The Perceived Impact of Social Media on Family and Social Relationships in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This article endeavors to investigate the effect of technology adoption on the social changes acknowledged in the realms of Saudi Arabia in the context of the issue that has recently seen a ginormous usage of internet access, particularly in the last decade. Adopting a mixed methods approach, 300 young people aged between 18 and 30 years were sampled from two universities and one high school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who later took part in both questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The objective entailed implying that web browsing caused temporal shifting, thus making real-time social communication distanced, and revealing any changes in the traditional values/norms. The study indicates a significant shift in women's social relations in KSA, with internet usage allowing them to break traditional norms and alter cultural acceptance and social relationships.