PULLING OFF THE MASK: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ACTIVITIES ON EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN

The amount of time college students devote to electronic social network activities (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messaging, etc.) has increased in recent years with technological advancement. This study used an online questionnaire to assess how much time evangelical Christian college students spend using Facebook along with similar electronic products. The authors were interested in exploring self reported detrimental consequences that could arise with excessive usage. In addition, an attempt was made to uncover any possible positive outcomes or benefits as a result of using the relatively new and popular social networking technology. 1,342 students who attended one of four Evangelical Christian Colleges within the U.S., during the spring of this year, participated in the study. Evidence was found that raises several concerns for individual users concerning time management, possible neglect of important areas of life, psychological and spiritual health