Thesis (Ph.D)-Cairo University, 2025.

Bibliography: pages 209-175.

Background: Mass media has a tremendous social influence on people that play an important role in constructing attitude, behaviors and audience-perspective of life. Numerous platforms have been issued to gratify different needs of the users. University students use social media widely for academic and non-academic purposes. Although the use of social media can be useful in many aspects such as getting information, entertainment, keeping in touch and self-satisfaction, heavy users may suffer from negative effects on their study and psychological health. The present study has been done on Egyptian university students to assess different social and psychological motives to use social media applying Needs-based theories such as “Use and Gratifications theory” and “Social Cognitive theory” as a theoretical framework. Method: A mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approach was used. Quantitative survey was carried out via self-rate questionnaires on 200 participants building four independent constructs (motives for information acquisition, entertainment, social interactions and self-satisfaction) and one dependent construct (social media interaction) and four mediators (gender, educational level, type of study and GPA rank). The questionnaires are distributed and collected through Google Forms and statistically analyzed using SPSS version 20 and StataMP software. Also, t-test and ANOVA test were used to assess the statistical differences between average social media users and heavy users on psychological aspects according to demographic characteristics. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with experts in sociology and psychology. Results: About 86.5% of participants spent more than 2 hours per day on social media. WhatsApp was the most platform used by the respondents particularly for communication and to keep-in-touch while X (former Twitter) was the least used platform. Students valued privacy and credibility during social media usage. There were statistically significant differences between average users and heavy users on participants’ psychological aspects. Most average users revealed a sense of life satisfaction, social support and extroverted personality while heavy users exhibited feeling of loneliness, angry personality and narcissistic features. Findings regarding “Pearson’s correlation coefficients” and regression weights in “Structural Equation Modeling” revealed significant positive correlations and direct positive impacts of motives for information acquisition, entertainment and social interaction on social media interaction. However, a negative direct impact of motives for self-satisfaction on social media interaction was detected. Positive indirect impacts of “year of the study” and “GPA rank” added to the direct impact of information acquisition on social media interactions. While “GPA rank” featured a positive indirect impact of entertainment on social media interactions, “year of the study” demonstrated a negative indirect impact of social communication on social media interactions. The extended in-depth interview with the sociologist pointed to the ideal responses made by the participants during surveys and questionnaires. In addition, the phenomenon of banality is obvious by content creators in social media platforms. On the other hand, the psychologist attributed the psychological effects by social media are a result of the in-built of psychological features and silent traits within individuals which appear in suitable fertile place like social media. Conclusion: Motives for information acquisition, entertainment and social interaction drive Egyptian university students to overuse social media platforms. Motives for self-satisfaction show no role in social media use. Overuse affects psychological feelings regarding loneliness, life satisfaction and social support as well as personality traits. While “gender” and “type of the study” revealed no indirect impacts as mediators, “the year of the study” and “GPA rank” established indirect impacts of some motives on social media interactions.

اتجهت الدراسة الحالية إلى تقييم الدوافع الاجتماعية والنفسية لاستخدام وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي لطلاب الجامعة في إطار نظريات الإعلام المتعلقة بالدوافع مثل نظرية الاستخدامات والإشباع ونظرية الإدراج الاجتماعي للتحقق من افتراضيات بحثية خلصت من مراجعة الإنتاج الأدبي المتعلق بموضوع البحث. تمت الدراسة الكمية على عينة عمدية من طلاب جامعة القاهرة ممن يستخدمون مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي بصفة يومية عن طريق استبانة تضم أربع متغيرات مستقلة وتنقسم إلى دوافع الحصول على المعرفة ودوافع التسلية ودوافع التواصل المجتمعي وكذلك دوافع إرضاء النفس مقابل متغير تابع وهو استخدام وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي في وجود متغيرات وسيطة فرعية. تم توزيع الاستبانة وتجميعه عن طريقGoogle forms واستخدمت برامج الإحصاء SPSS version 20 and StataMp في إيجاد النتائج الإحصائية وتمت مقابلات متعمقة مع أساتذة جامعيين متخصصين في علم الاجتماع وفي علم النفس لمناقشة بعض نتائج الدراسة. وتبين من نتائج البحث أن نسية مرتفعة من الطلبة يستخدمون مواقع التواصل لأكثر من ساعتين يوميا وخاصة تطبيق WhatsApp للتواصل ومنصةTikTok للتسلية ونادرا موقعX (former Twitter) وأظهرت النتائج الإحصائية وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية بين المستخدم المعتدل والمستخدم الشديد من حيث النواحي النفسية ووجود علاقات طردية وتأثير مباشر ذات دلالة بين دوافع الحصول على المعرفة ودوافع التسلية ودوافع التفاعل المجتمعي وبين معدل استخدام وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي وتبين أن صناع المحتوى في المنصات المختلفة مثلTikTok تتسم بالسطحية والتفاهة من أجل زيادة نسبة المشاهدة والتربح وأن الشعور بالوحدة والرضا عن الحياة وكذلك الصفات الشخصية هي سمات موجودة في داخل الأشخاص قبل استخدام وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي والتي تعتبر أرض خصبة وجو ملائم لتكثيف تلك المشاعر والصفات مثل الشخصية الغاضبة والنرجسية.

Issues also as CD.

Text in English and abstract in Arabic & English.