Data Collection Sources

In this research, data was collected from both primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources are information obtained from first hand sources by the

researcher themselves. In this research, quantitative data was collected through survey

sampling in the month of December 2014. Survey sampling is selecting a group of people

from the target population to conduct a survey. Therefore, the sample size comprised of

thirty (30) teenagers randomly chosen from the San Juan area. This type of sampling was

chosen because it saved time, cost and increased the accuracy, validity and reliability of

the entire research while making it more objective. Through this method, the nature of a

wide range of people was investigated and there was no room for any bias from the

researcher. For this research everyone included in the sample size gave a response. This

data was important to the research because it provided many answers to the research

objective and provided information to compare to the articles collected on this topic.

Furthermore, the data collection instrument chosen for this research included the

use of questionnaires through a quantitative method. The questionnaire contained fifteen

(15) questions in total which included two (2) open-ended questions and thirteen (13)

close-ended questions. This questionnaire was distributed to a total of thirty (30)

teenagers in the area of San Juan over the internet through access to their Facebook

accounts and the respondents were given two (2) weeks to reply to them. This method

was utilised because it was very easy to organize and was at no cost. Also, it was simple

to obtain a large amount of information over a short period of time from respondents via

online communication. The objective of this questionnaire was to obtain information to

answer the research objectives.

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 In addition, secondary sources were used in this research to obtain qualitative

data. They are second-hand sources that contain discussion, analysis and interpretation

about a primary source. In obtaining secondary data the researcher utilised a journal,

newspaper articles, books, magazines and internet articles related to the topic of social

media effects on teenage behaviour. The reasons for using these sources were the ease of

access to them due to their large availability and the low cost to acquire them. Using

secondary sources placed the issue being investigated in a broader context rather than in

the area of San Juan alone. Therefore these previous studies give a greater insight and

relevant information to the being issue being investigated.