Facebook Addiction and Aggression: Is There a Profound Relation?

The study intends to investigate the relation of Facebook addiction and aggression among college students, and to determine if there is gender specificity in their aggression levels. The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) by Andreassen et al. (2012), which measures Facebook addiction in the areas of salience, tolerance, mood modification, withdrawal, conflict and relapse, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) of Buss and Perry (1992), which measures four forms of aggression (physical aggression, verbal aggression, hostility, and anger), were administered to 354 college students, followed by a focus group discussion involving 12 students. Correlation analysis was used to test the relationship of the variables, while t-test for independent samples was utilized to test the gender specificity of aggression. Content cloud analysis was also used to visually-display the emerging dominant words from the transcripts of the FGD. Analysis revealed moderate Facebook addiction and moderate tendencies of aggression among college students. Of the four forms of aggression, physical aggression was also gender-specific as noted on the higher level of tendencies in males. Facebook addiction and aggression among college students are positively related, p < 0.01. Content cloud analysis revealed that aggression in Facebook use stems from pronouncement of feelings, knowing and being updated with affairs from posts in the newsfeed, dis-inhibition from personal confrontation, and gaining friendships.