Effects of Facebook Usage on the Egyptian Revolution Research Paper

Effects of Facebook Usage on the Egyptian Revolution - Research Paper Example In fact, social networking sites have been the most visited websites in the internet and a lot of news from current events have traversed the connections in these social networking sites. Among the currently existing social networking sites, perhaps the most popular is Facebook. Because of the great advantages and convenience that it offers, Facebook has been part of the ways for people to communicate with each other, from simple personal messages to updates about what is going on with both the local and international communities. As such, this research paper will look into exactly how instrumental Facebook has been in affecting one of the most controversial events of recent times, and that is the Egyptian revolution. This research study and the applied hypotheses are rooted on the Theory of Planned Behavior by Icek Ajzen (1987). The goal of the Theory of Planned Behavior is to provide an explanation as to why people do what they do (Ajzen, 1987). Theorists explain that people do so because they form an INTENTION to carry out the action. Intentions are influenced by the person’s beliefs, the social pressure to conform to the wishes of others, and their perceived ability to carry out the action. These are known as ATTITUDE, SUBJECTIVE NORM and PERCEIVED BEHAVIORAL CONTROL. Thus, the Theory of Planned Behavior is a theory which predicts deliberate behavior, because behavior can be deliberative and planned. According to the theory, the best predictor of behavior is intention. Intention is the cognitive representation of a person's readiness to perform a given behavior, and it is considered to be the immediate antecedent of behavior (Ajzen, 2005). This intention is determined by three things: their attitude toward the specific behavior, their subjective norms and their perceived behavioral control. The theory of planned behavior holds that only specific attitudes toward the behavior in question can be expected to predict that behavior (Manstead & Parker 1995 ; Terry, Hogg and White 1999; Parker, et al 1992). In addition to measuring attitudes toward the behavior, it is necessary to measure people’s subjective norms – their beliefs about how people they care about will view the behavior in question. To predict someone’s intentions, knowing these beliefs can be as important as knowing the person’s attitudes. Finally, perceived behavioral control influences intentions. Perceived behavioral control refers to people's perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior. These predictors lead to intention. A general rule, the more favorable the attitude and the subjective norm, and the greater the perceived control the stronger should the person’s intention to perform the behavior in question (Aronson, Wilson and Akert 2003). This study is interested in knowing how the actions of people pertaining to using Facebook affected the revolution and partly, the study is also interested in knowing why people re acted as they did and what were the effects after such actions.