Relationship between the Syrian (Z) Generation's Use of Social Media Sites and Achieving Its Social Presence

Abstract

The research sought to monitor the relationship between the Syrian (Z) generation's use of social media sites and achieving its social presence. The (Z) generation refers to individuals who were born between 1995 and 2006; i.e. the age group whose individuals are between 18 – 29 years of age at the present time, by applying it on 258 individuals.

One of the most important findings of the study is that the degree to which the members of the Syrian (Z) generation use social media sites is high with a 77.1%, and Facebook is the most used site among them. While the degree to which the respondents achieve their social presence, resulting from using social media sites is moderate with a 55.4%. Therefore, there is a weak relationship between the degree to which the respondents use social media

sites and achieve their social presence.

The study shows that the clarity of personal traits is the first dimension of the social presence that intrigues the respondents, followed by the statements related to the ability of social media sites to help the Syrian (Z) generation members express themselves and their feelings. As a result of the respondents' tendency to use the interactive services such as chat, voice calls, or video calls, they feel that their friends are near them despite their physical distance. These services also provide a feeling of intimacy emerging from the relief during contacting friends via these sites and the ability to form social relationships with people they have never met.

The findings concluded that there were non-significant differences among members of the study sample in the degree to which they use social media sites and achieve their social presence according to the gender, and there were no significant differences among members of the study samples in the degree to which they achieve their social presence according to the education level, while there were significant differences in the degree of using social media sites according to the education level, for the favor of the less educated groups, i.e., the basic education certificate and below and the secondary education groups.