The role of social media in shaping social awareness among university students

Abstract

Media outlets are keen to focus on the topic of social awareness among young people, particularly university students, as they are pillars of the family and the future of the nation. Social media platforms play a significant role in the development of human societies across diverse cultures and beliefs. They meet the needs and interests of the public in general, and youth in particular, across various aspects of life. These platforms contribute to solving social problems faced by young people through the information they provide, as well as through discussions, analysis, and the identification of appropriate solutions. Considering this, social media can elevate the cultural, intellectual, and scientific levels of society, in addition to providing a vast amount of diverse information that various entities can utilize and translate into services for the human community. Given the importance of social media, the researchers formulated the research problem around the central question: What is the role of social media in shaping social awareness among university students? The research aims to achieve several objectives, the most important of which are:

1. To reveal the extent to which social media contributes to shaping social awareness among university students.
2. To monitor the social issues presented by social media to university students.
3. To identify the social content provided by social media that helps in strengthening societal cohesion.
4. To uncover the degree to which university students rely on social media to learn about social issues.
5. To explore the extent to which social content on social media contributes to strengthening family relationships.

The research reached several conclusions, including:

1. The results indicated that the respondents extensively use social media.
2. University students focus on understanding the country's situation more than other topics, as it is a critical issue that concerns them, given the social, political, and security challenges the country faces, along with the difficult social conditions experienced by many individuals.
3. The responses from the research sample indicated that social media presents social issues of interest to youth in an irregular manner.
4. The respondents clearly confirmed that there is an interest among social media users in producing social content that helps strengthen societal cohesion.
5. The respondents clearly highlighted the weak contribution of social media users in strengthening family relationships within Iraqi society.
6. The youth emphasized the inability of social media to effectively reevaluate and present social traditions and customs in a satisfactory manner, due to the lack of emphasis on social values and norms in Iraqi society, as well as the failure to expose deviations from the societal value system and moral and intellectual deviations.