CHAPTER III (latest)

CHAPTER III

STUDY FRAMEWORK

I. Theoretical Framework

            The aim of this study is to identify the role of Facebook in past and existing relationships among UP Cebu College Computer Science students. And to be able to do that, the researchers need to use established theories that describe the effect of technology to human behaviour towards his society. Thus, Technological Determinism by Marshall McLuhan is used.

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

            McLuhan stated that people are so fond of technology’s existence as an extension to humans’ limitations that they forget to think of its counterpart, which is what he called as amputations. He further explained that amputation is the effect of over using an extension and that it is the ability of an extension to change or modify another extension. An example to such, are cars being extensions to individuals’ feet are also classified as amputations, because it causes obesity, pollution and reduce time of socialization. McLuhan concluded further that technology drastically altered how humans’ use their senses and body organs because human beings became more dependent to technology rather than using their own body parts in doing their daily activities (as cited in Kappelman, 2002).

McLuhan’s Technological Determinism states that Technology affects human society. This conclusion is drawn from his observation that in every gadget invented in the vision of making mankind’s life convenient, at the same time it also breeds dependency in every individual. He concluded further that exposure to technology and its products changes human behaviour. Technological Determinism’s main point is that human behaviour is affected by the different kinds of influences brought by modern technology that they were exposed to. This is due to our increasing rate of dependency towards technology and when humans became dependent to technology, reliance to it in doing daily activities becomes a habit. Our habits are what constitute our attitude and personality. Thus, if there is a change in habitual activities, then there is also change in personality and attitude.

            Figure 1 (on the next page) shows how Technology affects human society. Technology brings new inventions that influence changes in human behaviour. It is further shown that this change in human behaviour affects the human society.

II. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

            Figure 2 on the next page shows how the mentioned theory in the previous section is applied to develop concepts needed in conducting this study. It is shown in the figure that human relationships of UP Cebu College students are affected by the different features of social networking sites.

            “Social Networking Sites” is placed in the conceptual framework since it is an offspring of modern technology. And it also constitutes different elements that affect human behaviour. These elements as described by McLuhan’s Technological Determinism inputs different influences to human beings that causes different changes in an individual’s behaviour.

            “UP Cebu College Students” is used in the framework since as individuals living in the era of modern technology, they have the tendency to adapt and use immediately whatever offspring of technology is invented. As adolescence they are easily influenced by their environment. Their environment includes the people they interact with, the place where they spend most of their time and the gadgets they use daily, especially those with internet access. Thus, as shown in figure 2 on the next page, the relationships of UP Cebu College Students are affected by the changes they acquire in using social networking sites.

III. OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK

            This section of this study illustrates the Operational Framework of the study which is shown on Figure 3 on the next page. The figure presented how the researchers correlate the different variable identified in this study. It is drawn from the figure that different features of Facebook such as Wall posting, Photo sharing, Instant messaging and Status updates cause changes in the behaviour of University of the Philippines Cebu college computer science students which in a way or another affect their respective romantic relationships.

             The University of the Philippines Cebu college computer science students are always using the internet, whether for academic of for personal purposes. Furthermore, as a generation of modern technologies, all of them have an existing Facebook accounts that they use frequently. And they also use these accounts in communicating with their loved ones and friends including their girlfriend/boyfriend.

            According to Parr (2009), Facebook affects romantic relationships because it creates jealousy and misunderstanding among lovers. This effect can be explained using the theory of Technological Determinism because as an offspring of modern technology, Facebook also breeds dependency and addiction among its users

            Thus, it can be hypothesized that the Facebook features’ influence to University of the Philippines Cebu College Computer Science students creates changes in their behaviour towards their respective romantic relationships.