Can’t Live without my FB, LoL: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on the Communication Skills of TESL Students

It is getting common to see two or more people sitting together at a café but not talking to each other because they are busy with their smart phones, tablets or laptops to browse through social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace - just to name a few. Virtual communication seems to be more favourable to certain people as compared to face-to-face communication. This scenario may affect our communication skills since it is observed that face-to-face communication takes place lesser these days. The objective of this research is to investigate whether the frequency of using SNSs among TESL students and addiction to these sites (if any) influence their communication skills. A questionnaire was used to gather data from ninety three Semester 8 TESL students from the Faculty of Education, UiTM Shah Alam. SPSS version 16.0 was used to analyze and describe the data obtained. The findings show that the SNSs usage is moderately frequent because even though a majority of the students get connected to social networking sites on a daily basis, they only spend around 1-4 hours per session. It was also found that only a minority of the students is highly addicted to social networking sites. Most importantly, the study found a significant relationship between students’ frequent usage and their communication skills.