The college Facebook experience: A comparative study on the perception of friendship quality developed in Facebook and face-to-face interaction

Abstract

This is a descriptive study designed to determine friendship quality developed online through Facebook and face-to-face as perceived by AB Mass Communication students of Central Philippine University, Iloilo City specifically to determine the demographic characteristics of the respondents in terms of age and gender , determine friendship quality developed online through Facebook and face-to-face in terms of interdependence, understanding, commitment and network convergence and ascertain the significant differences in the friendship quality developed online through Facebook and face-to-face in terms of interdependence, understanding, commitment and network convergence.

The data in this study were gathered through the use of a survey questionnaire on friendship quality developed online through Facebook and Face-to-Face personally made by the researcher. The questionnaire focused on four areas of friendship such as interdependence, understanding, commitment and network convergence.

The research study used survey as its method and a validated researcher-mad questionnaire as its instrument it was concluded that AB Mass Communication students perceived the overall friendship quality developed online through Facebook to be “moderate”. The same result was observed in terms of interdependence, understanding, commitment and network convergence whether they were taken as an entire group or classified as to their age and gender except among the female students who indicated “high” in their perception on commitment and among younger and male students who indicated “low” on network convergence.

The findings furthered revealed that the perception on the overall friendship quality developed face-to-face was “very high” among the younger and female students and “High” when they were taken as an entire group and among older and male students. In terms of interdependence, understanding and commitment, the students also perceived the friendship quality to be “High” whether they were taken as an entire group and classified according to their age and gender. But in terms of network convergence, only the older students perceived a “high” friendship quality. The rest of the categories such as entire group, younger, male and female students reflected a “Very High” friendship quality on the aforementioned area.

From inferential analysis of the gathered data, it was found out that gender made significant differences in the perception of the students on the overall friendship quality developed online through Facebook and in terms of commitment and network convergence. In friendship quality developed face-to-face, age made significant differences among students in terms of network convergence. No significant differences were noted in all other areas.