the postulate that knowledge is perceived as power and the lack thereof is seen as a liability or problem. It seems that the participants’ lack of knowledge to the socio-political issues involved led them to overcompensate in their responses.

Lastly, most of the participants were unaware of the timely socio-political issues involved. For instance: “Honestly hindi po. Sorry po.” It is also imperative to note that participants were apologetic for not knowing and expressed embarrassment in their bodily language by making themselves small (namimilipit) and resorting to humor (laughing to hide embarrassment). This may be explained by the fact that the reason for their use is not primarily for socio-political awareness as previously explained in the previous section.

Role of social media in the student’s awareness. Based on the data gathered by the researchers, the participants show limited knowledge with the socio-political issues presented. They may have heard about the issues mentioned by the interviewers which shows surface awareness, but when asked on the entire details of the issues, the majority of the participants cannot relay what actually transpired.

On the contrary, all participants mentioned that social media greatly helps them in developing their socio-political awareness which tends to replace television or newspapers. Some of the social media platforms which serve as sources of socio-political issues are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, news websites such as Rappler. Broughton (2022) also emphasized that among the mentioned social media platforms, Facebook constitutes 44% which Filipinos use as the primary source of news or information. Aside from the latter, Tiktok and Instagram are growing popularity as sources of news mainly because the younger generation prefers short-form video content to reading texts (Howarth, 2024). These social media platforms are visited or browsed daily by the respondents providing opportunity to expose and update themselves on social and political issues through online articles posted or shared by internet users.

Consequently, Intyaswati, Maryani, Sugiana and Venus (2021) argued that social media can also be utilized in exchanging political information/political talks which in turn, enhances the level of political knowledge among students. The more exposure and engagement they have, the more information they tend to browse, share, receive, and gain.

Nevertheless, it was also emphasized by the participants the importance of critical thinking in terms of further verification/validation of sources. Since, participants are also well aware that misinformation or fake news may also circulate on social media platforms.

Proposed Program. Based on the results of the study, it appears that students dedicate time on social media spending an average of four to six hours using social media platforms in a day and the primary social media site used is Facebook. However, the use of social media is usually for the following reasons: (1) When at home doing nothing at 42.3%; (2) When doing class related activities at 35.9% (3) When in the company of friends or family at 37.2%; (4) When doing school or job-related assignment at home at 30.8%; and (5) When you need to reduce your mental stress 29.5%. This may explain why the students’ socio-political awareness was not that strong as they do not use social media for educational purposes, but more for browsing idly. Considering this, the researchers are proposing for a University wide Internet Literacy Program that will: (1) assess the digital literacy of the students, (2) identify and address problem areas, if any, and (3) to provide a seminar workshop that will educate the students on digital and internet literacy, particularly the use of Facebook.

DISCUSSION

To sum up, the study discovered that students use social media for an average of four to six hours in a day and the primary social media site used is Facebook. Meanwhile, the students’ use of social media is for the following reasons: (1) When at home doing nothing at 42.3%; (2) When doing class related activities at 35.9% (3) When in the company of friends or family at 37.2%; (4) When doing school or job-related assignment at home at 30.8%; and (5) When you need to reduce your mental stress 29.5%. In relation to this, the students appear to be mostly unaware of socio-political issues. On the other hand, the socio-political awareness of the participants were characterized as aware, slightly aware, feigning awareness and unaware. It appears that most of them were only slightly aware of the issues based on the information they have accumulated from social media sites. This may be explained by the fact that the reason for their use is not primarily for sociopolitical awareness. Additionally, the participants deemed that social media usage had an immense role to play in their socio-political awareness. However, this was contradicted by the result that their awareness was not that profound.

From this, it is proposed that a University wide Internet Literacy Program that will: (1) assess the digital literacy of the students, (2) identify and address problem areas, if any, and (3) to provide a seminar workshop that will educate the students on digital and internet literacy, particularly the use of Facebook be commenced.   Despite the long hours spent by the respondents on social media usage, the study shows limited awareness on socio-political issues. This is due to the fact that social media platforms are utilized not only for updating oneself on social and political issues but also for entertainment purposes.

A lot of them have only read the headlines but not the entire content of these articles. This provides little information on the issues presented by the researchers during the conduct of the interview. Also, participants noted that online information needs critical and careful examination since these may be prone to misinformation or fake news. Accessibility of social media platforms provides an open space for all to share their thoughts and opinions regarding socio-political issues. With this, personal biases may surface and thus result in varying perspectives which need further validation and verification.

CONCLUSION

Accessibility of social media platforms requires responsible users who are critical enough to share information that are fact-based. In terms of social and political issues, users are expected to read the entire article and verify the sources of such. With this, it is highly recommended that the University devise a program that would assess and address students’ internet and social media literacy, with the primary goal of educating them of analytical and critical thinking and reading skills. This may be accomplished by including this in the University attributes of an ideal graduate in every course or identify a specific related course.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to acknowledge Bulacan State University for funding this research project. Sincere gratitude also to the participants of the study, validators and supportive colleagues.

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