Exploring the Opinion Sharing Patterns among Social Media users in Pakistan

Abstract

The spiral of silence theory described that when majority opinion is dominant the minority opinion is not expressed. For the last five decades, the theory of the spiral of silence describes social separation due to minority opinions. The fear of isolation has made individuals frightened in exchanging their opinions. The people who have opinions in minority are the main actors feared from isolation. In today’s world, the internet has shown rapid developments in the form of new media, and day by day users are getting attracted to this new technology. This study is an effort to determine the level of effects of the spiral of silence on the young generation of Pakistan. This research focuses on the spiral of silence and the way people are expressing their opinions. This research is quantitative study. A Survey of 1099 respondents has been done through purposive sampling. Opinion sharing is a dependent variable whereas exposure to social media, fear of isolation, willingness to speak, and climate of opinion are independent variables. Regression analysis was applied to check the connection of independent variables with opinion sharing behavior of the social media users. This research uses the spiral of silence theory in relation to the social media usage patterns of its users. The study indicates that the relationship between dependent and independent variables is strong.