CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

RATIONALE

In today's fast changing world, different kinds of technology arise. As

defined by Merriam Webster, technology is the use of science in industry,

engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology). Most of the people in

the world today says that technology made the people's lives easier. One of the

products produced by technology are gadgets. Gadgets that are used by people

at school, work or office. Examples of gadgets are cellphones, laptops, electronics

etc. These gadgets have certain programs and applications that has different

functionalities. An example of a gadget function is to communicate.

Communication as defined by wikipedia is the act of conveying intended meanings

from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs

and semiotic rules (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication). There are

different kinds of communications which includes: spoken or verbal

communications, non - verbal communication, written communication and

visualization such as graphs and charts. Verbal communication is usually done

through face-to-face, telephone, radio or television and other media. Non-verbal

communication is showed through peoples body language, gestures, how people

dress or act - and even how people smell. Written communication is done through

letters, e-mails, books, magazines, the Internet or via other media. Visualizations

are represented through graphs and charts, maps, logos and other visualizations

that can communicate messages (https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-

communication.html). Technology has a big contribution in leveling the ways of

communication of people. One of the most highly anticipated platform of

communication by people of the 20th century is the social media. Social media is

defined by whatis.com as the collective of online communications channels

dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and

collaboration (http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media). Examples of

social media used by the people in the 20th century are blog, microblogging, wiki,

social networking, multimedia sharing, Mashup, RSS, widgets, virtual world, social

bookmarking and tagging and many more. Social media is very helpful in every

way possible way it can. The use of social media has a lot of advantages to

individuals but at the same time it also has its disadvantages.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framewor).

Social Media is one of the most used communication tool of the people in

the 20th century today. In this study, the effects of social media specifically Social

networking sites to individuals was the main focus. Selected health care

professionals specifically nurses in the area of Dagupan City, Pangasinan was the

respondents of the said study. The researchers have selected this topic because

social media continues to be a big part of the lives of the people in the 20th century.

The researchers focused on the effects of social media to nurses in Region I

Medical Center within the vicinity Dagupan City. This is to know what are the

advantages and disadvantages of social media to the profession that the

researchers are currently taking. As stated earlier, social media continues to be a

part of the lives of the people in the 20th century therefore having it studied in every
angle it possibly can will be a big help in the career or profession of the researchers

in the near future. Aside from the researchers, other nurses, healthcare

professionals or students will also benefit from the information and findings that

was gathered in this study. Information and findings that will help in the

improvement and awareness of these individuals about the effects of social media

to their profession.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Social media has contributed a big part when it comes to imparting or

exchanging of information or news to people which created a big impact in their

lives. Whether it is for personal use, business use or for their profession. Here, the

researchers have developed a concept to know how social media really affects the

profession they are currently taking. First, the researchers gathered information

about the history of social media. After knowing its history, the researchers then

broke down information of social medias types, functions and its status in an

international, national and local setting including the commonly used type of social

media and the statistics of the most famous and commonly used social networking

sites on earth. The profile of the most famous social networking sites was also

investigated by the researchers to give the readers a short background about

them. Its primary used according to its creators were also indicated. Effects of

social media to the society especially to health care personnel specifically nurses,

were also discussed in the study through the use of data gathering tools. The said

effects that were gathered will be used to help improve the performances of the
respondents in their workplace at the same time to widen the knowledge of the

readers and researchers to the effects of social media to nurses.

RESEARCH PARADIGM

Figure 1: Research Paradigm

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of social media in the

workplace of nurses in Region I Medical Center which is located in Dagupan City

Pangasinan. Further it attempted to determine the problems and other concerns

pertaining to the effects of social media to nurses in the said hospital with the end
view of proposing measures to improve the performances of the said nurses

through social media.

The investigation pursues to answer the following questions:

1. What is status of social media among the nurses in Region I Medical Center

along the following aspects:

a. Professional Networking

b. Professional Education

c. Organizational Promotion

d. Patient Care

e. Public Health Programs

f. Quality of Information

g. Personal Image

2. What are the problems encountered by the nurses in Region I Medical

Center along the following aspects:

a. Professional Networking

b. Professional Education

c. Organizational Promotion

d. Patient Care

e. Public Health Programs

f. Quality of Information

g. Personal Image

3. What are the causes of the problems encountered by the nurses in Region

I Medical Center in using social media?

 4. What measures can be proposed to improve the performance of nurses in

Region I Medical Center through the use of social media?

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

This research study is designed to assess the effects of social media in the

nursing workplace of nurses in Region I Medical Center. This study includes the

information about Social Media's history, types, functions, its status and statistics

in an international, national and local setting, everything about social networking

sites (including history and the top social networking sites and their profile), the

effects, its causes, benefits and how the said findings about social media will help

in the improvement of performance of the respondents, researchers and readers

of the said study.

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY

This research study is anchored on the assumption that the data gathered

through various reviews of literatures and response of nurses in Region I Medical

Center were accurate and objective in expressing their perceptions on the effects

of social media to their workplace. This study assumed that all of the information

gathered through the use of different data gathering tools will have a positive

impact in the improvement of the performance of the respondents in the nursing

workplace in Region I Medical Center.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is deemed to be compelling and important to the improvement of

performance of the respondents in their workplace, the researcher's knowledge

about the effects of social media to their profession and to the readers of the study

and future researchers who would like to pursue the same study.

Specifically, this assessment aims to contribute to the following:

Region I Medical Center Nurses the findings in this study will give them further

insights on how social media will possibly affect and improve their performance in

their workplace. The problems encountered while using social media and the

proposed measures to solve the said problems will also help them in improving

their performance through the use of social media.

LNU Nursing Students and Researchers as the researchers discover the positive

and negative effects of social media in the nursing workplace, the said findings will

help them improve in their usage of social media to their workplace in the future.

Future Researchers and Readers of the Study in order for them to have a

background and come up with new ideas to improve this research that is about the

effects of social media in the nursing workplace.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study will focus on the effects of social media in the nursing workplace

of Region I Medical Center in Dagupan CIty, Pangasinan. For this purpose, the

status of social media, problems encountered and the causes will be analyzed to
develop proposed measures that will help in making the performance of the

respondents better in their workplace. By doing so, it will be possible to better

understand the effects of social media to nurses that can be used to avoid possible

problems to be encountered by the nurses in Region I Medical Center and the

researchers to their profession in the future.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

It is believed that for a better comprehension of this study, defining some

terms is indeed essential. The researchers defined the following terms according

to their use in the text for study:

Effects of Social Media this is the independent variable of the study which is

believed to affect the dependent variable. This is the variable that researchers will

observe to see if it changes the performance of the dependent variable.

Nurses in Region I Medical Center they are the dependent variable a researcher

is interested in. The changes to the dependent variable's performance in the

nursing workplace are what the researchers are trying to measure with all their

fancy techniques.

Researchers they are the people behind conducting the study between the

independent and dependent variable.

 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

History of Social Media

Interacting with friends and family across long distances has been a

concern of humans for centuries. As social animals, people have always relied on

communication to strengthen their relationships. When face-to-face discussions

are impossible or inconvenient, humans have dreamed up plenty of creative

solutions. The roots of social media stretch far deeper than it might be imagined.

Although it seems like a new trend, sites like Facebook are the natural outcome of

many centuries of social media development. The earliest methods of

communicating across great distances used written correspondence delivered by

hand from one person to another. In other words, letters. The earliest form of postal

service dates back to 550 B.C., and this primitive delivery system would become

more widespread and streamlined in future centuries. In 1792, the telegraph was

invented. This allowed messages to be delivered over a long distance far faster

than a horse and rider could carry them. Although telegraph messages were short,

they were a revolutionary way to convey news and information. Although no longer

popular outside of drive-through banking, the pneumatic post, developed in 1865,

created another way for letters to be delivered quickly between recipients. A

pneumatic post utilizes underground pressurized air tubes to carry capsules from

one area to another. Two important discoveries happened in the last decade of the

1800s: The telephone in 1890 and the radio in 1891. Both technologies are still in

use today, although the modern versions are much more sophisticated than their
predecessors. Telephone lines and radio signals enabled people to communicate

across great distances instantaneously, something that mankind had never

experienced before. Technology began to change very rapidly in the 20th Century.

After the first supercomputers were created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers

began to develop ways to create networks between those computers, and this

would later lead to the birth of the Internet. The earliest forms of the Internet, such

as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960s. Primitive forms of email were also

developed during this time. By the 70s, networking technology had improved, and

1979s UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual newsletter. By the

1980s, home computers were becoming more common and social media was

becoming more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988

and continued to be popular well into the 1990s. The first recognizable social

media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile

and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular,

creating a social media sensation thats still popular today. After the invention of

blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and

LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and

Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an

entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across

great distances. By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users

throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks

on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began

popping up to fill specific social networking niches. Today, there is a tremendous

variety of social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow cross-

posting. This creates an environment where users can reach the maximum number

of people without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person communication. We

can only speculate about what the future of social networking may look in the next

decade or even 100 years from now, but it seems clear that it will exist in some

form for as long as humans are alive. (https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-

complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html)

It is difficult to find a commonly agreed upon definition for the concept of

social media. In fact, social media and Web 2.0 are often interchangeably used.

The literature provides many complicated technical definitions as well as

definitions that focus on social media's purpose or practices. Therefore, defining

social media is a difficult endeavor. However, to define social media, we can start

with defining Web 2.0 because social media were developed based on Web 2.0

technologies.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework

According to O'Reilly (2007), Web 2.0 is a networked platform that gives the

user control in creating, designing, improving, and sharing content and services.

Collective intelligence is one of Web 2.0's fundamental features. In this context,

Web 2.0 is of the user, by the user, and, more importantly, for the user (Chu and

Xu 2009, p. 717). Web 2.0 is individual user centered. Therefore, governments will

engage with citizens using the social media tools that citizens are already active

users instead of setting up websites and publishing content. Web 2.0 comprises

technologies such as blogs, wikis, mashup, RSS, podcast and vlog, tagging and
social bookmarking, and social networking sites. Table 1.1 presents these social

media types. For governments, these technologies reflect a loss of control,

informality of communication, and customization to citizens, which implies that the

content and services will be designed differently from the way they are currently

designed (Chang and Kannan 2008).

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the

ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation

and exchange of user generated content (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p. 61). In

this context, the basic characteristics of social media are as follows (Mayfield

2007): (a) Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from

all interested parties. (b) Openness: most types of social media are open to voting,

feedback, comments, and information sharing. There are rarely barriers to

accessing and using content. (c) Conversation: while social media provide a basis

for conversation and are seen as two-way communication tools, traditional media

is about broadcast, in which content is transmitted or distributed to an audience.

(d) Community: social media allow communities to quickly form and effectively

communicate about common interests such as political issues or favorite TV

shows. (e) Connectedness: Most social media thrive on their connectedness, via

links and combining different media types in one place.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

From the public sector's perspective, social media are a group of Internet-

based technologies that, by using the web 2.0 philosophy, allow public institutions
to engage with citizens and other stakeholders (Criado et al. 2013). In public

administration, these tools have been added to the existing tool kit based on one-

way (unidirectional) technologies that view citizens as passive information

receivers. Social media tools have elevated citizens to the content co-creator and

sender positions (Mergel 2013a). In fact, the use of social media applications in

the public sector can be seen as an extension of the digitalization efforts of public

administration as a new wave of e-government era. However, social media differ

from previous e-government waves. (1) Social media applications are provided by

third parties, thus technological features are hosted outside of public institution's

direct control. (2) Compared to e-government practices, such as static websites,

social media is more interactive. (3) Content is created by both public institutions

and citizens. (4) Social media applications cannot replace offline services and e-

government services; these applications are existing communication mechanisms

(Mergel 2013b). the use of social media in the public sector is expected to

contribute to the fulfilment of such purposes as cost savings, improvement of public

services and citizen satisfaction, enhancement of transparency and accountability,

citizen participation, co-production, and cross-agency collaboration.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework

Types of Social Media

Blog

A Web log (Blog) is a Web-based interactive application that allows one to

log journal entries on events, or to express opinions and make commentaries on

specific topics. It is a popular content generation tool. Blogs typically consist of

text, images, videos music, and/or audios.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Blogging and publishing networks give people and brands tools to publish content

online in formats that encourage discovery, sharing, and commenting. These

networks range from more traditional blogging platforms like WordPress and

Blogger to microblogging services like Tumblr and interactive social publishing

platforms like Medium. (https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-of-social-media/)

Microblogging

The process of creating a short blog that is primarily achieved through

mobile devices to share information about current events or personal opinions. A

well-known example is Twitter.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Wiki

A Web-based collaborative editing tool that allows different people to

contribute their knowledge to the content. One author's content can be modified

and enhanced with another author's contribution. A well-known example of this

application tool is Wikipedia.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Social networking

A Web-based tool or model that allows individuals to meet and form a virtual

community through socializing via different relationships, such as friendships and

professional relationships, sharing and propagating multimedia information,

exchange interests, and communicating.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Social networks, sometimes called relationship networks, help people and

organizations connect online to share information and ideas. Now, and especially

since the rise of the mobile internet, these networks have become hubs that

transform nearly every aspect of modern lifefrom reading news to sharing

vacation photos to finding a new jobinto a social experience.

(https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-of-social-media/)

Multimedia Sharing and Media sharing networks

The rich multimedia contents such as photos, videos, and audios are shared

through multimedia sharing tools. Typical examples include YouTube, Flickr,

Picasa, Vimeo, etc.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Media sharing networks give people and brands a place to find and share media

online, including photos, video, and live video. (https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-

of-social-media/)

Mashup

An application that uses contents from two or more external data sources

combines and integrates them and thus creates new value-added information. This

is a reuse and repurposing of the source data by retrieving source contents with
open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and integrating them according

to the information needs, instead of navigating them sequentially.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

RSS

A Web application that can pull the content from sources that are structured

in standard metadata format called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds such

that it is easy to syndicate the contents from RSS formatted documents. The RSS

feeds or Web feeds can be published and updated by the authors such that the

updates can be easily inserted and quickly updated in content aggregation sites.

The RSS feeds (also called atoms) are annotated with metadata such as the

author and date information. The RSS-based content aggregators include news

headlines, weather warnings, blogs, etc. Once the source content is updated, the

content aggregator sites will be updated thus always sharing the updated content.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Widgets

Small applications either on the desktop, a mobile device, or the Web. The

widgets bring personalized dedicated content to the user from predefined data

sources.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework

Virtual World
 A virtual world is an interactive 3-D computer-simulated world where

avatars, controlled and played by the users, interact with each other as

inhabitants.(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_

framework)

Social bookmarking and tagging and content curation networks

A tagging system that allows the users to describe the content of the Web

sources with metadata such as free text, comments, evaluative ratings, and votes.

This human-generated collective and collaborative set of tags forms a folksonomy

and helps cluster Web resources.

(http://academlib.com/26215/management/social_media_conceptual_framework)

Functions of Social Media

Discussions on measuring the value of a social media presence are often

greeted by deflective statements or blank stares. Most companies struggle to make

sense of social media let alone understand how to assign value to the activity that

could in some way relate to a business objective.However if you understand that

ALL social media boils down to one or a combination of three prime functions,

deciphering activity, setting objectives and measuring value becomes easier. It

doesnt matter if you are connecting customers, employees or partners, its all

about: informing, innovating, and executing. (http://digitalinfusions.com/the-three-

areas-of-roi/)

Informing
 Informing is the most common function in social media: with most

companies using inform strategies to develop brand awareness or to communicate

critical information to key audiences. From a website perspective this includes

more structured communication channels such as Digg, Reddit or even Wikileaks.

While the first two leverage user intelligence to uncover relevant information,

Wikileaks seeks to by-pass traditional information hierarchies and connect end

users with information of concern to them. In terms developing brand awareness

or communicating situational messages (such as in disaster management) pages

on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc are utilized by organizations to build awareness

and influence through sending key messages in individuals newsfeeds. The inform

abilities of Twitter are so powerful that companies are mining its data to measure

sentiment and predict stock prices! So far its proving to be more accurate that

traditional financial models by an average of 10%. The other real value that we are

seeing more and more is the ability of social media to inform during times of crisis.

For many companies preparing for, or managing a crisis requires significant

resources if its to be handled properly. However there are times when

communicating about an encroaching crisis is crucial in saving lives. In 2011 when

a tsunami hit Japan following a large earthquake Twitter reports were first to carry

the news. When Queensland, Australia experienced huge floods in 2012 social

media was not only the most immediate source of the emerging information it also

assisted emergency services in coordinating response resources Similarly Haiti

and Turkey earthquakes, and in crises in Africa, social media has been used

repeatedly to coordinate crises of all kinds. Realistically a majority of communities

start out with a focus to inform. Realizing value in the other two areas (innovate

and execution) is completely possible up front, though are usually realized once a

community has been established. The benefit in starting with an Inform focus is

that its an easier starting point for established leaders to understand as it aligns

closely to traditional communication methodologies and enables you to contribute

to conversations and make your views part of the discussion.

(http://digitalinfusions.com/the-three-areas-of-roi/)

Innovation

Innovation is all about the capturing ideas of value from the community, and

nurturing them through the organization to their eventual commercial realization.

Whilst some ideas present themselves as unique business opportunities, many

are initially wrapped in deep, frustrated emotions that come with nonsensical rules

or unmet expectations. When confronted with such anger the natural human

response is to defend at best or strike back at worst but for companies to succeed

as innovators success can only be achieved through understanding the difficulty.

The way leaders respond to complaints sets the tone for the entire community. A

positive response; and the community learns that their input is relevant and

valued. A negative response; and people learn that their contributions are only

valued if they fit what leaders want to hear. Given innovation is often built on things

that are not working, it's hardly convenient. But if the issues are received and

responded to, through action or explanation, the community sees progression and

momentum toward an easier tomorrow. Without visible development and

progression communities become stagnant and the incentive to participate will

drop. The other important piece to realize about Innovation is that there is more to

it than just creating a faster, shiner widget. Innovation covers a variety of areas

including: business models; improving the supporting processes to create or

deliver the product or services and the way in which companies engage their

customers. Doblin's 10 types of innovation is a great summary of the scope of

potential innovation from the corporate context. In fact, Doblins is a pretty good

summary of innovation in general; though after watching the emergence of the

Arab Spring, theres also room to include Political Innovation into the mix. Whilst

most people focus on Innovating faster, shinier widgets, Doblin tells us that the

most value comes from the Financial end of the Innovation spectrum. New

business models such as the sales of music through Apples i-tunes as compared

to the traditional bricks and mortar record store have made billions and are a great

example of Finance innovation. Social innovation platforms include dedicated

systems such as Innocentive and/or Spigit at the more sophisticated end, but also

can be built using the simplest of wikis, online notice boards or social media tools

it's really more about the process of gaining buy-in at the various innovation stages

then it is about the technology. Innocentive originated in the pharmaceutical

industry and provides companies with the opportunity to outsource innovation.

Companies with seemingly insoluble issues, post their problems on Innocentives

website and offer a cash prize for the best solution. Problem-solvers then

collaborate and compete by posting their solution for review by the company. The

innovator with the solution deemed the most appropriate receives the cash

payment. Spigit is another innovation platform originally built for enterprise

innovation but later adopted to fit public social media platforms such as Facebook.

Spigit builds an idea marketplace, much like a stock market, that uses gaming

mechanics to encourage users to sort good ideas from bad and to incentivize the

development of other potential innovations.Tweak shoes is another great example

of innovation on social media, this time via Facebook. Individuals in the Tweak

community put forward designs and colours of shoes they would like to see made

which the community then votes on. This process continues until the community

has designed their perfect shoe. Tweak then has the shoe manufactured in China

and sells the style back to the same community that designed it. The scope of

innovation is diverse and can be as subtle as feedback on a negative customer

experience, or obvious as a suggestion for a companys next best-selling product.

In all cases Innovation must be supported by the structure of the business.

Accountability, senior leadership buy-in and a defined ideation path across the

innovation spectrum must be present for innovation to successfully navigate the

organizational hierarchy. If not it will fail. (http://digitalinfusions.com/the-three-

areas-of-roi-2/)

Execute

Execution is all about behaviors; or getting people to do more of the things

you want them to, both on and offline. Generally speaking Execution uses micro

tasks that combine to form part of a bigger objective or undertaking. Execution-

focused strategies can be amongst the most challenging to build, however they

can also be the most fun, especially when utilizing strategies such as gamification.

One of the earliest examples of an execution strategy was seen when DARPA ran
the now famous red balloon challenge. The objective was to see how the Internet

could be used to co-ordinate activity online with the execution of tasks offline. To

do this DARPA spread ten red weather balloons in public locations around the USA

and offered a cash prize for the first group that could give the exact locations

(longitude and latitude) of all ten balloons. Eight-hours and fifty-two minutes later

the competition was all over with a team from MIT claiming the victory thanks to

the following savvy incentive structure: Were giving $2000 per balloon to the first

person to send us the correct coordinates, but thats not all were also giving

$1000 to the person who invited them. Then were giving $500 whoever invited the

inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on MIT Website. Crowd-

funding sites such as Kiva.org, Kickstarter or Indiegogo are other examples that

sit in the execute section of social strategy. These sites tap into communities to

secure economic resources, via donations that are then collated and directed to

achieve defined activities e.g. to help put in a new water pump in a third world

country or finance entrepreneurial endeavours. On the other hand ReCaptcha and

Fold.it use executable strategies to tap into the problem solving abilities of a wide

audience of individuals. ReCaptchas are those things we come across online that

ask us to prove were human by entering in two sets of barely-legible words or

numbers. Most people arent aware that only one word is necessary to validate

your humanity while the second word has nothing to do with security at all the

second word is actually all about digitizing old books where the aging font struggles

to be recognized by OCR scanning software. When the scanning software finds

an unrecognizable word reCaptcha takes the word, puts it into the human
verification system and awaits the same response from a number of people before

confirming the word in the text. Fold.it is a personal favourite in the execution

space. It has cleverly tapped into group intelligence to solve puzzles in the

scientific area of mapping proteins. Fold.it came to prominence after a group of

scientists had spent over a decade trying, in vain, to map a particular protein. The

protein was seen as a critical stepping-stone for solving the AIDS puzzle. After a

long and fruitless decade of searching, the protein problem was put onto Fold.it.

Fold.it used gaming mechanics to have users compete to solve pieces of the

puzzle (the protein map) in exchange for points and prestige. After having not been

able to map the protein for nearly a decade, fold.it users solved the problem in

less than two weeks. Invariably all companies seek some form of execution at

some point regardless of whether execution is viewed as engagement, purchases

or sales leads. The secret to developing and delivering a successful execution

strategy is to understand the behaviors required and in building a corresponding

and integrated incentive structure. (http://digitalinfusions.com/the-3-functions-of-

social-media-for-roi-part-iii-final/)

Status and Statistics of Social Media

International

On the next part of the study, the researchers gathered the latest statistics

of social media worldwide for the year 2017. According to worldometers.info, an

international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of

making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format

to a wide audience around the world the current population of the world is about
7.5 Billion and continues to grow for about 1.11% per year. The current average

population change is estimated at around 80 million per year

(http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/). As per statista.com, an online

statistics, market research and business intelligence portal the current number of

social media users in 2017 is around 2.46 billion

(https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-

users/). The researchers have found out that these social media users do not only

use one kind of social media everyday. The most popular type of social media used

in the 20th century today is the so called social networking sites or also known for

the abbreviation SNS. A social networking site is an online platform that allows

users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website. Social

networking sites usually have a new user input a list of people with whom they

share a connection and then allow the people on the list to confirm or deny the

connection. After connections are established, the new user can search the

networks of connections to make more connections. Social networking sites have

different rules for establishing connections, but they often allow users to view the

connections of a confirmed connection and even suggest further connections

based on a persons established network. Some social networking websites like

LinkedIn are used for establishing professional connections, while sites like

Facebook straddle the line between private and professional. There are also many

networks that are built for a specific user base, such as cultural or political groups

within a given area or even traders in financial markets. Social networking websites

are easy to confuse with social media sites. A social networking site is any site that
has a public or semi-public profile page, including dating sites, fan sites and so on.

A social media site has profiles and connections, combined with the tools to easily

share online content of all types.

(https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4956/social-networking-site-sns)

Social networking sites has already given a huge impact to its users. After

a keen and detailed research, the researchers have came up with the breakdown

of the top social networking sites used by the social media users around the globe.

The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable

users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political or economic

borders. Approximately 2 billion internet users are using social networks and these

figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social

networks increasingly gain traction. The most popular social networks usually

display a high number of user accounts or strong user engagement. For example,

market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion monthly

active users, whereas recent newcomer Pinterest was the fastest independently

launched site to reach 10 million unique monthly visitors. The majority of social

networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but

European services like VK or Chinese social networks Qzone and Renren have

also garnered mainstream appeal in their areas due to local context and content.

Social network usage by consumers is highly diverse: platforms such as Facebook

or Google+ are highly focused on exchanges between friends and family and are

constantly pushing interaction through features like photo or status sharing and

social games. Other social networks like Tumblr or Twitter are all about rapid
communication and are aptly termed microblogs. Some social networks focus on

community; others highlight and display user-generated content. Due to a constant

presence in the lives of their users, social networks have a decidedly strong social

impact. The blurring between offline and virtual life as well as the concept of digital

identity and online social interactions are some of the aspects that have emerged

in recent discussions.Social network penetration worldwide is ever-increasing. In

2017, 71 percent of internet users were social network users and these figures are

expected to grow. Social networking is one of the most popular online activities

with high user engagement rates and expanding mobile possibilities. North

America ranks first among regions where social media is highly popular, with an

social media penetration rate of 66 percent. In 2016, more than 81 percent of the

United States population had a social media profile. As of the second quarter of

2016, U.S. users spend more than 215 weekly minutes on social media via

smartphone, 61 weekly minutes via PC, and 47 minutes per week on social

networks via tablet devices. The increased worldwide usage of smartphones and

mobile devices has opened up the possibilities of mobile social networks with

increased features such as location-based services like Foursquare or Google

Now. Most social networks are also available as mobile social apps, whereas some

networks have been optimized for mobile internet browsing, enabling users to

comfortably access visual blogging sites such as Tumblr or Pinterest via tablet.

With over 1.86 billion monthly active users, social network Facebook is currently

the market leader in terms of reach and scope. The site has been shaping the

social media landscape since its launch and has been an important factor in
discussions about users privacy and differentiating between the private and the

public online self. Social networks not only enable users to communicate beyond

local or social boundaries, but also offer possibilities to share user-generated

content like photos and videos and features such as social games. Social

advertising and social gaming are two major points of revenue for social

networks.(https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-

network-users/)

National

In the digital shift, the Philippines has taken the global lead in at least one

measure: time spent on social media. That is according to the closely followed

internet trends report released by social media management platform Hootsuite

and United Kingdom-based consultancy We Are Social Ltd. on Tuesday. The

report, called Digital in 2017, showed that Filipinos spent an average of 4 hours

and 17 minutes per day on social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and

Twitter. The data were based on active monthly user data from social media

companies as recent as Jan. 2017. The Philippines is followed by Brazil (3 hours

and 43 minutes) and Argentina (3 hours and 32 minutes). The United States,

where many of these social media players were founded, is among the bottom half

at an average 2 hours and 6 seconds per day. The least activethe Japanese

logged on to social media an average of 40 minutes per day. The Philippiness

social media usage stands in stark contrast to its internet speed. Fixed broadband

speed here is among the slowest in Asia Pacific while mobile connections are

among the fastest, according to the most recent Akamai report.

There appeared a relationship between poor fixed broadband speed and time

spent on social media. The top three social media users, the Philippines, Brazil

and Argentina, had an average fixed-line broadband speed of 4.2 megabits per

second (mbps), 5.5 mbps and 5 mbps, respectively. The fastest was South Korea,

with 26.3 mbps. (South Koreans logged on to social media an average of 1 hour

and 11 minutes per day). As experts debate whether users spend more time on

the internet because of the slow speed, the Digital in 2017 report revealed a clear

trend: that internet usage was on the rise. According to the report, the Philippiness

internet and social media users grew by over 25 percent, up 13 million and 12

million over last year, respectively. Mobile was also a fast-growing platform

accounting for 38 percent of all web traffic in the country, up by almost a third over

2016, the report showed. The Philippines, so far, had a social media penetration

rate of 58 percent, higher than the average of 47 percent in Southeast Asia. Around

the world, internet users grewby 10 percent, or an additional 354 million people,

while active social media users jumped to 21 percent or an additional 482 million.

Global active social media users using a mobile platform surged to 30 percent or

another 581 million people. The total internet penetration rate stood at 50 percent

or 3.77 billion people, the Digital in 2017 report showed. Half of the worlds

population is now online, which is a testament to the speed with which digital

connectivity is helping to improve peoples lives. The increase in internet users in

developing economies is particularly encouraging, Simon Kemp, a global

consultant at We Are Social, said in a statement. The report compiles data from

the worlds largest studies of online behavior, conducted by organizations including

GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence, Statista and Akamai in a comprehensive

state of social media reference. The 2016 report has seen nearly 70,000

downloads and 2.5 million reads on SlideShare to date.

(http://technology.inquirer.net/58090/ph-worlds-no-1-terms-time-spent-social-

media)

Local

Social media has already scattered all around the world including the

province of Pangasinan and to its capital Dagupan City. Like other places across

the globe, social media made a huge impacts to the citizens in the said area

whether it is for religious views, politics, business or personal use. Here the

researchers have found out an article from cbcpnews.com, that the Archdiocese

of Lingayen-Dagupan (ALD) hosts back- to-back Social Media 101 seminars in an

effort to shed more light on social medias role in New Evangelization. Edwin

Lopez, international manager of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) Asia-

Pacific, said We should define social media, rather than it defining us. Speaking

to some 78 participants from all over the archdiocese at the Lay Formation Center

(LFC), he emphasized how social media is a tool that can be utilized for New

Evangelization, especially when direct, personal engagements are not forgotten.

Lopez stressed the importance of having connections [that] need to grow into true

encounters. The CSMSs theme is based on Pope Francis message for the 48th

World Communications Day on authentic encounters. On August 7, a seminar

titled Social Media and the New Evangelization was held in the same venue and

was facilitated by Fr. Stephen Cuyos, MSC, the first Filipino priest podcaster. He
shared how effective online evangelizers need to have the 3Ps- Prayerful life,

Passion for Evangelization, and Professional Excellence. Cuyos, who is also the

Training and Production Specialist of the Communication Foundation for Asia

(CFA), taught the participants coming from different parishes and Catholic schools

how to make more appealing PowerPoint presentations for masses. Bob Lopez,

an expert in project management, networking, training, capacity-building and

communications, also taught the participants how to videoshare and create

compelling games for evangelization. She is also currently the head of the CFA

Training Department. The Olupan ya Laiko ed Arkidiosis na Lingayen-Dagupan

together with the Union of Catholic Businessmen and Entrepreneurs in the

Archdiocese in partnership with Metro Dagupan Chamber of Commerce and

Industry Inc. (MDCCI), Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc. (PAPI)

Pangasinan Chapter and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP)-

Pangasinan Chapter, organized a two-day seminar about Cyber Wellness and

Media Literacy also given by Cuyos and Lopez at the LFC. This time, the

participants learned how to protect their privacy in the cyber world against hackers

and how to use social media responsibly.

(http://www.cbcpnews.com/cbcpnews/?p=40081)

Social Networking Sites

History

As mentioned earlier, A social networking site is an online platform that

allows users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website.
Social networking sites usually have a new user input a list of people with whom

they share a connection and then allow the people on the list to confirm or deny

the connection. (https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4956/social-networking-

site-sns) Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of

generalized online communities such as Theglobe.com (1995), Geocities (1994)

and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing

people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and encouraged

users to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing

easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive webspace. Some

communities such as Classmates.com took a different approach by simply

having people link to each other via email addresses. PlanetAll started in 1996. In

the late 1990s, user profiles became a central feature of social networking sites,

allowing users to compile lists of "friends" and search for other users with similar

interests. New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s,

and many sites began to develop more advanced features for users to find and

manage friends. This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish

with the emergence of SixDegrees.com in 1997, followed by Makeoutclub in 2000,

Hub Culture and Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet

mainstream. However, thanks to the nation's high Internet penetration rate, the first

mass social networking site was the South Korean service, Cyworld, launched as

a blog-based site in 1999 and social networking features added in 2001. It also

became one of the first companies to profit from the sale of virtual goods.
Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and eventually

Bebo. Friendster became very popular in the Pacific Islands. Orkut became the

first popular social networking service in Brazil (although most of its very first users

were from the United States) and quickly grew in popularity in India (Madhavan,

2007). Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites' popularity, by

2005, it was reported that Myspace was getting more page views than Google.

Facebook, launched in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world

in early 2009. Facebook was first introduced as a Harvard social networking site,

expanding to other universities and eventually, anyone. The term social media was

introduced and soon became widespread.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service)

Top Social Networking Sites and Their Profile

As the researchers goes further to the information they gathered about

social networking sites, the top social networking sites and their profile will be

discussed in this section. The said statistics of the top social networking sites were

gathered from http://www.socialmediatoday.com. Below is the list and profile of the

top social networking sites used by individuals over the world today.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world today with

1.9 Billion unique monthly users, predominantly female with 83% of online women
and 75% online men. Facebook is the best place to reach Millenials and

Generation X who almost spends 7 hours per week on social media. These people

ranges between the ages 18-49 years old. 75% of theses users spend an average

of 20 minutes or more on Facebook everyday

(http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-network-

demographics-2017-infographic). Facebook is an American for-profit corporation

and an online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park,

California. The Facebook website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark

Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo

Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The founders

had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students; however, later

they expanded it to higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League

schools, and Stanford University. Facebook gradually added support for students

at various other universities, and eventually to high school students as well. Since

2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become

a registered user of Facebook, though variations exist in the minimum age

requirement, depending on applicable local laws.The Facebook name comes from

the face book directories often given to United States university students.

Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, laptops, tablet

computers, and smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After

registering to use the site, users can create a user profile indicating their name,

occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as "friends",
exchange messages, post status updates and digital photos, share digital videos

and links, use various software applications ("apps"), and receive notifications

when others update their profiles or make posts. Additionally, users may join

common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other

topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close

Friends". In groups, editors can pin posts to top. Additionally, users can complain

about or block unpleasant people. Because of the large volume of data that users

submit to the service, Facebook has come under scrutiny for its privacy policies.

Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements which appear onscreen.

Facebook, Inc. held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2012, and began

selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market

capitalization of $104 billion. On July 13, 2015, Facebook became the fastest

company in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to reach a market cap of $250 billion.

Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users as of June 2017. As of April

2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based

on the number of active user accounts.Facebook classifies users from the ages of

13 to 18 as minors and therefore sets their profiles to share content with friends

only. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)

YouTube

YouTube with a tagline Better Than TV has 1 Billion unique monthly users

predominantly male which landed with a percentage of 55% and 45% female.

YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds than any cable network in the U.S. with
an average 2 million video views per minute worldwide

(http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-network-

demographics-2017-infographic). YouTube is an American video-sharing website

headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former

PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February

2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now

operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. YouTube allows users to upload, view,

rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other

users. It uses WebM, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and Adobe Flash Video technology to

display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available

content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary

films, audio recordings, movie trailers and other content such as video blogging,

short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube has

been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC,

Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their material via YouTube as part of the YouTube

partnership program. Unregistered users can only watch videos on the site, while

registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos and add

comments to videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to

registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old. YouTube earns

advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according

to site content and audience. The vast majority of its videos are free to view, but

there are exceptions, including subscription-based premium channels, film rentals,

as well as YouTube Red, a subscription service offering ad-free access to the

website and access to exclusive content made in partnership with existing users.

As of February 2017, there are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to

YouTube each minute, and one billion hours of content are watched on YouTube

every day. As of April 2017, the website is ranked as the second most popular site

in the world by Alexa Internet, a web traffic analysis company.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube)

Instagram

Instagram as the fastest growing social networking site with over 600 million

unique monthly users predominantly female ending with 38% online women and

26% online men. In terms of the users ages 90% of these instagram users are

under 35 years old and 53% of them follow brands.

(http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-network-

demographics-2017-infographic). Instagram is a mobile, desktop, and Internet-

based photo-sharing application and service that allows users to share pictures

and videos either publicly or privately. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike

Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app exclusively for the

iOS operating system. A version for Android devices was released two years later,

in April 2012, followed by a feature-limited website interface in November 2012,

and apps for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 in April 2016 and October 2016
respectively. Instagram lets registered users upload photos or videos to the

service. Users can apply various digital filters to their images, and add locations

through geotags. They can add hashtags to their posts, linking the photos up to

other content on Instagram featuring the same subject or overall topic. Users can

connect their Instagram account to other social media profiles, enabling them to

share photos to those profiles as well. Originally, a distinctive feature of Instagram

was its confining of photos to a square; this was changed in August 2015, when

an update started allowing users to upload media at full size. In June 2012, an

"Explore" tab was introduced, showing users a variety of media, including popular

photos and photos taken at nearby locations, trending tags and places, channels

for recommended videos, and curated content. Support for videos was originally

launched in June 2013, and had a 15-second maximum duration and limited

quality, with Instagram later adding support for widescreen and longer videos.

Private messaging, called Instagram Direct, was launched with basic photo-

sharing functionality in December 2013, and has gradually received major updates

incorporating more features, most notably text support and "disappearing" photos.

In August 2016, Instagram introduced a "Stories" feature, letting users add photos

to a story, with the content disappearing after 24 hours. Instagram added live-video

functionality to Stories in November 2016, augmented reality stickers in April 2017,

and face filters in May 2017. After its launch in 2010, Instagram rapidly gained

popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year,

and ultimately 700 million as of April 2017. Its users have uploaded over 40 billion
photos to the service as of October 2015. As of April 2017, Instagram Direct has

375 million active users, while, as of June 2017, the Instagram Stories functionality

has over 250 million active users. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April

2012 for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. The popularity of Instagram

has sparked an engaging community, including dedicated "trends", in which users

post specific types of photos on specific days of the week with a hashtag

representing a common theme. Instagram has received positive reviews for its iOS

app, and it has been named "one of the most influential social networks in the

world". However, the company has been the subject of criticism, most notably for

policy and interface changes, allegations of censorship, and illegal or improper

content uploaded by users (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram).

Twitter

Twitter is the most oversaturated networking site with 317 unique monthly

users predominantly male with the percentage of 22% online men and 15% online

women. These Twitter users ranges from age 18-29 years old. 53% of the twitter

users never post any updates. Users only spend an average of 2.7 minutes on

Twitters mobile app per day (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-

networks/top-social-network-demographics-2017-infographic). Twitter (/twtr/) is

an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with

messages, "tweets", restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post

tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. Users access Twitter

through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in

San Francisco, California, United States, and has more than 25 offices around the

world. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone,

and Evan Williams and launched in July of that year. The service rapidly gained

worldwide popularity. In 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million

tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per

day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described

as "the SMS of the Internet". As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly

active users. On the day of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Twitter proved to

be the largest source of breaking news, with 40 million election-related tweets sent

by 10 p.m. (Eastern Time) that day. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

Pinterest

Pinterest branded as the most evergreen social networking site has 317

monthly unique users predominantly female ending to 45% online women and 17%

online men which is fairly distributed to the ages 18-64 years old. People referred

by Pinterest are most likely to make a purchase on ecommerce than users of other

networks. Pinterest is also known for best longetivity - of a pin is 151, 200 minutes

(vs. 24 minutes for a tweet or 90 minutes for a Facebook post)

(http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-network-
demographics-2017-infographic). Pinterest is a web and mobile application startup

that operates a software system designed to discover information on the World

Wide Web. Registration is required for use. The site was founded by Ben

Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann

summarized the company as a "catalog of ideas," rather than as a social network,

that inspires users to "go out and do that thing."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest)

LInkedIn

LinkedIn mark as a professional and B2B social networking site with over

106 million users with a slightly more online men with the percentage of 31% and

27% percent of online women. 45% of the people using LinkedIn is making

$75k/year or more use LinkedIn vs. only 21% of $30k/year of less. LinkedIn users

are typically slightly less likely to use other social networks

(http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-network-

demographics-2017-infographic). LinkedIn (/likt.n/) is a business- and

employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and

mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is

mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job

seekers posting their CVs. As of 2015, most of the company's revenue came from

selling access to information about its members to recruiters and sales

professionals. As of September 2016, LinkedIn had more than 467 million

accounts, out of which more than 106 million are active.As of April 2017, LinkedIn

had 500 million members in 200 countries. LinkedIn allows members (both workers

and employers) to create profiles and "connections" to each other in an online

social network which may represent real-world professional relationships.

Members can invite anyone (whether an existing member or not) to become a

connection. The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional

requires either an existing relationship or an introduction through a contact of

theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's members. LinkedIn

participated in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles. The site has

an Alexa Internet ranking as the 20th most popular website (October 2016).

According to the New York Times, US high school students are now creating

LinkedIn profiles to include with their college applications. Based in the United

States, the site is, as of 2013, available in 24 languages, including Arabic,

Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish,

Danish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean,

Indonesian, Malay, and Tagalog. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in

January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol

"LNKD". On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced plans to acquire LinkedIn for

$26.2 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 8, 2016.[18] The

transaction resulted in the payment of approximately $26.4 billion in cash merger

consideration. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn)
Reddit

Reddit called as the user-moderated mayhem with approximately 85 million

unique monthly users predominantly male with a percentage of 67% and 33%

female. 64% of Reddit users are under age 30. Sales content are discouraged with

this social networking site. Redditors are savvy and fiercely protective of their

community. (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/top-social-

network-demographics-2017-infographic).