The Digital Family in A Traditional Society

Abstract

This thesis examines the implications of using social media in family communication in Saudi society. Specifically, it explores whether there are any perceived changes in family relations in Saudi Arabia due to the relatively recent shift to allow wider access to the Internet and the proliferation of social media applications. This study's focus was to provide an in-depth investigation of the Saudi young and parents' attitude towards increasing social media use for communication within the family set up. The research question that guided the entire research was based on how social media has impacted family communication leading to the different attitudes exhibited by the young and parents. The study used a multi-stage research design that takes the form of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. During the survey process, 818 participants were given an opportunity to express their opinions in the questionnaires distributed to them. Of the 818 participants, there were 103 parents, and 515 young Saudis from 18 to 25 years old. In the interviews, 15 parents and 15 young people were asked about their attitudes towards using social media in family communication and about the implications of them on their family relations. The study results found that half of the participants believe that the use of social media in family communication is easy and that this ease had improved their ability to reinforce their relationships with their family members. Moreover, about half of the participants said that the use of social media had developed their family communication skills. The majority of the participants agreed that they liked to use social media to connect with their family. Moreover, findings indicate that the more frequent utilisation of social media by participants confirms that social media gives them the opportunity to reinforce bonds with their families. Furthermore, visual communication through social media enables participants to clearly communicate their ideas and feelings. The majority of parents agreed that frequent communicating across social media reduced face-to-face communication among family members though a large number of youths felt that communicating with their parents via social media was the same as doing so directly. Parents also agreed with the young participants that social media has changed family decision-making in Saudi family and Saudi women are getting more empowered in making decisions regarding some areas of their lives. Another advantage found that social media communication saves family time in doing daily tasks.