Abstracts

Abstract
 
Social networking sites are one of the latest examples of communication technologies that have been widely adopted by students. The primary objective of conducting this study was to contribute to understanding of how university students use social media. We focused more on YouTube, as one of the popular social networking websites, and graduate students, as representatives of university students who are more frequently involved in academic activities. A survey, including twenty five questions, was developed to address key questions in terms of using different types of social media, including the purpose of using YouTube, students’ attitudes towards the impact of social media on academic performance, and gender and nationality differences. Surveys were filled out by 152 students at a university in west Texas. We found that graduate students were more likely than other students to use YouTube for learning purposes. A major take-home message for educators is that social media have the potential to become a valuable resource to support their educational communications, and they will benefit from integrating social media, such as YouTube, into university courses. (SV)
 
 Abstract

In the Fall 2014 semester, the ESL 5301 class decided to conduct a study about social media. We were curious about how Texas Tech students use social media and we decided to conduct surveys as a data collecting method. Our study had several phases. First, we read some articles about social media and summarized them; secondly, we wrote our introductions and literature rewiews; then each student prepared some hypotheses; next, we prepared and conducted our survey. In total 152 Texas Tech students filled out our survey. Next steps were organizing the survey results and discussing the results. In the end, it was an interesting study; we had very interesting hypotheses and some suprising findings. We believe that this study will lead the way to further studies about social media. (SK)
 
Abstract
 
Social media are becoming an important part of our society and redefine the way modern people interact with each other. Social media companies presented a real name policy to mandate all users to use their real names on their accounts in order to decrease the risk associated with pseudonyms several years ago. However, it has raised a war between social media users and social media companies because a few social media users fight against this policy. To better understand this war, research was conducted to know people’s attitudes toward the real name policy of social media. In this research, a survey form including two questions about the real name policy of social media was at first designed. Secondly, people on Texas Tech campus were randomly selected to fill out the survey forms. Last, the survey results were analyzed using a statistical methodology. The results show that the majority of survey respondents supported the real name policy of social media and used their real names on their social media accounts. In addition, survey respondents’ attitudes towards the real name policy of social media and using real names on social media accounts varied by their demographic information, such as gender, nationality and level of study. (FL)
 
Abstract
 
Previous studies have shown that many differences exist between female and male Facebook users among college students. These differences can be used to explore the personality differences between females and males. Totally 167 surveys about social media were taken in Texas Tech University between October 12, 2014 and October 23, 2014. Based on the results of all the surveys, we analyzed the personality differences between females and males in two aspects: neuroticism and extraversion. Through analyzing the time spent on Facebook and frequency of checking Facebook, we found males were more neurotic than females. By investigating the participants’ activities on Facebook, we figured out that males were more extraverted than females. From these two conclusions, we can also deduce that people who have a strong sense of loneliness may not always lack social activities. (YL)
 
Abstract

Language use by gender and age is commonly reported to have differences. The raising of internet and social media as the dominant communication tool in the present also shows different characteristics in language use. However, with new tools as emoticons, photos, updates and abbreviations inside modern language, it is important to know how people perceive it. We presented a survey to 152 Texas Tech University students and some other non-students in Lubbock to see how they perceive the use of language in social media. We found that most of the people disagree with traditional stereotypes for males and females about language use. Nevertheless, we also found that the use of emoticons, abbreviations and status updates follow these stereotypes suggesting that people didn’t realize how these differences among genders really reflect previous reported stereotypes. (MCRB)

Abstract

This study shows how Texas Tech University students use social media. This research paper was written after a survey was done with 152 students. Those students were chosen to be as close to %50 each as possible in order to represent reality. They were asked many questions to discover how they used social media and what their purpose using social media was. You will find out about young people’s social media habits.
 
Abstract

Social media have a significant impact on students and each group of students has a particular use, different from other groups. This study focuses on effects of social media on Texas Tech University students. It made a survey on 152 TTU students as a sample of TTU students. The survey contained 21 questions which consisted of several points about gender, nationality, and education level (graduate / undergraduate) and their methods of using social media. The results showed that the majority of the survey was from American undergraduate students, who represent 95% of all Texas Tech University students. Moreover, the survey showed Facebook was more used than Twitter. Also, this study showed that each group of TTU students had a particular use of social media. (FA)