Perception and Use of Social Networking Sites among Undergraduate Students in Kuwait

Social networking is increasingly attracting the attention and interest of academics and researchers in the US and Europe. However, there is little research done outside these areas, especially in the Middle East and Arab countries. This paper aims to assess the perception and use of social networking sites (SNS) among university students in the state of Kuwait, and study their positive and negative impacts. The results showed a heavy use of Twitter and Facebook among university students who were viewing their sites more frequently than posting. The most positive impacts were better relation with family and friends and more involvement in social, political and cultural activities. Neglecting study/work and the time consumed are the two major drawbacks. The findings showed some lack of experience with social networking beyond entertainment, which confirms the need to educate students on the benefits of SNS and the quality of information found on these sites. Privacy issues should also be raised since the majority of students (70%) had uncontrolled accounts.