A student council wants to understand social media usage patterns among students at their high school. They believe that Instagram is the most popular platform. To investigate this, they conduct a survey with the following method:
1. They post a link to an online survey on the school’s Instagram account.
2. The survey asks: “How many hours per day do you spend on different social media platforms?”
3. 200 students respond to the survey.
Here are the results in the table below:
| Platform | Avg Daily Usage (hrs) | Standard Deviation (hrs) |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 | 1.2 | |
| TikTok | 2.1 | 1.5 |
| Snapchat | 1.8 | 1.0 |
| 0.5 | 0.8 |
The student council concludes that Instagram is indeed the most popular social media platform among students.
1. Calculate the total average daily social media usage across all platforms.
2. Create a bar graph representing the average daily usage for each platform.
3. Identify at least three potential sources of bias in this survey method.
4. Explain how these biases might affect the survey results and the conclusion drawn.
5. Suggest two improvements to the survey method to get more accurate results.
6. Based on the given data, calculate the percentage of total social media time spent on Instagram. Do you think this percentage accurately represents the entire student body? Why or why not?
1. Total average daily social media usage:
2.5 + 2.1 + 1.8 + 0.5 = 6.9 hours
2. Bar graph: (See SVG diagram below)
3. Potential sources of bias:
a) Selection bias: The survey was only posted on Instagram, potentially excluding students who don’t use Instagram or use it less frequently.
b) Self-reporting bias: Students may not accurately report their usage time, either overestimating or underestimating.
c) Response bias: Students who are more active on social media might be more likely to respond to the survey.
4. Effects of biases on results and conclusion:
– The sample may over-represent Instagram users, inflating its apparent popularity.
– Heavy social media users might be overrepresented, leading to higher average usage times for all platforms.
– The conclusion might not be representative of the entire student body, as non-Instagram users are less likely to be included.
5. Improvements to the survey method:
a) Distribute the survey through multiple channels (e.g., email, school website, announcements) to reach a more diverse group of students.
b) Use a random sampling method to select participants from the entire student body.
c) Include questions about non-usage to account for students who don’t use certain platforms.
6. Percentage of total social media time spent on Instagram:
Instagram usage / Total usage = 2.5 / 6.9 ≈ 36.23%
This percentage likely doesn’t accurately represent the entire student body because:
– The survey method favors Instagram users.
– Students who don’t use Instagram or use it less might be underrepresented.
– The sample size (200) may not be large enough to represent the entire school population accurately.
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