Hypothetical Experiment

Hypothetical Experiment

According to the studies in the article “Myspace and Facebook: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Exploring Friend-Networking Sites”, they have conducted surveys concerning the usage and thought process surrounding the usage of social-networking sites. According to the survey, a vast majority of the participants, who were young college students, had at least a Myspace or Facebook account. The survey also found that many of these students spent long periods of time on these sites for various reasons.

In response to this article, the project group has decided to create a hypothetical experiment concerning these findings, to prove that these statements are in fact true. We pose the question; how much time do students actually spend on these sites? We hypothesize that, if we left fifty students, ages 18 to 24, in a room with computers with internet access, then the average student will spend the majority of their time on either Facebook or Myspace. In addition to measuring the average time spent on these sites, we will also record whether they spent the most time on Myspace or Facebook. At the end of the experiment, we will then administer a survey, similar to that of the one in the article. The survey will ask questions concerning why people use these social networking sites, what are some characteristics of the typical users and nonusers of these sites and what do the students use these sites for.

In this experiment, the independent variable will be the amount of time the students spend in the room and the dependent variable will be the amount of time they spend on these social networking sites. We will control the experiment by making it so that none of the students can communicate with each other, because there will be a divider between each computer. Also, within each testing group, each computer will be of the same kind and have the same internet capabilities. The experimental group will be the group with the computers with complete internet access. The control group will be the group which have computers, but don’t have access to social networking sites such as Myspace or Facebook.

The procedure will be conducted as follows; in the experimental group, there will be a random sample of fifty college students between ages 18 to 24 in a room, each with their own computer and each with internet access. They will then be told that they may not talk during the experiment and that they are to do whatever they want on the computer for the duration of three hours. During the experiment, the computer will have a program which tracks and records the amount of time each student spends on each site and what they do one each site. After the three hours are finished, a survey will be administered and the data concerning the sites visited and how they were used will be recorded and calculated. The control group will go through the same procedure, but without access to social networking sites.

We will conduct several variations to the procedure as well. Each test variation will still have an experimental group and a control group to compare with. In one trial, the experiment will take place from 7:00 am to 10:00 am, another trial will be conducted for between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm, another between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm and another between 11:00 pm and 2:00 am. This will test to see if the time of day makes a difference as to how often students use these social networking sites. We will also test for the variation in location, by conducting the tests in American cities from the west coast to the east coast. A final variation will be the type of internet access the computers have in the testing room. We will conduct an experiment with computers which high speed internet access and we will also have another experiment with computers with poor internet access. This will test to see if internet speed will effect how often the students check the social networking sites. The purpose for all these variations is to see if different conditions will effect how often students actually use Myspace or Facebook.

Following this, we will repeat each test three times and then record the data, taking the average amount of time spent on the social networking sites, with respect to the three hours they spent in the room. After we receive a large enough pool of information, we will graph the data and see if students truly spend the majority of their time on social networking sites and if so, which ones. We can then come to a conclusion as to whether our hypothesis is supported or refuted in each varying condition. In addition to the refutation or support of our hypothesis, we will also compile the data from the survey that was administered after the test. We will then record this information and then compare the results to the findings in the article, to see whether the results are similar.