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Evaluating the Usage of Social Medias in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Methodological Limitations and Adjustments

  • Received : 2021.12.05
  • Published : 2022.01.30

Abstract

This research aimed to provide a profound description of the practices of social media users in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), specifically the users of Facebook® (FB) and Snapchat® (SC), the reasons for these practices, decisions made, and the people involved. Such research would be of significant help to designers and policymakers of social media applications in understanding user practices when using social media applications and the reasons for such practices in the KSA. This better comprehension would be of significant help in improving current applications and creating new ones. According to the data analysis, there was a clear preference for SC over FB in the KSA. Most participants with SC accounts were described as very active users, accessing their accounts at least once a day compared to FB users. The users were led by this high preference for SC to create new words derived from the name of the application and use them in daily life. We showed our experience of carrying out a study in which the main objective was to collect factual empirical data from participants about their daily usage of social media applications while considering the unique cultural settings in the KSA. Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used to triangulate the data, increasing its trustworthiness and validity. Multiple perspectives were obtained using various data collection methods. Therefore, conclusions would not be confounded with limitations of any particular methodology or with conditions of any collection rounds. This research would constitute a valuable guide for researchers intending to use methods with male and female informants from different cultures, preparing them for potential challenges and suggesting possible solutions.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at Umm Al-Qura University for supporting this work by Grant Code:19-COM-1-02-0003.

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