Porfirio G.

Comia Memorial National High School

Barcenaga, Naujan

INFLUENCE OF WATTPAD ON GENERATION Y

Research Proposal

Submitted to:

Azriel Emmanuel U. Penaflor

Submitted by:

Cuarto, Maria Maureen Rose P.

Cuarto, Jayson B.

Jara, Carmela B.

Paradejas, Marienella M.

Matira, Francis Neil P.

Manguerra, Kinkenneth

March 5, 2020
 Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The internet had been rapidly growing as time flies by, it’s been opening a lot of new

discoveries that we’ve been experiencing in our lives. It had been also a big influence on us

especially with the youths or the so-called “millennials” who’ve been fund of using gadgets like

cellphones, tablets, etc. Their generation has been exaggeratedly influenced and connected to the

internet that becomes part of their lifestyle. This manner of the millennials proves that they are

more enhanced than the previous generation in attaching their selves on the internet.

Nonetheless, millennials still see that technologies gives better opportunity for everyone. The

exposure of millennials to online culture induces a global mindset and allows to befriend with

the people from other country. They spent their time reading and writing blogs from their life

experiences and constitute to most of the audience in social media.

With the help of technology, millennials have established their business, and flourished

them to gain impacts in their public lives. Millennials had established their own pop culture that

delivers youth power, literacy and competence. One of the reasons why millennial can’t help but

to stick on their mobile phones is Wattpad. It is a reading app that gives them great experience

and pleasure that is needed by the young generation. With its 45 million users who visited online

on a monthly basis, Wattpad seems to be the venue of millennials from different countries who

share their written stories and read by their followers. Wattpad users are reported to be 90%

millennials. (Wattpad.com/about/2017).

Due to the dominance of millennials in Wattpad, the researchers were prompted to

conduct a research in order to know why many millennials are so addicted in reading Wattpad
stories. This will investigate the Top-grossing stories in Wattpad and unravel its dominance in

millennial’s lives.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to analyze and understand the content of the top 3 grossing Wattpad

stories in order to know why millennials are so addicted with these stories.

This will specifically answer the following questions:

1. What are 3 most read stories in Wattpad?

2. What are the main reasons why millennials are so hooked with these kinds of Wattpad

stories?

3. What are the effects of Wattpad in millennials life?

Theoretical Framework of the Study

This study is related on the theory entitled “Hypodermic Needle Theory” also known as

“Magic Bullet Theory” promoted by Harold Lasswell (1920). This theory is represented by the

linear model of communication and talks about the impact of media to the audience. The theory

stated that the message of the stories is like magic bullet that shoots directly the mind of the

readers. It explains how media affect the views of its audience in their lives.

This theory is somewhat related to the present study because it also focuses with the

influence of Wattpad to its millennial readers. Since Wattpad is a website from the internet it

also has wide range influence on its reader, especially with their beliefs and attitudes.
Scope and Delimitation

The goal of this study is to know the reason why most of the millennial are so addicted in

reading Wattpad stories. This will specifically focus on the main element of the story which are

themes, characters and setting through content analysis of the 3 most read Wattpad stories

namely: He’s into Her, Four Bad Boys and Me, and My Husband is a Mafia boss.

Since, most Wattpad stories focus on the characters and the themes of the story, the

analysis will focus in knowing the profile, personality, family, friends, background and socio-

economic status as reflected in the stories. Through this research we will be able to identify the

reason why most millennials are so addicted on Wattpad.

Significance of the Study

This study will benefit the following:

Millennial. This study will help them know why Wattpad has a big impact on their life.

This will help them understand why they can’t help their when it comes to reading Wattpad

stories.

Wattpad writers. This study will help them to know what kind of stories they should

write. This will be helpful for them to know the interest of their readers.

Students. This study will help them to know the latest trend in the generation. It will also

give them some background about what life is all about in this generation.
 Teachers. This study will help them to know the literary interest of their students. This

can also serve a big help to know how to catch the attention of their students.

Parents. This study will inform them with the latest trend of the generation. This will also

help them to adjust in the environment of their society.

Future Researchers. This will serve as guide in conducting content analysis.

Definition of Terms

For the purpose of clarity and understanding, the following terms are defined

conceptually and operationally:

Content Analysis. Is a flexible research method for analyzing, describing and interpreting

text and written artifacts of a society. (White & Marsh, 2006). Since content analysis making

inferences from the text to the contexts of their use by using analytical constructs derived from

theories or researches, researchers adapt content analysis to their research questions and develop

range of techniques and approaches for analyzing text (Krippendorff, 2003).

In this study, content analysis is used as a method wherein the researcher will analyze the

top 3 grossing Wattpad stories, considering its content, its character traits and its theme.

Millennial. Denoting or relating to a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st

century.

In this study, millennial refers to the young who are fond of reading Wattpad stories

using their gadgets.

 Wattpad. A reading app wherein many stories have been posted by a writer for their

followers to read.

In this study, Wattpad is referred as an online platform wherein the top 3 grossing stories

were taken.
 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RELATED STUDIES

This chapter will present the related review of literature and studies. The topics that will

be discussed are particularly about millennial, brief history of Wattpad, top 3 grossing Wattpad

stories, and influences of Wattpad.

Related Literature

Millennials

Known as the Y generation or the Net Generation, the demographic cohort that follows

generation X. Millennials usually refer to an individual who reached their adulthood around 21st

century. (Haughn, 2015).

In this page posted by Rouse (2015), she stated that according Iconoclast, a consumer

research firm, the first millennials were born 1978. In Newsweek Magazine reported that

millennials were born between 1977 and 1994. In another article, New York Times pegged

millennials at 1976 and 2000. As they summed it up the earliest proposed birthdate for

millennials is 1976 and the latest is 2004. Given that a familial generation in developed nations

lies between 25 and 30 years, she reasonably considered as start and endpoints.

In addition, she stated that there is a great deal of variation from one individual to another

within any generational group. Nevertheless, the environment for any generation affects those

individuals in ways that are observable as broad tendencies. This definition of terms discusses

those record tendencies for millennials in the workplace, technology, and culture.
Brief History of Wattpad

In 2006, was cofounded by Lau and Yuen in November 2006. The idea behind the

company was that the readers could download app to read and chat about fiction shared by

professional and aspiring writers from around the world. In 2007, Wattpad’s idea for digital

reading came before Kindle and iPhone. In 2010, Wattpad bootstrapped for more than three

years before quietly raising a modest seed round. In 2011, Wattpad hit one million users. Its app

had five million downloads supporting 1000 phone models from 600 mobile operators. In 2012,

Wattpad won Best overall Canadian Startup Awards to start 2012. The company announced

users were spending a billion minutes on the service per month. In the summer, Wattpad raised

$17.3 million. PwC awarded the 2012 Innovator of the Year Award. The Canadian Exchange

aimed it one of the year’s most innovative companies. In 2013, Wattpad celebrated it’s seventh

birthday by launching a new feature called Stories, which profiles people whose lives have been

transformed by stories. Eight years and four rounds of funding it, Wattpad started monetizing its

platform. In 2015, Lau was one of the finalists for the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Canadian

startup awards, while Wattpad was a finalist for employer of the year. At the turn of the year,

users were spending a combine 11 billion minutes on the platform. Now they spent 13 billion

minutes (techvibes.com,2017).

Overview of He’s into Her

Do you ever believe in love at first sight? How about hatred at first met? This is how our

Maxpein Zin Del Valle-Moon and Deib Lohr first met. But will these haters turn into lovers?

Maxpein is a 3rd year high school transferee student, chubby, cool, great dancer, and

mysterious. She’s with her best buddy Zarnaih Marchessa. While, Deib Lohr is the grandson of
the owner of the Brint International School. Famous, handsome, charismatic, 4th timer MVP of

their school’s basketball team. His friends are Lee Roi Gozon, and Yakiro Tobi Yanai.

Everything started with a glare. In their first meeting Max gave Deib her most famous

death glare which made Deib furious and as a revenge he tripped her which made her stumble on

the floor. Deib is a well-known bully in their school but can Maxpein change his reputation as

school bully into the school’s lover boy.

Overview of Four Bad Boys and Me

This a story of a weird, nerdy girl named Candice Gonzales living a simple life until four

bad boys came and bring chaos to her peaceful life. Candice hate those boys except her said to be

“prince charming” named Marky Lim the dreamy, talented, and charming member of the group.

Trying to get close to her crush the king of the bad boys came to bully her one day. He is Jeydon

“doraemon” Lopez the most handsome, arrogant, playboy of the group. Is it possible for Candice

to have a happy ending with her prince charming? Or will she experience more chaotic life

brought by the bad boys?

Overview of My Husband is a Mafia Boss

Aemie Ferrer- childish, slowpoke, exaggerated, accident prone, sweet, charming,

friendly, and immature. Ezekiel Roswell- mature, serious, strict, bossy, snob, a perfect decision-

maker, unfriendly, and treat everyone as his competitor. What if the two of them met and an

unexpected wedding? Will they prove that opposite really attract? Or will they prove us wrong?

How can Aemie live her life as a wife of a Mafia Boss? Can Mr. Roswell handle Aemie the

attitude of her slowpoke wife?

Influence of Wattpad

In that blog of Gabinete (2016), she wrote that most teens are engaged in Wattpad

because is an app that can easily accessed, and the best part of this is that it contains many

beautiful love stories that can be read even during class hours by the students without getting

caught by the teacher because phones are easier to hide than books. But it is not always safe to

do this because some teacher has great eyes who can caught you in action.

Wattpad is not just an app for readers to read but also for the aspiring writers who wants

to share their talents. If the readers are of reading, they can write their own stories that comes

from their own innocent mind and imagination. Some teens who writes stories puts their own

experiences and feelings in their stories.

Wattpad connects the readers and its writers and allows us to make friends from people

around the world and share a lifelong friendship through Wattpad. The app’s design influences

the pacing, structure and style of writing which challenges the writer. Wattpad form subgroups

where its main members are the writer and the reader of their story. This group become a fans-

club which readers ask for updates of the story, comment on the plot-twists. The relationship

between writer and reader will maintain their personal connections with fans will be critical in

determining how successful a writer is in digital age. Writers in Wattpad are considered

professional in terms of the care and commitment they invest in their work. That is what makes

them professional, not the deal between the publishing company and the writer. Wattpad draws

more audience through adding more features like comic books, graphic novels, recipes, travel

diaries, and fashion blogs. Fans of Wattpad create ambiance for the remix culture which enables

them to create book-trailers, fan-art, story cover and social media accounts entitled for the
fictional characters of their favorite stories. Through Wattpad many emerging were discovered

by publishing companies. Wattpad also influenced the writers to earn money through inserting

ads between chapters of their stories. Wattpad also influences film, television, print and digital as

to the fact being the main source of pursuing these things. Millennials find a cure for their

boredom, it’s through reading or writing Wattpad stories. For most Wattpad users they were

influenced with different aspects in the society. (Matharu, 2013).

Related Studies

In the study of Haughn (2015), entitled Millennials and Technology, he said that the

present generation grew up with computers, the internet and the graphical user interface.

Millennials are generally comfortable with the idea of a public internet life. Privacy in the

millennials’ eye is mostly a concern of a functional settings limiting who sees their online shares.

This comfort with social media means they are good at self-promotion and fostering connections

through online media. Bu this approach often results in an issue when comparing themselves to

others. In schooling, technology focuses mostly in increasing the programming. Millennials can

also be too dependent on the internet in terms of learning how to do some things. When their

computers or devices are not in good terms, they often need some assistance to fix and correct

the issue without the help of the internet. In contrast, the technically inclined members of

Generation X may have starts when electronics were hobby kits are self-built computers

unquestionably. This starting point often means Generation X has deeper understanding in terms

of programming and hardware issues.

In the study the “Wattyfever”: Constructs of Readers on Wattpad’s Role in their Lives

(Contreras, Gonzaga, Trovela and Kagaoan, 2015) the researchers found out that Wattpad has
taken a part of the writer and its readers life. Wattpad seems to be playing a big role not just for

reading but also in gratifying participants’ emotional cognitive and wants. Aside from being an

online library of fiction stories, Wattpad also imparts on proving the reader its significance can

be applied.

In the study Effect of Wattpad to the Academic performance of CAS Students of

CARAGA State University by Jaguit (2014), the researcher discovered that most of the

respondents from College of Arts and Sciences read Wattpad. The researcher also discovered

that most of the respondents read Wattpad once a week and it also shows that on that week most

student read Wattpad for just an hour. In this study, it indicates that Wattpad doesn’t have any

effect on the academic performance of the students. There are also some of the respondent’s

academic performance have been affected and also a few of them read for more than 3 hours a

day but as a result, only few of them has failed their academic performance because of reading

Wattpad. It also shows that most of the respondents says that Wattpad makes them lost their time

to study but only 12 students have low GPA last semester. Most of them have good performance

in their studies. There were no proofs that Wattpad affect their academic performances.
 Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This research will use the qualitative method of research. A qualitative method of

research refers the holistic approach that involves discovery. It includes purposeful use for

describing, explaining, and interpreting and collecting data (Williams, 2007).

Research Method

3 Wattpad Stories

Theoretical Perspective

Methodology

Ethnography of Survey Research

Methods

Character Transcription Theme

Coding Identification

Reasons

Figure 1: Framework of the Study

The framework of the study shows the different methods to be used in analyzing the 3 most read

Wattpad stories. Content analysis refers to the interpretation of text data through a process of

coding and identifying themes or patterns, with the actual approaches ranging from

impressionistic, intuitive, and interpretive analyses to systematic quantitative textual analyses

(Hseih & Shannon, 2005). This will be used to scrutinize the content of the 3 Wattpad stories in

the aspect of characters which will focus on personality/ character traits and physical attributes,

and theme. To unlock the commonalities of characters’ profile and theme, a cross tab analysis

will be done through a frequency count. The researchers will then arrive at the implications/

generalization of the characters’ profile and theme through symbolisms. Symbolism refers to a

practice of representation that provides the reader with the meaning that goes beyond what is

obviously signified. It seeks to unveil the symbolic message conveyed by text by establishing

direct correlations between creative writing and critical reading (Munyangeyo, 2003). All of

these methods will be used in order to identify the reasons why millennials are hooked in reading

Wattpad stories.

Data Source

The data to be gathered for this study will be from the 3 most read Wattpad stories,

namely: He’s into Her, The Four Bad Boys And Me, and My Husband Is A Mafia Boss. These

stories will be subject to content analysis in the aspects of characters and theme.

Data Gathering Procedures

To provide an in depth analysis of the 3 most read Wattpad stories, the researchers will

do a critical reading of the given stories, and using their knowledge on literary analysis, they will

identify the basic elements of the short story, focusing more on the characters and theme. After

which, the profile of the characters will be identified, and the theme will be analyzed. The
commonalities of the characters and the theme and their symbolisms will also be considered.

Once these analyses are done, the researchers will arrive to their generalization of the

implications given by the character profiling and theme as to the reasons why millennials are

hooked in reading Wattpad stories.

 Chapter 4

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the research findings of the data collected from the case study samples. The

main source of data is the interview and is also supplemented by library research. The findings

will be presented in relation to the research objectives stated in the study. The method used to

analyze the data is already discussed in the methodology chapter.

4.2 DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE INTERVIEWEES

4.2.1 Categories of Interviewees

Out of 8 respondents, 5 were women while 4 other were men. Approaching women respondent

was easier as they are willing to be interviewed in a short notice compared to men respondents.

Table 4.1 Category of informants

Informants Number Age

Male 3 15-18
Female 5 15-18

Table 4.1 provides data on the categories of informant interviewed according to gender

and age. Normally at the indicated age range, many of individual must have read stories from

Wattpad, hence the researcher chose that particular age range.

The researcher discovered that with 8 respondents, the data gathered is saturated. This means, the

researcher sees a similar pattern in the interviewees’ responses. Further collection of new data

won’t necessarily contribute to a new discovery of the issue. According to Ritchie et al., it is best

to simply to gather data until theoretical saturation is reached. 1 There is a point of diminishing

return to a qualitative sample—as the study goes on more data does not necessarily lead to more
information.2 These individuals are the individuals involved during the field work interviews

and their opinions were extracted and explained accordingly.

4.3 RESEARCH FINDINGS

4.3.1 Introduction

This part of the chapter presents the finding and analyses the data obtained from the individual

interviewees on the effects of Wattpad on generation Y. The data were extracted and analyzed

according to the objective of the study.

4.3.2 Effects of Wattpad on generation Y.

To know the top 3 most read Wattpad stories.

The top read story in Wattpad is entitled He’s into Her its genre is romantic comedy with a bit of

action. It’s about a rich guy who bullies the transferees in their school every year, but that year

seem to be different from the past years because he fell in love with his victim. Next on the line

for the most read story in Wattpad is The Four Bad Boys and Me, this story is about a nerdy girl

whose peaceful world because of the four bad boys who came to her life unexpectedly. The 3rd

most read Wattpad story is My Husband is a Mafia Boss, this tells the story of an innocent girl

who suddenly become a wife a quick-tempered mafia boss.

Main reasons why millennials are so hooked with this type of stories.

Many millennials have been so hooked with this type of story because it’s a cliché story it still

gave a big impact to the readers. They love romantic comedy stories because it is not boring to

read, in addition from my interview they said that their imagination became so active when it

comes to Wattpad reading that’s why most of them prefer reading than watching.

Effects of Wattpad in millennials life.

Wattpad gives different effects on millennials. It both have positive and negative effects, but this

will focus mostly on the positive effects of reading Wattpad. According to the interview we’ve

conducted:

I’ve been reading Wattpad for 2 years and it gives me satisfaction and happiness,
it helps me to forget my problems and improve language proficiency.

Other says: I’ve been reading for almost 6 years and it helps me to relieve
my stress. It also inspires to write my own story.
4.4 CONCLUSIONS

This chapter has included all findings and thoroughly analyses the findings. The results show

that Wattpad had a great effect on its reader. However, this effect benefits them a lot because

they improve their vocabulary, develop imagination and improve grammar. Somehow, it also

some good health benefits because it relieves stress and divert our emotion into a happy one.

Chapter 5
 CONCLUSION, INTERPRETATION & DISCUSSION

Introduction

The following chapter concludes this report. A summary of the research is presented,
and findings of the study are discussed and interpreted. The significance of this research in the
effect of Wattpad to its reader is determined. Recommendations for further research end the
chapter.

The scope of the following conclusions is limited to the context of the top 3 most read
Wattpad stories. Thus, applied to other situations, these conclusions may yield incorrect
assumptions. Still, these conclusions are relevant to the process of dwelling evolution in
progressive development projects.

5.1 Summary of Research

This research determined the top 3 most read stories in Wattpad. The literature review
focuses mostly on the behaviors of millennials who are addicted in Wattpad. It was found that
based in the interview that we’ve conducted with Wattpad readers many of them says that
Wattpad has so many good benefits to them.

Research was undertaken on a15-18-year-old high school student who’s fund of

reading Wattpad. The intention was to observe the effect of Wattpad on how millennials
behave nowadays. The study shows that there really is a big impact on how millennials
behave.

5.2 Discussion and Interpretation of Findings

As we go further on our research, we conducted a content analysis on the top 3 most

read Wattpad stories to determine why millennials are so hooked with all these cliché Wattpad
stories, and in our observation, we noticed that even the stories are almost has the same
endings it has its big twist in the midpart of the story.

After having the content analysis, we conducted our interview to those students who
read Wattpad. We asked about the effects of Wattpad in their lives and it seems that Wattpad
had positive effects in their lives.

5.3 Significance of the Study

This study will benefit the following:

Millennial. This study will help them know why Wattpad has a big impact on their life.

This will help them understand why they can’t help their when it comes to reading Wattpad

stories.

Wattpad writers. This study will help them to know what kind of stories they should

write. This will be helpful for them to know the interest of their readers.

Students. This study will help them to know the latest trend in the generation. It will also

give them some background about what life is all about in this generation.

Teachers. This study will help them to know the literary interest of their students. This

can also serve a big help to know how to catch the attention of their students.

Parents. This study will inform them with the latest trend of the generation. This will also

help them to adjust in the environment of their society.

Future Researchers. This will serve as guide in conducting content analysis.

5.4 Recommendations for Further Research

Based on the results of the study conducted ,there are some things that we want to

recommend to you about Wattpad and these are:

Students and Non- Wattpad readers are recommended to try reading Wattpad, In Wattpad

you can learn things unconsciously and enjoy things at the same time. You can read any stories

or simply genre that you want, anything that suits your interests or likes. You can also relate to
the things that are new in this generation. By having this kind of application or book, this may

help you change, like a new version of you. Learn a lesson that you can apply in your life, maybe

it`s the only way or solution to your longing unreasonable problem. But minimize it or use your

time in a good way. For example if you have projects or bonding with family, you must stop for

a while and do what we must do. Read Wattpad for good purposes and not for bad purpose that

can harm your study.

Parents are recommended to guide their children who are also a Wattpad reader. And,

Future researchers are recommended to explore more of this research.

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