'3 in Every 71 Addicted to Facebook' -- IT Professor

A study conducted by a professor of Information Technology at the College of Computer Studies revealed that three out of 71 students in Silliman University are addicted to Facebook.

Dr. Dave E. Marcial presented these findings at the 3rd International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation held last month in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.

His paper on “Are you a Facebook Addict? Measuring Facebook Addiction in Philippine University” had over 355 respondents — all of whom were enrolled in the Computer Fundaments class in the second semester of School Year 2012-2103. 

Dr. Marcial explains that the results show a low addiction among Silliman students to Facebook.

The paper considered six variables in measuring addiction: 1. spending a lot of time thinking about Facebook; 2. developing the urge to use Facebook; 3. forgetting personal problems when using Facebook; 4. unsuccessful attempts to cut down on the number of hours spent on Facebook; 5. becoming restless when prohibited from using Facebook; and 6. actual negative impact on the use of Facebook on studies.

With majority of Filipinos maintaining a Facebook account, Dr. Marcial inquired in the paper about the purpose for which his respondents use Facebook. He provided five options. Ranked first is “to keep in touch with family and friends,” followed by “to be updated on news, current events and interesting happenings in the world”. The least motivation that the respondents indicated was “to play online games”.

The paper “Are you a Facebook Addict: Measuring Facebook Addiction in Philippine University” was one of only 100 accepted into the international conference, out of submissions from participants coming from 20 countries. It will be published in an international journal.