SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES - AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF THE STUDENTS COMMUNITY IN COIMBATORE DISTRICT

Abstract

In the digital society, social networking sites play an imperative role among the students community. They are the wide users of social networking sites. The social networking sites, such as, face book, twitter, linkedin, google plus, etc., offers the scope for connecting the people at worldwide and receive updates at any time. It helps the people to create online profile and share information with any person at global level. It assists the students to obtain information regarding purchasing of product, academic matters, and to build cordial relationship with friends, relatives and class mates. They used to spend elongated period of time in chatting with friends, uploading of images and photos etc.. A sample of 1000 respondents from 48 arts and science colleges in Coimbatore district has been taken for the study by adopting quota sampling technique. The statistical tools, such as, percentage analysis, Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and t- test have been applied to analyse the data. The study has concluded that the majority of the students are aware about face book, you tube and instagram. They are highly aware about chatting, message texting, uploading of photos and videos, building of group conversation etc.. They have strongly agreed that social networking sites helps to connect the people at worldwide and eliminates the distance barriers. The demographic factor, namely, age has a significant difference with the students’ perception score. The proper usage of social networking sites by the students community may enhance their knowledge, skill and attitude.