FACEBOOK ADDICTION: RELATION WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, LONELINESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PAKISTANI STUDENTS
The subjected study investigates the relationship between Facebook addiction, depression, anxiety, loneliness and academic performance among 150 higher secondary school college students, including 75 male and 75 female students of Bahawalpur Zone. The data has been collected through convenient purposive sampling by using Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale Andreaessen and colleagues for measuring Facebook addiction, Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (2006) for measuring depression, Severity Measure for Generalized Anxiety Disorder for measuring anxiety (c) 2013 American Psychiatric Association, UCLA loneliness scale (1996) was used to measure loneliness academic performance was measured by asking their previous class percentage. Correlation technique was employed for statistical analysis and significance was measured. Study revealed that there is linear interaction between Facebook addiction and anxiety as well as depression, however there was no correlation found between Facebook addiction, loneliness academic performance. According to stated study it is concluded that Facebook is imparting negative impact on mental and social life of the students which are spending maximum time. The study also reveals that in future prospective interaction may be occurring on the performance of the students in their respective studies. Suggestions are made to conclude the study that some monitoring bodies must be implanted to monitor the misuse of social sites. Key terms: Facebook Addiction, Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness, Academic Performance, Pakistani Students INTRODUCTION One would have never imagined that a tool for networking developed solely for U.S military in 1969 would turn into a rich wellspring of information, stimulation, correspondence and numerous more. Significant advantages have been drawn from networking sites being a connecting and specialized medium. It is through the social networking sites that millions of people can be connected. Obviously it is an amazing thing that with a single click one passes information to thousands of people in a fraction of seconds, that's the power of social media. Social Media and the youth are quite inextricable [1] Facebook is the most recent and largest social networking site ranks among the top five websites in the world. This popularity thus led to Facebook being a significant research topic. Facebook has induced social anxieties and pressures, as a notable number of people check Facebook even before getting out of bed. On the basis of several research findings on Facebook, it has been found that it's having a great impact on the lives of young people especially students. Most of the researches were carried out in other countries, so it was found necessary and important to carry out a study in Pakistan on the impact of Facebook on the HSSC students. The Pakistani population, more particularly the HSSC students of Bahawalpur, has not been spared as most of them are now connected to online social networks such as Facebook on a daily basis. Such a study would provide an insight on the influence of Facebook on the mental health, behavior, mood, loneliness and academic performance of HSSC students in the country. Every pleasurable behavior influences our mood, consciousness and modify functioning of the brain. If such behaviors are used on a regular basis, they can cause impairment in life functioning the rewards given by Facebook accessing leads to the possibility of the user becoming addicted to it. There is preliminary evidence that although Facebook addiction is not a serious problem as drug and alcohol addiction is, but its overuse produces tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Facebook addiction is spending an excessive amount of time on Facebook to such an extent that it interferons life and important activities [2] There is a likelihood that heavy Facebook use can steer to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. By now, the Facebook irony is known to most. It has been linked to undesirable mental health consequences such as Depression. Depression is not just sadness, people with it face significant impairment in their daily functioning such as lack of interest, pleasure, concentration, energy in daily activities, weight and sleep disturbances, worthless and guilt feelings and suicide ideation[3] People being addicted to Facebook use it daily and compare their live with those of others known as "social comparison" if it's an upward comparison it tends to make people feel more then worse due to which they may start living aloof. They may also develop anxiety to acquire those things which they have compared with the people. Emotion characterized by worrying thoughts, tensed feeling, and increased blood pressure is known as anxiety [4].Anxiety levels are increased by Facebook as they take stress by comparing themselves with others, generate excessive worry about what's going on while they are offline which motivates them to continually check their profiles, notifications, newsfeeds etc. people get upset and uneasy if they are unable to access Facebook because of the constant impulse to check it The constant impulse to check updates also lead to frequent social comparison which intern leads to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. Loneliness is a universally common experience. Most people are probably going to have a significant experience of loneliness at some point in their lives. Loneliness is more of a 2470 ISSN 1013 5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 Sci.Int.(Lahore),27(3),2469 2475,2015 May June subjective and can be quantified through questions inquiring about ones feelings and perception about social activities and relationships. Victor and his colleagues [5] viewed loneliness as, a state where an individual can possibly interface with others however not doing as such is or an inconsistency between ones real and desired expectation of interaction with others and a perceived social interaction deprival. There is a positive and opposite both the relationship between the Facebook addiction and loneliness. On one hand, the more people use the Facebook, the lonelier they feel. On the other hand, lonely people tend to use Facebook and other such sites to spend the quality time. So it's harder to decide that "connectedness" is helpful or harmful. People tend to spend so many hours on Facebook which keep them away from making real connections through face to face contact with people around them indulging in daily activities hence develop loneliness, lessened concentration, poor school attendance, lower school grades, dropping out of school etc. which results in poor academic performance[6] Academic performance is how well one does in studies. Poor grades are considered bad academic performance. The lives of students have dramatically change over time ,now a days they live a life of social media including Facebook especially they post check status frequently, they text and tweet more than they talk to the person next to them. There is a continuous distraction in their lives because of notifications of Facebook, although it's an era of multi tasking but responding to the notifications whilst studying affects the academic performance as it becomes unmanageable may lead to procrastination. Even though still many are the people who have no negative impact on their academic performance [7] LITERATURE REVIEW The Facebook operates in such a great speed that it makes the users obtain new information in a more efficient way that may in turn help to improve the learning performance of students as to other online sites. Therefore, many researchers have begun to study that why students use Facebook, how its use influences students, affect their daily life and what students think about it [8] Oluwole Folaranmi [9] observed the low levels of Facebook addiction among selected Nigerian undergraduates which was 1.6%.Further more multiple signs of Facebook addiction was shown by Research in Pakistan on medical students [10] Article "Facebook depression? Social networking site use and depression in older adolescents," Passed on to light a basic issue that until starting late has not been adequately given thought in behavioral physiology, mind research and psychiatric investigation [11] Low self esteem, low motivation, loneliness, anxiety and fear of rejection all are normally seen in depressive individuals, who may bring about successive utilization of the web, and the intuitive elements of the web subsequently prompt web dependence in people with such qualities according to [12] The new findings show that Facebook overuse leads to depression. Facebook use among supple children can strengthen emotions of socially relating, yet have totally inverse impact on the individuals who are susceptible to depression [13] In a study, depression was found being associated with internet and text messaging [14] another study revealed that excessive time on computer is mostly spent by adults with major depressive disorder found that adult spent more time on computers who have major depressive disorder[15] Similar findings were also found in China [16, 17] Norway [18] South Korea [19, 20] and Iran [21].The study by Husain, Creed and Tomeson confirms the high prevalence of depressive disorders in Pakistan [22] Anxiousness or anxieties are among factors that have been used to foresee overuse of Facebook. Internet addiction has been reported to be having association with anxiety disorders [23, 24] the findings showed that, Facebook use is a significant predictor to anxiety and psychological worries they experience, virtual social contact is expanded through Facebook which consequently prompts to increased anxiety and worry amongst them [25] Loneliness is particularly pertinent and important to be investigated among adolescence [26] According to Sheldon socially anxious Individuals are more inclined to use Facebook in order to reduce their loneliness [27, 28] Increased loneliness was predic