Abstract
The study mainly explores the level of real life social network, Facebook use and loneliness of the university students in Bangladesh. In addition, the study examines the factors affecting loneliness of the students. To achieve these objectives, the study uses primary data collected from 380 students and employs several methods. Firstly, the study employs Lubben Social Network Scale and UCLA loneliness scale to measure the level of real life social network and loneliness, respectively. Secondly, the study uses a linear regression model estimated through OLS method to find out the factors affecting loneliness of the students. The study finds that although aggregately students are averagely engaged in real life social network in the study area, public university students are relatively more engaged in real life social network than that of private university students. The study also finds that aggregately students in the study area suffer from loneliness moderately where private university students suffer more than that of public university students. Moreover, the study finds that the level of loneliness is increased by 3.27 and 3.47 if students use Facebook one hour more per day and students read in private university, respectively while the level of loneliness is decreased by 4.61 if the level of real life social network is increased by one. Therefore, the study suggests the students to be careful in using Facebook and to be engaged more in real life social network in order to get rid of the adverse effects of loneliness.
Highlights
Human being is different from other animals as its aspiration to have meaningful social connections
Facebook used for Activities mostly done on Facebook Hours spent on Facebook per day Sharing of link Changes of profile picture in the last month
What is the level of real life social network and loneliness among university students in Bangladesh? Second, what are the significant factors affecting loneliness of the university students in Bangladesh? This paper contributes newly to the existing literature in a sense that this study uses new methods in finding out the factors affecting loneliness and brought a comparative analysis between public and private university students in Bangladesh
Summary
Human being is different from other animals as its aspiration to have meaningful social connections. Absence of connection causes severe pain in the mind and leads to a sense of loneliness which is not less than the pain in the body [1]. Feeling lonely or loneliness deteriorates the productivity of human being which decelerates the economic growth of a country [3]. Scholars have notified that loneliness or lonely people are mostly found in developed countries, it is found in developing countries like Bangladesh recently. Loneliness is found among elderly aged people and among young generation like school, college and university students [4]. In the case of university students, loneliness is notably affecting their academic performance [5,6]. Measurement of loneliness has received considerable attention to the researchers
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