Social Media Usage among University Students in Palestine: Motivation, Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Students’ perceptions, motives and challenges for utilizing social media platforms at Hebron University, Palestine will be the focus of this study. The study is conducted during the first semester of 2018/2019 academic year with a sample of 186 students (62 males and 124 females) from eight colleges of the university. The researchers structured a questionnaire from previous studies and distributed it to the participants. The results revealed that Facebook is the most popular platform among students (87.6 % of the sample have a Facebook account). Furthermore, the results indicated that knowledge-sharing is a beneficial aspect of social media as shown by students’ perceptions (62.4% of the sample are involved in groups dedicated to academic objectives). Students stressed that discussing and connecting with friends is an important motive for using social media platforms. While social media is widely used among students at Hebron University, they highlighted slow internet connection as the central challenge for a more effective exploitation of online platforms. The study underlines the significance of the social media platforms for learning purposes and subsequently recommends further development and integration of these platforms in the education system.