Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2012 in the subject Communications -
Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: A, The University of
Liverpool, course: Information Management, language: English, abstract:
Social network sites have millions of users worldwide with the sites
integrated into the daily practices of the users with increasing numbers
recorded among university students. Examples of popular social network
sites used commonly by university students include Facebook, Bebo,
MySpace, Cyworld and many others. The largest of the sites among
university students being Facebook created in 2004 by Zuckerberg with
its rate of usage at 90% (Stutzman, 2006). In addition, Facebook has
stimulated a platform for a lot researches on its various aspects for
instance in academics (Hewitt & Forte, 2006). Furthermore the growth of
social network sites on schools can be attributed to the growth The
intense usage of social network sites within academic institutions has
resulted into social capital formation and on the other hand resulted to
new platforms of effective communication. In addition, the social
network sites are also associated with social capital measures for
instance bonding and bridging of social capital. Furthermore, self
esteem moderates the relationship between social capital and social
network sites. Individuals who have low self esteem tend to gain
confidence from using social network sites as compared with their
counterparts who have high self-esteem. This aspect acts as a
psychological boost to individuals specifically students who are
introverts and can act as an academic boost for them. Studies conducted
earlier on social network sites had data being collected at
one-point-in-time thus making it difficult to determine a time order in
relationships among users of the social network sites, social capital
and self esteem. The growth of social network sites was not phenomenal
and popular and thus the underlying reasons which attracted different
segments co
