THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF INDIVIDUALS LIFE

Nowadays, online social networks receive a lot of attention all around the world. Social networks include a variety of platforms to facilitate easy ways of communication. It is generally believed that having friends within social circles and frequent contact with them gives a sense of social integration also helps to decrease feelings of loneliness and improve one's perception of social support. However, little research has been done on this subject and needs to be further investigated. In this paper we report on a study in which the relation between the usage of online social networks and the perception of social support, loneliness and social integration is investigated. In total 61 individuals responded to the questionnaires, with age ranging from 18 to 43 and a mean of 22. After obtaining scores from the respondents, we have used various statistical measures to investigate the possible relationships between social network sites usage and their effects on the social aspects of users. Although no significant correlations were found, an analysis of the distribution of the data suggested that there are some common trends that hold for most users. The most prominent trend shown was that users with more than average chat activities are likely to have a more positive perception of their social life. We recommend to perform further research on this subject with a more automated approach and with a larger set of participants.