AbstractSocial media has been widely usednowadays around the globe. Theevolvement of the social media site can be seen when there are huge numbers ofsocial media available online for the users. With over 1, 870 million activeusers, Facebook is currently the ruling supreme in the social media world (Chaffey, 2017) followed by other popular social mediasuch as WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. In Malaysia, Instagram nowadays not only being used for uploadingpictures and connecting to one another, it also widely used as a platform forbusinesses, self-promoting and sharing ideas and creativity. According to the data gained by comScore, 58per cent of Instagram users were female (Seligson, 2016).
Every day, it was reported that average person will spend two hours onchecking their social media while doing their laundry, waiting for the bus andbetween their daily activities. Whenthere was much time spent on social media, it wills somehow affecting the usersin any aspect and it includes both positive and negatives way. The purpose of this study is to identify theeffects of using the Instagram and the level of social development changesamongst women in Malaysia.
In thisstudy, I will explain more on the effects of using the social media and will itleft certain effects on the users. Thisresearch was limited to the women live in the Seksyen 7, Shah Alam by using thequantitative method. Keywords: Instagram, self-esteem, social development, social media, soft skills, women CHAPTERONE 1. 0 IntroductionSocial media is pervasive, especially popular social networking sites (SNSs) like Instagram, which hasover millions users around the world (Vogel, Rose, & Roberts, 2014). Social media basically allow users toconstruct electronic profiles for themselves, provide details about their livesand experiences, post pictures, maintain relationships, plan social events, meet new people, make observations of others’ lives, fulfil belongingnessneeds, and express their beliefs, preferences, and emotions. The rises of social media have changedour life without us even realizing it. Itbrings both positive and negative impacts toward us.
As for academic purposes, for students in instance, social media and internet can be use the media for good. Looking up for online journals, searching fornew information, read newspaper from all over the world online and exchangingideas on certain ideas with other people on the internet are the examples of using the media for good academicpurposes (Siddiqui & Singh, 2016). Instead, the students usually use the mediato surf the social media, messaging and texting while lecturers giving lecturesin class. These lead to not focusing inclass and make them left out in their studies. As for social and communicationaspects, social media helps to make it easier for us to make friends and connectthem from anywhere and anytime.
Just adecade ago it was tough to search for old friends or make a new one and tougherto reach them and costly to communicate with them anytime, anywhere, unless onehave to overly going type , able to make conversations with everyone at aparty. Social sites connect everyone to anyone and let them stay friends withthe easy approach at a very reasonable cost (Sinha, Yadav, & Kanodia, 2016). Besides, Social networking sites offer achance to communicate in a speedy and well organized manner. Even voice media, visual media and word media, any methods can be used to commute with other inseconds. Social media, if we use itwrongly, it can lead to addiction. Wetend to spend immeasurable hours can deflect the focus and concentration from aparticular task. It can lower themotivational level of the people, especially of the teenagers and students. Social networking mainly relies on technology and the internet instead oflearning the practical knowledge and expertise of the everyday life.
When we are too focused on the social media, it can isolate people and truncate their relationship without the usersrealizing it. 1. 1 Problem statementAlong a decade, a social mediahave evolved. One of the most famousmainstream social media used these days by youngsters is Instagram.
It is argued that social media has bringsboth positive and negative impacts towards the users. As mentioned above in theintroduction, social media affected our daily life direct and indirectly. In previous researches, many studies haverelated the uses of social media and how it influences a person. Previous researches are more focusing onFacebook and general social media, in this study, I will narrow it down andre-angle it to Instagram due to less research done on this newly emerge socialsources. Instagram is one of the risingsocial media nowadays used by the youngsters, especially young adultwomen. The Y generation are now leaningtowards Instagram because it is more user-friendly and interesting.
We can get connected to everyone around theglobe and posting pictures in easier way. As per discussed in previous research, many research has been discussingon other social media especially Facebook, therefore this study will help todiscover whether Instagram will works exactly like what Facebook did to theirusers. Besides that, the existingliterature on social media usage and its effects on individuals’ personalitydevelopment in Malaysia are also limited. This study will have create another mile stone in academic field studyof social media due to little attention paid to social media particularlyInstagram in developing social development, soft skills and self-esteem amongstyoung adult women. 1. 2 Research objectiveTo measure the users of Instagramamongst women in Malaysia. To study the relationship of theuse of Instagram and women’s social development in Malaysia.
To explore the effects of Instagramon soft skills amongst women in Malaysia. To investigate the use ofInstagram in affecting the level of self-esteem across women in Malaysia. 1. 3 Significance of studySocial media has becoming a trendnowadays and social media always being related to the negative impacts towardsthe user when they used it the wrong way such as it leads to procrastination, less face to face interaction and the zombie syndrome.
This study will provide a betterunderstanding on how to see the social media in a better way instead. In this paper, we will see how the socialmedia can lead to betterment such as in developing one’s life, soft skills andself-esteem. To those who have lowerself-esteem than others, this study can re-angle their way of thinking and canhelp them to use Instagram as the catalyst for them to develop themselves incertain angle. Besides that, this studywill not just relevant to women, but also to men and business purposes. Men nowadays also own Instagram and can usethis study to enhance their social development, soft skills andself-esteem. As for those who wish tostart a new business, the study will help them to understand how they can useInstagram to boost up their self-esteem to approach their potential customersand develop their soft skills to interact with others in promoting their productsand services via Instagram. 1.
4 Scope and limitation of studyIn this study, there are some limitation and challengesthat can be identified throughout the study. One of the limitations is time constraint. Due to the constraints of time, this researchwas conducted only amongst women in Shah Alam. The sample size has also been limited to xx participants. This research is narrow in scope and can besubject to limitation. Besides that, the respondents were not observed; they weregiven questionnaires to fill. Theresults of the study depend upon the truthfulness and integrity of thesubjects.
Not all social media wereincluded in the study, only Instagram was considered the representative of allsocial media site. 1. 5 Conceptual definitionsYoung adultsYoung adult is generally a personranging in age from their teens or early twenties to early thirties.
Young adult is a very challenging period oftime in which during this period, young adults tend to exploring things, attached with commitments, starting new jobs, moving out from parents’ home andmost importantly figuring out life as an adult. Young adults according to United Nations (UN) are those between the agesof 18 to 32. In this study, young adultsthat we chose are those who ages between 18 to 30 years old. Our sets ofparticipants that will answer the questionnaires are those between those ages. Social developmentSocial development is aboutputting people at the centre of development.
This means a commitment that development processes need to benefitpeople, particularly but not only the poor, but also a recognition that people, and the way they interact in groups and society, and the norms that facilitatessuch interaction, shape development processes. In other words, social development refers on how people develop theirsocial and emotional skills along with their lifespan in order for them to aimor achieve their objective and goals. Social development can be in many forms mentally and physically. In this study, social development that we arefocusing on are in the form of seeking identity, developing intellectual mannerand emotionally.
During the youngadults’ period, we tend to observe things and people around us and it willsomehow affect our social development in any forms. The social development increase awarenessleading to better way of life. Whensocial development happens, people tend to prioritizing human need in thegrowth and progression of society. Social development is about improving the well-being of the individualin society so that they can reach their full potential. Soft skillsSoft skills enable us tocommunicate with others in easier and effective way. Besides soft skills also enable people towork well others, performing well in their tasks and achieving goals.
According to Alison Doyle (2017), soft skillsare interpersonal (people) skills and is harder to define and evaluate. Soft skills include communication skills, listening skills, creative thinking, networking, motivation, positivity andempathy among others. She added, softskills characterize how a person interacts in his or her relationships withothers. In this research, soft skillsthat we are focusing to are interpersonal skills and communication skills.
We tend to communicate with one another via socialmedia and gadgets and this will reduce the face to face and interpersonalskills that we already have. In thisstudy, I will not focus on other soft skills elements because I personallythink that other elements such as creativity, listening skills or positivitydoes not plays an important role. CHAPTER TWO2. 0 IntroductionThis chapter will explains andprovides an overview of previous research on knowledge sharing that theresearcher has found on other journals and articles. Basically, this chapterintroduces the framework for the case study that comprises the main focus ofthe research described in this study. 2.
1 Literature review2. 1. 1 Social media (Instagram)Social media is the new mediathat has been widely used in today’s world. There are numbers of social media that have millions of user worldwidesuch as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. In this study, my focus is on Instagram. Social media are computer tools that allowpeople to share or exchange informations, ideas, images, videos and any otherfiles through a network that they desire (Siddiqui, 2016). Social media is pervasive, especially popularsocial networking sites like Facebook, which has over a billion of users aroundthe world (Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014). There are several differences that can befound between the conventional mass media and the modern social media.
According to Richard M. Perloff, a keyfeature to distinguish between both of the media is interactivity (Perloff, 2014). Contemporary social media usually are more interactive in which the users canuse it as a platform to communicate in one another by commenting and click likeon the photos their friends posted. People use social media forvarious reasons; to communicate, interact, update/remind each other, socialize, share and search for information and knowledge, collaborate, and also forentertainment and leisure. It is a common situation in the public and alsoprivate venues to see people use monopod to ‘ selfie’ their own photos andinstantly upload on their pages, or reading online newspaper, e-book and blogs, playing video games, watching movies, or chatting via in-stant messaging, byusing laptops, tablets, smartphones or other devices (Norsiah, Sobhi, & Siti, 2016). 2. 1.
2 Social media and social developmentFor many people, social media area regular part of their social lives, if not an ordinary part of theirday. Image-based social media likeInstagram is among one of the most popular websites and seem to prove the oldsaying that “ Image is everything.” Social media has an impact on human brain and human behaviour.
Due to the malleability of brains humans´forte is the ability to learn and adapt to changes since we are sensitive tooutside influences (Zeitel-Bank, 2014). Development cannot happen in isolationneither in micro or macro level. Inorder for the development to be carried out, strong tool needed as the catalystto connect people instantly so that the knowledge transfer will becomecontinuously, instantly and never ending (Akashraj & Pushpa, 2014). Adolescence is the period of transition of developmentbetween childhood and adulthood. Itinvolves changes in personality, as well as in physical, intellectual andsocial development. During thistransition time, individuals faced with tons of issues and decisions (ClevelandClinic, 2014).
According to Cleveland Clinic Foundation, young adults developing in certain ways such as developing intellectually, developing socially and also emotionally in which it is differ than those whoare at the childhood period. They alsoadded that adolescent thinking is on a higher level than that of children. Children are only able to think logically about the concrete, the here and now. Adolescents move beyond these limits. Adolescents can think in terms of whatmight be true, rather than just in terms of what they see is true. They areable to deal with abstractions, test hypotheses, and see infinitepossibilities. Despite all that, themost important thing that faced by the adolescents is seeking foridentity. With the help of social media, young adults are more exposed to people around the globes.
The users of the social media especiallyInstagram comes in different background, culture and characters. When they are exposing to new things thatmight catch their attention, they can develop new social changes and have thehigh tendency to follow what they observe (Duarte, Ferreira, & Pinto-Gouveia, 2015). Social media users also able and have the chances to join virtual groupsbased on common interests, share each other’s’ hobbies, interests, musicaltastes and romantic relationship status in their profile (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). When the users observe others interests, theymight develop new social skills and venture into something new out of theircuriousity. Besides that, social medialike Instagram provides spaces for users to upload and share photos, updatesstatus and get themselves more invisible and famous than before.
Thus, frequent usage of Instagram would alsomake people becoming more extroverts (Norsiah, Sobhi, & Siti, 2016). 2. 1. 3 Social media affecting self esteemIn any social media, in order tojoin in, the users have to set up their own profile by filling up details anduploading pictures in it. Besides that, we also can update status, share others posts, place comments and view others’posts. The profile that we have createdbefore will then be available for friends or public to view. According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), whenthis happen, friends and other users able to pass on their judgement and givetheir personal feedback on one’s post through comments to ensure the userunderstand their opinion.
These opinionsand the feedback from them might bring huge impact and strong effects onpeople’s self-esteem (Nawaz, 2017). He added, negative comments lower theself-esteem degree of individuals and positive feedback and comments increasethe self-esteem to another whole level. Since the social media becomingthe new trends nowadays, our day to day life is woven by the social media(Siddiqui, 2016). Youngsters tend tocommunicate with their peers and other publics through social media and devicesevery day. This lead to the lack offace-to-face communications.
Amichai, Hamburger and Vinitzky (2010) argue that many introvert build relationshipthrough social networking sites because they usually finds difficulties duringface to face dealings. People nowadayshave lack confidence in dealing and communicating with one another in real lifeand prefer to do It online. 2.
2 Theory Guiding the StudiesThe main objective of this studyis to find out the correlation between the use of Instagram and level of socialdevelopment, soft skills and self-esteem amongst women. In this study, the theory usedthat can be associated with is the Social Norm Theory. The Social Norm Theory was first used in 1986by Perkins and Berkowitz to study the pattern of alcohol used by thestudent. This theory aims to understandthe environment and interpersonal influences in order to change behaviour. Individual behaviour is influenced byperceptions of what other people accept and expect and how they behave. According to Berkowitz (2004), social normstheory posits that individual behaviour is influenced by oftentimes incorrectperceptions of how other members of our social groups think and act. This theory can be used in this study sincethe Instagram users tend to behave based on what they see others portrayed intheir social media.
The social mediausers tend to believe that they have to act and behave according to what otherpeople did, accept and expect they have to behave. Without realizing it, we slowly change ourcharacter and behaviour based on what we believe others are doing and think. Research methodology is asystematic way to solve a problem. It isa science of studying how research is to be carried out. Essentially, the procedures by which theresearchers go about their work of describing, explaining and predictingphenomena are called research methodology.
It is aim to give the work plan of research. In this chapter will discussabout the methodology used to carry out this study. It included the description of the data andmethod that used in this study. Thischapter is more focus on the aspects of how the research design and how tocarry out the research. 3. 1 Research DesignResearch design can be define asstrategy for conducting research or an outline of the research method.
The research design for this study wasquantitative method. I chose the surveymethod to carry out the study include the questionnaires design and dataanalysis. I decided to conduct quantitative research method because we are notjust focusing on finding numerical terms but also to study and identify theeffectiveness of this approach to get accurate data and findings in theresearch. 3. 2 Data Collection MethodThe primary data collectionmethod for this study is by doing research, reviews and collecting findings byother researchers that study about the similar thing with this study.
The information collected via journals, booksand also articles from websites, not only researches in Malaysia but alsoaround the globe. This to ensure that wehave enough information to carry out this research. This also can help us understand otherresearchers’ point of view about the issue of this research. The secondary data collectionmethod for this study is via survey by using set of questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to womenyoung adults aged 18 years old up to 30 years old in Section 7 and section 13, Shah Alam. The respondents are chosenrandomly based on their age.
Women werethe focus of this study because women can be classified as the most affected bythe social media rather than men. The questionnaires consist offour parts which are Part A, B, C and D. Each part represents variables, subjects and also objectives for this study. For each question, there are answers provided by using five point LikertScale method. The questions will answers overall assessment of the Use ofInstagram in Affecting the Level of Social Development, Soft Skills and SelfEsteem Amongst Women in Malaysia.
3. 3 Location of ResearchThe location chosen for thisresearch is in Section 7 and Section 13, Shah Alam. Shah Alam is a state capital ofSelangor. I decided to choose Shah Alambecause it is an urban area and young adults in urban area are more exposed tosocial media rather than those who live in sub-urban or rural area. The participants also seems to easily understandabout the concept of the social media.
There are many women young adultslive around Section 7 and Section 13since there are many families and studentslive here andas we all aware, most of the students are young adults and so itis easier to randomly pick respondents to answer the questionnaires. It is one of the reasons why Section 7 is theappropriate location to conduct this research. 3. 4 Population and Sampling Techniques of ResearchIn order to achieve excellentdata, we need to widen the coverage area for the study. But due to limited time provided to conductthe study, it is impossible to study the entire publics. For example, to gain the exact data, the setsof questionnaire need to be distributed to each and every women young adults inthe area I conducted the study.
In this case, Section 7 and Section 13, ShahAlam but yet it is unmanageable for me to do that because of the limited timeto get them and analyse each of their response towards the questions. Bydecreasing the number of respondents, it helps me to get this study completedon time. Total of 384 respondentsparticipate in answering the questionnaires. They are randomly picked and involving only one gender; female. It involves those women young adults who livedhere in Section 7 and Section 13, Shah Alam. Due to the limited time and sources, 384 respondents are enough tocollect the data. 3. 5 Research InstrumentsResearch Instrument is a testingdevice for measuring a given phenomenon, such as a paper and pencil test, aquestionnaire, an interview, a research tool or a set of guidelines forobservation (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 2009).
In this study, since I am using thequantiitative method to collect the data, I used the survey methods as theresearch instruments. A set of questionnairesrandomly distributed to 384 respondents in the selected area. The questions provided in thequestionnaires are regarding the topic of the study which is the Use ofInstagram in Affecting the Level of Social Development, Soft Skills andSelf-Esteem amongst Women in Malaysia. Ihave undergoes several steps in confirming the set of questionnaires areequivalent and suitable to be answered by the selected respondents. The research questions aredivided into four sections which are Section A, Section B, Section C andSection D. In Section A, the questionsare regarding the respondent’s demographic details which are age, status and education background and therespondents will be provided with the multiple choices answer.
Section B consist of 6 questions from B1 toB6. The questions are covering myindependent variables which is the usage of social media in affecting theirsocial development which includes their feelings and interest towards socialmedia (Instagram) and time spent on the social media. Section C contains sets of questionsregarding their soft skills and lastly Section D is sets of questions regardingthe social media effects on their self-esteem . To answer the questions, therespondents required to answer each questions by using ordinal scale score ofLikert Scale (5 rankings) from Strongly Disagree (ranking no 1) to StronglyAgree (ranking no 5). All the data and answers arerecorded and key in the computer by using the Statistical Package for theSocial Science (SPSS) version 22. Theresults of the analysing process will be presented in the result section later.
