The relationship between the uses of new media among Egyptian and Saudi female student and their psychosocial consistency

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant professor Faculty of Postgraduate Studies of Childhood - Ain Shams University

Abstract

The Web 2.0 with its social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Myspace have created a virtual interactive environment, which attracted a large number of users regardless of their geographical, ethnic, gender, political, religious and economic differences. Social media has taken much of the time and attention of all segments of society particularly youth. Arab societies in particular have witnessed a huge increase in social media users partially due to the low-level of freedom permitted. This study aims to understand the social and psychological impact of the heavy use of new media through focusing on social isolation and dissatisfaction with body image as aspects of psychosocial impact. This study uses survey and comparison methods to assess new media impact. The researcher distributed questionnaires on 240 university students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The study showed that Saudi students use of new media is significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts. Saudi students felt that new media gave them more freedom to establish fraud identities online and enjoy high level of freedom away from social restrictions. Saudi students had more opportunity to use the new media due to the free internet availability at their universities.

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