Religious information seeking on social media in Saudi society

https://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/acir/2014/Two/3/thumbnail.jpgIslam is the official religion in Saudi Arabia. It plays a central role in people life. It has been said that Islam is more than a religion; it is a way of life. Therefore, reading and learning religious information is a habit that Saudis practice to increase their understanding of Islamic rules. In the past, most people used to learn about the religion from traditional resources such as books, journals, and TV programs. The advent of the Internet has changed information seeking behavior of people when searching for religious information. The study reports on a survey that was distributed to people in Saudi Arabia to investigate the use of social media technologies for religious information seeking. The objective is to determine if Saudis utilize social media to search for religious information and to understand their information-seeking behaviors when using such resource. Also, the study is an attempt to explore how social media affects their knowledge and learning style. Reading and learning religious information is a habit that Saudis practice to increase their understanding of Islamic rules. In the past, most people used to learn about the religion from traditional resources such as books, journals, and TV programs. With the advent of social media on the Internet, religious information and resources have become accessible through this new channel. Unfortunately, there is no study that tries to investigate the use of social media or its content in the subject of religion. Therefore, this study explores to what extent Saudis utilize social media to find religious information, and how it affects their knowledge and learning style. This is an exploratory study that applied a questionnaire (quantitative treatment) to collect data related to the population. The result of this paper is anticipated to draw a clear picture of the utilization of social media to obtain information relating to religion among people in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it is anticipated that social media use might reveal how people thoughts and believes have changed and affected. The changes might be related to the way of how people analyze information before accepting it. Social media allows people to compare information available in different resources and discuss it with others until they decide how authorized and reliable is it. This study is important because it will focus on the use of social media and its impact on the religious information seeking. Also, it will clarify the new ways of dissemination and communications of religious information. The author works in a university as an associated professor. The university is specialized in Islamic studies, so he has a clear idea of the method of leaning Islam in Saudi Arabia. He teaches in College of Computer and Information Science, which means that he has knowledge in the area of religion and technology. Also, the author is a researcher and has done many studies in related subjects.