The effects of using social media on the family relationships of young people in Sharqia

Praise be to God, the field study on the effects of using social media on the family relationships of young people in the Eastern Province was completed with the support of the Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi Charitable Foundation and the implementation of Aknan Al-Mashreq Company in cooperation with the Society for Awareness and Social Rehabilitation (WAI).

The main objective of the study was to determine the extent of the spread of the use of social media among Saudi youth, especially in the eastern region of the Kingdom, and its impact on the quality of their social relationship with their parents, and the extent to which parents monitor their children in the family in order to limit the disadvantages of their use of social media networks.

Several sub-goals branched out from this main goal, as follows:
▪ Identifying the extent of the spread and addiction to the use of social media by young people in the Eastern Province.
▪ Identifying the most influential social media outlets in the Eastern Region.
▪ Identify the extent of the impact of social media on society, whether negatively or positively.
▪ Identify the motives that led society to engage in these means.
▪ Identify the role of parents in monitoring and providing advice and advice to their children.
▪ Providing some recommendations that may contribute to developing a solution to the problem of penetration of social media sites in order to be able to reduce their negative effects and try to enhance the positive impact of these media in the Eastern Region.

The study research team consists of:

• Principal researcher/Dr. Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Al-Khorayef, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Head of the Department of Social Studies, King Faisal University in Al-Ahsa.
• Associate researcher/Dr. Turki bin Mashhour Al-Anazi, a member of the teaching staff at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University, Vice Dean of the Deanship of Admission and Registration.
• Associate researcher/Dr. Salwa Muhammad Al-Mahdi, associate professor of sociology at King Faisal University in Al-Ahsa.
• Associate researcher/Dr. Sherif Mohamed Al-Saeed, Assistant Professor of Social Work (Beit Al-Khibra Center).