Facebook Survey Results

Here are the tallied results from the Facebook surveys.

Note the following:

1. Before you begin writing your article, see the next blog entry for specifics on the assignment (due Tuesday, 1 December).
2. I have made some comments after some questions to get you thinking about the results.
3. You will not be able to use all of this information in your article, but that's ok. Use only the facts that are pertinent to what you want to say about Facebook.

Number of surveys completed: 144

1. Do you have a Facebook account?
Yes -- 116
No -- 28

A few more surveys came in after our tally. I added those results.

Note the following breakdown of question 1:

grade 6: 8 yes; 9 no = 17 total surveys
grade 7: 14 yes; 4 no = 18 total
grade 8: 16 yes; 4 no = 20 total
grade 9: 17 yes; 2 no = 19 total
grade 10: 17 yes; 0 no = 17 total
grade 11: 13 yes; 2 no = 15 total
grade 12: 19 yes; 1 no = 20 total
teachers: 12 yes; 6 no = 18 total

Note any trends -- e.g., younger students are less apt to have Facebook.

It would have been interesting to find out from the "no's" why not. One of the last surveys to come in came from a staff member who wrote in red on this question, "NEVER!"

2. What features of Facebook do you use?
A. photos -- 78
B. Wall -- 83
C. Games/applications -- 40
D. Information -- 44

3. Who would you add as your friend or accept a request from on Facebook?
-- Friends -- 111
--Acquaintances -- 61
--Parents -- 71
--Teachers -- 73
--Strangers -- 4

The "strangers" puzzles me--and worries me, too! The stats here support a comment that it is primarily a way to connect and communicate with friends.

4. Are you more likely to:
--Call a friend -- 37
--Write on a friend's wall -- 62
--Depends -- 1
--Neither -- 1
--Both -- 1

Oops. We missed the whole aspect of "text a friend." Nevertheless, it does appear that people are using the phone less and the computer more. The question is, for what? Chit-chat or communicating information?

5. How many hours a day do you spend on Facebook?
A. 0-59 min. -- 80
B. 1 hr. - 1 hr. 59 min. -- 24
C. 2 hrs. - 2 hrs. 59 min. -- 5
D. 3 hrs. - 3 hrs. 59 min. -- 0
E. 4+ hrs. -- 3

For this question, note this age breakdown:

grade 6 all 8 for A
grade 7: 10 for A; 3 for B; 1 for E
grade 8: 9 for A; 7 for B
grade 9: 10 for A; 4 for B; 1 for C; 2 for E
grade 10: 7 for A; 3 for C
grade 11: 8 for A; 5 for B
grade 12: 14 for A; 4 for B; 1 for C
teachers/staff: 11 for A; 1 for B

Note the seeming trend: Grades 8-10 seem to be the ones who use it for the longest amount of time. Factors? Perhaps the younger students are primarily using it for gaming and the oldest students as a social network. The middle group are doing both?

As someone pointed out, perhaps the phrasing of the question could have been different. We don't know from these results exactly how long they have the Facebook window open each day. I would guess this is their estimates for how long they are actively looking at Facebook, but it is also possible that they are spending longer than the time they said if they are glancing at it every so often. Hard to determine more on this.

The other problem is that some people may not have been honest with how long they REALLY spend...or they don't actually know because they don't keep track.

6. How long have you had a Facebook account?
--less than 1 year = 24
--1-2 years = 24
--2-3 years = 26
--3-4 years = 20
--4-5 years = 8
--6-7 years = 1

Note: These facts show that Facebook is a fairly recent phenomenon. It would be good to google and find out when Facebook first began. Tie that fact into this result.

7a. List advantages of Facebook.

--ability to talk more and keep in touch
--private
--kill time
--never boring
--widely used
--lots of functions
--meet friends and connect with them
--see information about friends; see what they're up to
--group emails
--have a social life (easy to meet girls, boys)
--walling
--comment on videos
--convenient
--write to people
--easy to find girls
--free games
--entertaining and fun
--pictures; share photos
--chatting
--get up to date events
--free
--global, international -- can contact friends world-wide
--network with friends
--easy to use
--get in contact with people you lost touch with
--long distance relationships
--establish closer relationships
--kids actually check Facebook
--birthday reminders
--easy to share info; easy to communicate
--easy to ignore people
--getting 1 million points on Mafia Wars

7b. Disadvantages:

--gossip
--everything is so public!
--superficial communication; anti-social
--wastes time (16)
--hacking and others gaining your info
--bad pictures
--lose track of time
--security issues (16)
--Facebook stalking
--chat sucks
--stupid applications sent to me by other people
--time consuming (18)
--distracting (13)
--addictive (17)
--loss of sleep
--spam (4)
--no representation
--less sociable; shallow relationships (6)
--short attention spans
--the apps (5)
--creepy people
--the annoying ads (7)
--bad for computer (4)
--boring (2)
--confusing
--bad interface
--no girls will add me

Remember the discussion in class about "stalking." If you talk about stalking at all, be sure you define what you mean since different people have different definitions for what this means.

8. What is the most addicting aspect of Facebook?

--a way to avoid homework --6
--contacting friends -- 30
--being able to snoop into other people's lives
--commenting on events, threads and/or discussions
--chatting -- 16
--browsing photos -- 11
--games / apps -- 16
--game rankings and wanting to beat down my "friends"
--updates are constantly happening, so need to keep checking
--so much info displayed on one page
--easy to move to someone else's page at the click of a mouse

Several people admitted they were addicted. Others insisted they weren't.

9. What security measures do you use?

--blocking/deleting users -- 53
--limiting profile or only letting friends see photos -- 59
--other -- 12
--parent accountability

As Sunny pointed out, many people may be unaware of the possible security measures as outlined in the article you read.

10. If Facebook didn't exist, how would you communicate with others?

A. texting/chatting/MSN -- 73
B. calling/skype -- 68
C. meeting / face-to-face interactions 54
D. substitute social networking (MySpace, Xanga) -- 17
E. email -- 63
F. other -- 11 (handwritten letters; visiting)

11. Other comments:

--"Girls tend to post pictures of themselves; boys tend to post random pictures."

--"When you first start Facebook, it's very addictive and you can waste a lot of time. After a while, it's not so interesting and you spend a lot less time."

--"Most annoying? When people use it to discuss school business with me!" (admin)

--"I believe kids can do better in school and sleep earlier if there's no Facebook!"