Use of Social Media and Self-image Perception:

Descriptive Study for Adolescent in Padang Sidempuan City

Lusiana Andriani Lubis

, Suangkupon Doli

and Ameilia Zuliyanti Siregar

Department Communication, Political and Social Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Department Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Student of

Department Communication, Political and Social Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Keywords: Adolescent perception, self-image, social media, Padang Sidempuan.

Abstract: This study aims to describe the phenomenon of selfie photos in social media on Youth in Padang Sidempuan

City. The research method used in this research is descriptive method, which is to describe the phenomenon

of selfie photos in social media on Youth in Padang Sidempuan City. The population in this study were

teenagers in Padang Sidempuan City is 24,189. While the sample is set with a precision of 10% by using

random sampling technique, obtained a sample of 100 adolescents active social media users. Based on the

results of descriptive analysis, the mean value for the use of social media in adolescents in Padang Sidempuan

City obtained by 71.5 when compared to the ideal value that may be achieved is equal to 80 then the value is

in the high category. This means that the level of social media use in adolescents in the City of Padang

Sidempuan especially on social media instagram, line, whats app and facebook, high. While the results of the

analysis for selfie pictures, obtained the mean value (mean) for the use of social media in adolescents in the

city of Padang Sidempuan obtained for 72.66 when compared the ideal value that may be achieved is equal

to 80 then the value is in the high category. The level of social media use in adolescents in Padang Sidempuan

City especially on social media instagram, line, whats app and facebook, high and Photos selfie is one of the

arena for adolescent city Padang Sidempuan to show self-actualization in social life.

1 INTRODUCTION

Brogan (2010: 11) said "Social media is a new set of

communication and collaboration tools that enable

the common person. "(Social media is a new set of

communications and collaboration tools that allow

many types of interactions previously unavailable to

ordinary people).

Social media by Dailey (2009: 3) is an online

content created using publishing technologies that are

highly accessible and scalable. Most important of

these technologies is the shifting way of knowing

people, reading and sharing news, and searching for

information and content. There are hundreds of social

media channels operating around the world today,

with four great facebook, Line, instagram, and twitter.

(Badri, 2011: 132).

According to Cross (2013), social media is a term

that describes the various technologies used to tie

people into collaboration, exchange information, and

interact through web-based messaging. Because the

internet is always experiencing growth, then the

various technologies and features available to users

are always changing. This makes social media more

hypernym than a specific reference to various uses or

designs.

As is known, before the emergence and popularity

of social media, most people communicate by way of

sms or lewathandphone.Namun now with the social

media, people tend to communicate through the

service in the form of messaging through services

available on social media.

One type of social media according to Karjaluoto

(2008: 4) is Social networks (social networks), which

is a virtual community that allows users to connect

with other users. Some social networking sites are

created to expand group networks (eg Facebook),

while others are based on specific areas (eg

LinkedIn). One of the most popular social media is

social networking. This network shows the way in

which they relate because of the similarities of

sociality, from those who are known everyday to

family.

396

Lubis, L., Doli, S. and Siregar, A.

Use of Social Media and Self-image Perception: Descriptive Study for Adolescent in Padang Sidempuan City.

DOI: 10.5220/0010043603960399

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Computer, Environment, Agriculture, Social Science, Health Science, Engineering and Technology (ICEST 2018), pages 396-399

ISBN: 978-989-758-496-1

According to Everett M. Rogers (1986),

communication technology is hardware in

organizational structures that contain social values,

allowing individuals to collect, process and exchange

mutual information with other individuals. Webster

(1995) can be seen from several criteria, such as

technology, where the information society will rely

on technological innovations that are increasingly

growing; economic, where the information society

will have an information industry that is divided into

five categories namely education, communication

media, information machine, information service and

other information activities such as research and

social activities; occupational, where changes that

occur in the information society lead to changes that

occur in the availability and demand of labor in the

field of information; spatial, where the information

society has an information network connected to the

location and has an effect on organizing time and

space; and culture, where the information society

undergoes changes in socio-cultural circulation in

everyday life because of the information available in

various media.

According to Mayfield quoted by Badri (2011:

133) mentioned there are now seven types of social

media, but innovations and changes continue to

happen.Social media that exist today:

1. Social networking sepebook, instagram, line,

myspace and bebo. This site allows people to help

personal web pages and connect with their friends to

share communication content.

2. Blog, is the best form of social media, in the

form of online journals with the best loading of the

best, the latest writing is on the front page.

3. Wikis like Wikipedia and the online

encyclopedia. Wikis gets anyone to fill out or edit the

information in it, acting as a document or a communal

database.

4. Podcasts, provides audio files and videos by

subscribing through services such as Itunes from

Apple.

5. Forums, areas for online discussion, around

specific topics and interests. Forums exist before

social media and become a powerful and popular

online community.

6. Content communities like flickr (for photo

sharing), del.icio.us (bookmarked links) and youtube

(video). This community organizes and shares certain

types of content.

7. Microblogging, social networking sites

combined blogs, where a small amount of content

(updates) are distributed online and via mobile phone

networks, twitter is the leader of this service.

From the above definition the researchers drew

the conclusion that social media has a variety of types

and have different functions and ways of use. But still

with the same purpose to exchange information and

easy to access.

Selfie (self portrait) is a photo activity that

displays the whole or part of the body of the user by

using the camera phone, where the photos can be

uploaded to social media like facebook or istagram

with the effects of social media. In addition, the selfie

is a symbol of action that is communicated by the

culprit to others who ultimately form the meaning. In

selfie and uploud activities of selfie photos in social

media, where the photographs feature a variety of

poses, makeup and physical appearance as well as a

selfie location. It is a manifestation of the interaction

of actions carried out by self-perpetrators with other

people and after the interaction takes place, then the

other social media users will interpret and give

meaning to what he sees, so that not infrequently

other users provide feedback / feedback whether it be

a comment or "like" (likes) to what is displayed by

the perpetrator selfie.

Kota Padangsidimpuan, is one of the middle cities

which is currently experiencing rapid growth in

various sectors. In addition, the city of

Padangsidimpuan is the only city located on the edge

of the west coast of Sumatra, so the city becomes a

shopping center of goods and services from several

other areas, such as; Tapanuli Selatan, Padang Lawas

Utara, Padang Lawas and Mandailing Natal.

Therefore, it is in this city in terms of the development

of information technology is also a reference for the

surrounding areas.

The phenomenon seen today in the city of

Padangsidimpuan that the teenagers from the age of

13 years to 21 years in the city of Padangsidimpuan

indeed are rife to do selfie photos, which have an

impact on their own both in terms of positive or

negative values that result in bad or otherwise for

them in take pictures of themselves to send to

colleagues or sent to social media.

Research methods

Research on "The Use of Social Media and

Perception on Selfie Photos (Descriptive Study of

Youth in Padang City)" is a quantitative research

approach. According Sugiyono (2011: 4)

Quantitative research is a systematic scientific

research on the parts and phenomena and their

relationship.

The population in this study, including all

adolescents in Padang Sidempuan City registered on

statistical data about population by age group and

gender in 6 sub districts in Padangsidempuan City in

Use of Social Media and Self-image Perception: Descriptive Study for Adolescent in Padang Sidempuan City

397

2016 where the number of adolescents registered in

population data of Padang Sidempuan City was

24,189 person. sampling in this research using

Random Sampling Technique is sample drawn by

randomly selecting some strata, and all members of

the selected strata or at least sebahagian large.

Determination of the number of samples using the

formula proposed by Slovin (in Hussein, 2011: 77),

namely:

n = N

1 + N e2

Description: n = number of samples

N = total population

d = precision set, that is 5%

The number of population in this study is

adolescents between 12 s / d 20 years as many as

24,189 adolescents and the level of precision is set at

10%. Thus, the number of samples obtained as many

as 100 samples, such as pertitugan below.

n = N

1 + N e

n = 24.189

1 + 24.189(0.1)

n = 100

Furthermore, data collection methods in this study were

conducted with several methods namely, pustka study, field

research, and questionnaires. While the data analysis in this

study using statistical formula by finding the mean score,

percentage score and interval class. According to Tulus

Winarsunu (2009: 30) statistical formula in descriptive

analysis, as follows.

Mean, ie.

𝑋





∑





percentage score 

 

 

 100

Information:

∑

𝐹𝑋:

Number of respondents who choose (frequency) ×

the mean value at each interval

N: Number of respondents

𝑋



: Mean

Next set the category of research instrument scanning.

The scoring category is defined by specifying the interval.

Data spans or intervals are obtained by using the formula

presented by Agus Irianto (2012: 22) below.

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Use of Social Media and Adolescent

Perceptions of Self-image

The sub varaiabel from social media in this research

that is instgaram, line, whats app and facebook,

measured with 4 (four) indicator consisting of; reach,

accessibility, accessibility, usability, immediacy.

Furthermore the distribution of respondents' answers

about the use of social media based on the above

indicators, are as follows:

2.1.1 Reach Indicator (reach)

Distribution of respondents' answers about the use of

social media on the reach indicators, can be seen in

table 4.5

Table. 1. Answer Distribution Reach indicator (reach)

Pertanyaan

Jawaban

VO O R N

How often do you

use social media

every day?

11 51 23 15

Using social media

makes it easier for

me to see up-to-date

information

24 43 17 16

The contents of

instagram /

facebook, line

andWhatsApp are

always what I wan

26 55 11 8

Because of the wide

range of instagram /

facebook, line

andWhats App

makes me have lots

of friends

30 42 20 8

With the facebook /

instagram, line

andWhats App

makes it easier for

me to contact my

friends

22 37 25 16

6 Although rarely met,

with the facebook /

instagram, line

andWhats App I can

communicate with

face to face

30 40 25 5

Noted: VO=Very Often, O=Often, R=Rarely. N=Never

Sources: Results of Research (Data,2017)

Based on table 1 above, for question no 1 found that

11 respondents very often use social media, 51 people

agree, 23 people are rare and 15 people never use

social media. While the question no. 2 found as many

as 24 people stated that they are very often easy to

ICEST 2018 - 3rd International Conference of Computer, Environment, Agriculture, Social Science, Health Science, Engineering and

Technology

398

obtain the latest information from social media, 43

people stated often, whereas respondents who

claimed rarely get the latest information from social

media as many as 17 people and never as many as 16

people.

Next to question no. 3 ie the contents of instagram,

line, faceebook and WhatssApp, states very often as

many as 26 people, often 55 people, rarely 11 people

and never as many as 8 people. While the question no

4 ie the range of instagram, line, faceebook and

WhatssApp, too wide makes me have many friends

obtained respondents' answers very often as many as

30 people, often 42 people, rarely 20 people and never

8 people. Then on question no. 5 that is about the

instagram, line, faceebook and WhatssApp, make it

easier to contact the friends obtained the respondents'

answers 22 people very often, 37 people often, 25

people rarely and 16 people never. While in question

no 6 is about although rarely met, with the instagram,

line, faceebook and WhatssApp, I can communicate

with face to face obtained 30 respondents' answers

very often, 40 people often, 25 people rarely and 5

people never.

2.1.2 The Accessibility Indicator,

(accessibility)

Distribution of respondents' answers about the use of

social media on accessibility indicators,

(accessibility) can be seen in table 4.6 as follows:

Table 2. Answer Distribution The accessibility indicator,

(accessibility)

Pertanyaan

Jawaban

VO O R N

How often do you use social

media ever

28 26 34 12

Using social media makes it

easier for me to see up-to-date

information

20 45 29 6

The contents of instagram /

facebook, line andWhatsApp are

alwa

s what I want

40 41 8 11

Because of the wide range of

instagram / facebook, line

andWhats App makes me have

lots of friends

31 49 17 3

With the facebook / instagram,

line andWhats App makes it

easier for me to contact my

friends

30 20 26 24

Noted: VO=Very Often, O=Often, R=Rarely. N=Never

Sources: Results of Research (Data,2017)

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