The purpose of the present research is to examine the impact of usage of social networking sites on interpersonal relationship with friends among engineering colleges in Krishna and Guntur districts, Andhra Pradesh. A research questionnaire was designed to investigate the impact of social networking sites on the interpersonal relationship with friends and also to examine the relationship between interpersonal relationship with friends and the level of anxiety experienced by engineering students. On the basis of random sampling, 2400 students were chosen for the present study. 98% of the questionnaires were received from the respondents. The descriptive statistics and chi-square test were applied to analyse the data. The results indicated that most of the engineering students’ had classmates as their friends on social networking sites. Findings also revealed that most of the engineering students had new friends on online than in person. The major finding showed that the usage of social networking sites had a positive impact on engineering students’ social life. It has also been revealed that students felt more comfortable and spent more time communicating over the computer / mobile to gain more social support. Another important finding revealed that engineering students no longer felt loneliness as they were in touch with their friends through social media. The present study, hence, recommends that parents should monitor their children usage of social networking sites.
Volume 12 | 07-Special Issue
Pages: 2717-2723
DOI: 10.5373/JARDCS/V12SP7/20202410