The Role of Social Media in Proliferating Violent Behavior Among College Students in District Layyah, Pakistan

Abstract

The usage of social media is the biggest catalyst that causes behavioral transitions among the younger age cohort. In the recent era of digitalization, the youth especially college students are addicted to various social media apps such as Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter, Whats app, and Youtube. This younger age bracket used digital media to watch violent-based entertainment content, pornographies, and video games. Aligning this,cross-sectional survey research design was conducted in the four registered colleges of Layyah, Pakistan. A total sample size of N=263 respondents was selected through a de-facto method. Questionnaire was used as a tool for the data collection process. The responses of the participants were gathered and analyzed through SPSS Version-21. The findings of the study revealed that the younger students above the age of 18 years i.e. n=157 (59.7%), who belonged to the nuclear family system(n=123, 46.8%), had low parental education (n=53, 20.2%), and had a family income of ?30,000PKR (n=96, 36.5%) were more involved in the usage of social media apps which proliferates their violent behavioral conduct. Moreover, playing violent video games (n=210, 79.8%), watching action-based movies (n=217, 82.5%), destruction of someone's possessions (n=164, 62.4%), and watchinga person shooting (n=177, 67.3%) were the major parameters that played an imperative role in amplifying the violent behavior among college students. In conclusion, to share carrier goals, information, innovations, and methods of expression, students used social media sites for various action-based audio-visual content. The vigilance provided by the parents along with college administration and teachers can help to mitigate the role of social media in proliferating violence among youth in the study context.