Statement of the Problem

Recently many studies have been conducted to observe the impact of social networking sites and chat rooms on individuals and their behaviours and attitudes; these researches have been conducted specifically on teens and tweens in many parts of the world. These researches include the recent researches done by University of Leads Psychology Department and those done by. With the recent popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook, twitter, myspace etc teens and tweens have become quite familiar with the idea of socializing on the net virtually with everyone ranging from best friends, class buddies, khalas, cousins and even the siblings living in the room across the hall. On her Birthday this year, a close friend of mine received a birthday greeting wall post from her dad before he eventually came up to give her a present! My friends this trend, which at first we thought of as a fad has most certainly become a permanent style in marketing terminology. Gone were the days of siblings fighting and bickering with each other on the dining table or the family room, now they fight and bicker on face book. All these examples; which I dont even need to assure you of as you see them daily in your life, happening just in front of you, does lead to this theoretical conclusion that yes for better or for worse; social networking websites have made a huge impact on our every day life. The question arises that with all these things going on, there is surely some negativity going on here as well. Ever seen a friend on facebook posing out on fun locations with other friends and feeling a pang of jealousy and emptiness? Or maybe when you have only 4 or 5 notifications after signing in after 5 to 6 hours you do feel a sense of dread or loneliness? Or even felt like taking up 300 to 400 pictures on a hang out with fiends just to post them on facebook? Or having less than 200 friends on your profile make you feel like an alien? How many of us actually have less than 200 friends? All these things lead us to our problem statement:

Are social networking sites actually leading us towards depression and a sense of loneliness? Objective of Study
By year 2007 more than half of the world i.e 3,5 billion people were on facebook. With over 10 million monthly active users facebook is going strong. And with its going on to Stock market in March God knows how many millionaires will be made. With its mission to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, facebook has
become a social networking phenomenon. With all this popularity on facebook going on it is no shocker that facebook is indeed used by almost the entire literate population in Karachi. Be it your stay at home, or your workaholic dad, or maybe that annoying aunty next door who brings in those embarrassing rishtas every month, or maybe that nerdy guy that has a crush on your bestfriend (and has diverted towards stalking her and you along the way to satisfy his crush) every lame, cool, dumb, smart, goth, sexy, annoying, rudem likable or simply detestable person you know, not know dwels on facebook to chat, show off their friends, pass time or simply to stalk their crush when ever they get time. The objective of our study here is to observe the effects of the exposure of social networking on this swarm of facebooking bees, by looking at the following research aspects specifically:

Explore how the usage of facebook is affecting their live social skills and activities. Gauge association between how many any friends do these people actually have in real world as compared social networking websites. Gauge the association between social networking and the change or continuity of social communication pattern of the facebooking teens and tweens with their friends, family members and peers etc. Determine the usage of social networking websites and performances of students on their scholastic assessments. Determine the positive/ negative impact of social networking on the social life of the teens and tweens. Find the depressive symptoms seen on the tweens and teens faces and behaviours during and after being online on facebook. Propose recommendations for parents, teens, and their peers on how to control the usage of social networking. Determine the role of social networking sites on the perception of users on their social status, gatherings, and friends. Does facebook make them feel uncool? How are low facebook users different from high facebook users? Are they happier? More content in their lives? Or better achievers? Is social networking actually making them smart socializing? Are they able to continue virtual relationships in the real world as well?

Hypothesis
The hypothesis is designed to study as follows

Major Hypothesis
Greater the exposure to internet social networking sites and chat rooms, greater is the chance of teens and tweens of Karachi to fall in depression tendencies.

Sub Hypothesis

Sample