ACCESS AND USAGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BY ARTS AND SCIENCE COLLEGE STUDENTS IN COIMBATORE CITY

Abstract

In this Digital era, social networking sites play an imperative role in the society for communication and interaction. It is an online pedestal to share information, ideas, content, etc., through virtual communication and network. College students are the avid users of social net working sites. It assists them to obtain information regarding academic matters and also to build cordial relationship with teachers and class mates. A sample of 200 respondents from 10 arts and science colleges has been taken for the study by adopting convenience sampling technique. The statistical tools, such as, percentage analysis, multiple response analysis, and chi square test have been applied to analyse the data. The study has concluded that the majority of the students are using face book and you tube. They are familiar with chatting, texting of messages and building of group conversation. They used to access social networking sites at any time anywhere on daily basis for a minimum of one hour. The study has also revealed that the demographic factors, such as, age, sex, and students doing part time job have a significant association with the number of years of using social networking sites and age has a significant association with the number of times of accessing social networking sites per day.