Abstract
The research aimed to determine the knowledge degree of the rural youth respondents about social media, the extent to which they use them, the motivations for their use, and the degree to which these means contribute to the development of: social, economic, political, cultural, religious, sports, educational, and environmental awareness among the respondents. Finally, the negative effects resulting from their use of these means and their suggestions to overcome these effects.
The research was conducted on a sample of 150 rural youth respondents who were randomly selected from three villages in the Sidi Salem Distrect, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. The questionnaire was used by personal interview to collect data from the respondents during November and December 2022 AD, after collecting the data, it was transcribed and analyzed statistically. Using frequencies, percentages, and weighted average.
the most important results were as follows:
• Nearly three-fifths of the respondents (58.7%) have a high level of knowledge about social media, the most important of which are Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
• Nearly half of the respondents (45.3%) have a high level of use of social media, with the highest use being Facebook and WhatsApp.
• More than two-thirds of the respondents (67.3%) see that the level of contribution of social media in developing political awareness is average, while 78.7% of them see that the level of its contribution to developing their cultural awareness is high, religious awareness by 72%, and sports awareness by 72%. 66%, educational awareness 69.3%, and environmental awareness 62%.