Relationship of Instant Messaging to the Face-to-Face Communication and Social Relationship of College Students

Instant messaging has become a very popular and common application in everyday life. It is perceived to be useful for interpersonal communication. However, thisapplication may affect the social aspects of individuals. Thus, this studydetermined the relationship of instant messaging to college students’ face-to-facecommunication, particularly in the aspects of kinesics, and their social relationshipwith their peers, classmates, family, relatives and teachers. Sixty seven collegestudents participated in the study through a researcher-made questionnaire. Thedata was analyzed using Pearson’s r, ANOVA, and Mann Whitney U-test. Thefindings of the study are as follows: 1) the respondents use smartphones more thattheir other devices, and that Facebook Messenger is the application they used mostfor communication; 2) the respondents use instant messaging more frequently tocommunicate with their classmates and peers than with their family, relatives, andteachers; and 3) that respondents’ face-to-face communication happens morefrequently with their peers and classmates than with their family, relatives, andteachers. This study also revealed that the more the respondents use instantmessaging, the more their face-to-face communication improved. In the same way,their social relationship also develops as they use instant messaging. Make use ofinstant messaging as a tool to improve the quality of students life is one of the manyimplications of the study