Social effects of social networking sites

Abstract

Over the past years, the various effects of social networking sites (SNS) have drawn attention to their positives and negatives.Through a brief review of 139 Arab and western studiesfrom 2009 to 2019, thepositive social effects of SNS represented in facilitating communication with others, maintaining the old social relationships and getting social support. Moreover, SNS help in escaping from social isolation and enhance voluntary activities. A few studies showed that SNS do not pose a threat to marital relationships and help in initiating romantic relationships. However, it was found that SNS reduce users’ privacy and social skills, increase the probability of family disintegration, cause conflicts between parents and their children, increase marital dissatisfaction and jealousy. Moreover, using SNS encourages marital infidelity. To contribute to this discussion, we formulated an executive proposal that defines the roles of different institutions and the proposed messages to enhance the positives of SNS and rationalize their negatives.