The Impact of Excessive Social Media Use on Adolescents' Social Relationships

Abstract

The researcher aims, through conducting this study, to examine the impact of excessive use of social media platforms on the social relationships of adolescents. The study also seeks to identify the main purposes behind adolescents' use of social networks and the significance they attach to having these applications on their phones. This was investigated through a simple random sample consisting of 123 students from post-basic education schools in the Wilayat of Seeb, Muscat Governorate, Sultanate of Oman. The data and results obtained from this sample were used to measure the phenomenon under study, answer the research questions, and test the main and sub-hypotheses. The research problem lies in the extent to which real face-to-face interaction is being replaced by interaction through social media platforms. The researcher adopted the inductive scientific research approach to address the research questions. The study concluded with a number of findings and recommendations, the most important of which revealed that adolescents are significantly engaged in spending extended periods on social media platforms. This is evident from the high response rate to the statement: "I feel an urgent need to frequently check my social media accounts," which received the highest relative weight of 3.85 among the items in the questionnaire. This serves as an indicator of excessive social media use. Furthermore, the results showed that adolescents primarily use social networks for beneficial purposes. The most significant goal, from the participants' perspective, was "helping to obtain academic information."This statement ranked first within its category, with a relative weight of 4.25. Over half of the sample (56.9%) strongly agreed with this statement, in addition to 23.6% who agreed, indicating that adolescents are aware of the value of their time and use social media for specific, purposeful benefits.