Facebook and YouTube addiction: The usage pattern of Malaysian students

Abstract

This paper explores the usage of Facebook and YouTube among Malaysian students and the possibility of internet addiction in order to determine the effect of using social media in their social and academic lives. Data was collected from 667 Facebook users and 1056 YouTube users. Examining Young's [1]Internet addiction scale among the students revealed that 18% of Facebook users and 22% of YouTube users are addicted, and they spend more than two hours on Facebook and YouTube per day. They use Facebook for information, maintain relationships, academic learning, product inquiry, and meeting people, while YouTube is used for entertainment, information, academic learning, and product inquiry. These results create awareness for instructors and academic institution using YouTube videos and Facebook as complementary tools for teaching. They should be aware of the potential for compulsive and addicted users to be distracted from prescribed videos to unrelated materials.