Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Rationale of the Study

Wattpad is a social platform that lets the user read, critic and write their own

stories. It is widely used in different parts of the world particularly in the Philippines. In

spite of its advantages and popularity, its bad effects toward the users has risen through

time. Users of Wattpad or the so-called "Wattpad Readers" had been using Wattpad

immoderately. Teenagers, mostly students, use Wattpad excessively which results to

bad performance in school, household chores and even affects their well-being. This

problem occurs not only in the Philippines but throughout the world where "Wattpad

fever" is drastically spreading. This issue becomes the main concern of the study. This

paper aims to assess the effects of Wattpad to the students particularly the Grade 12

students in Guihulngan National High School-Poblacion. This research enables the

students to be aware of the possible things might happen when using Wattpad is done

inappropriately.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Batchelor (2010), Wattpad is now the world's popular ebook community,

delivering billions of pages from its library of over 250, 000 eBooks created by the
 2

community. Wattpad receives 10 million monthly visits on its websites and mobile

applications.

Related Studies

Florendo (2014) in her study entitled "Click, Swipe, and Read: Redefining the

Wonder of Books (A Wattpad Case Study)" asserts that Wattpad among other internet

domains is one of the most visited website among Filipino teenagers. She concludes

that reading Wattpad is not only an avenue that develops the reading interest and skills

of Filipino teenagers but also a threshold that further increases the knowledge of the

youth to a practical information and real-life situations.

Florendo's study is closely similar to the current study, Assessment on the

Effects of Wattpad to the Grade 12 students in Guihulngan National High School-

Poblacion, for it discusses the positive effects of Wattpad to the users.

According to the study of Jaguit and Alamo (2015) which entitled "Effect of

Reading Wattpad to the Academic Performance CAS Students of Caraga State

University", In this study it indicates that wattpad does not affect the academic

performance of the students. There are also some of the respondents academic

performance has affected and also few of them read wattpadeveryday and more than 3

hours but as we can see the results only few of them has been failed their academic

performance because of reading wattpad. It also shows that most of the respondents

says that wattpad makes them lost their time for their study, but as we can see in only

12 students have a low GPA last semester. Most of them have a good performance in

their studies and we can say that wattpad does not affect their academic performance.
 3

Likewise, Jaguit and Alamo's study has the same aim to the current study, which

is to determine the effects of Wattpad on the student's school performance.

As discussed in the study of Contreras, Gonzaga, Trovela, et.al (2015), some

were lured to Wattpad because of the insistent and aggressive people around them,

while some read to satisfy their interest in reading and writing. Participants, who aspire

to become writers, engaged on Wattpad as well to have an idea on how to write stories.

Their exposure to social media, boredom experience, and the free cost and

convenience that Wattpad provides also emerged as triggering factors. As they read

stories from it, the participants found themselves motivated since in the course of their

reading, Wattpad has been fulfilling their emotional and learning satisfaction. Because

of the participants' constant usage, indicators that they are getting addicted to Wattpad

came into view. They choose Wattpad over their duties and responsibilities. They tend

to skip their meals, allow themselves to be sleep-deprived, and even forget to

accomplish household and school-related chores.

The study of Contreras and colleagues shares the same focus to the current

study. The study discusses the factors and the reasons why some students use

Wattpad, the effects of Wattpad to the student's performance particularly in household

chores, and how it affects the well-being of the students.

Sari (2016) in his study entitled "The Effects of Short Story through Wattpad on

Reading Comprehension Achievement of Non- English Major Students of Bina

DarmaUniversity" states that Wattpad helps writers share their stories to public, attract

readers to read and get feedback from them. Readers can also give their comments,

follow, communicate through comments, and create new chapters or suggestions from
 4

original text. Based on the results of his study, it can be concluded that the students

who were taught by using short story through Wattpad showed better achievement in

reading comprehension than those who were not taught. It can encourage students to

read since it provides interactive activities online. Short story through Wattpad is a good

strategy to make the students have better achievement in reading comprehension.

Sari's study is closely interconnected with the current study for it explains how

users can socialize with fellow users when using Wattpad. The study also discusses the

benefits of using Wattpad in achieving better reading comprehension of the students.

THE PROBLEM

This study assessed the effects of Wattpad to the Grade 12 students in

Guihulngan National High School-Poblacion in the school year 2017-2018.

Statement of the Problem

Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1. How does Wattpad affect the Grade 12 students in terms of:

1.1 School performance

1.2 Household roles

2. What are the effects of Wattpad on the well-being of the Grade 12 students?
 5

3. How do Grade 12 students socialize with others using Wattpad?

4. How does reading Wattpad stories improve the Grade 12 students' reading and

writing skills?

5. What are the purposes of the Grade 12 students in using Wattpad?

Significance of the Study

The outcome of this research will be helpful to the following persons:

Students. With this research, the students will be able to know the effects of

Wattpad, whether it can be good or bad to their performance. They will be aware of the

consequences of the excessive use of Wattpad. They will be able to avoid getting

addicted to Wattpad and will not let it take over their lives. However, on the positive

perspective, some will be interested in using Wattpad for one of its advantages is it

enhances the creativity skills of an individual particularly in writing stories.

Teachers. Through this study, the teachers will also be aware of the possible

consequences of using Wattpad immoderately. They will be able to save their students

from being totally drowned on Wattpad.

Parents. This paper will provide awareness to the parents of a Wattpad user

about the effects of Wattpad to their child's performance. Through this, they will be able

to monitor on how often their child uses Wattpad and will be able to discipline if their

child cannot manage to skip a single story a day.

Non-users of Wattpad. If they have the plan to enjoy Wattpad, they will be able

to orient themselves on the possible effects of using Wattpad excessively. Otherwise

they will get interested on the significant effects of it toward one's performance.

Wattpad Readers. Some users are not aware of what possible things might

happen when using Wattpad is done unreasonably. But with this research, they will be

given awareness on how does Wattpad affect them as a being. They will be able to

assess if this is helpful or not.