Facebook usage among Arabic college students: preliminary findings on gender differences

With immense popularity and candid participation, Facebook shows a greater potential in developing customer communities, promoting online presence, advertising, and customizing services/products. Despite its popularity, research on Facebook in particular and social networking sites in general is far behind the practice. Particularly, research outside the western countries is very limited. With the young generation of Arabic world embarking on Internet, social networking sites, e.g., Facebook, have been used as a main arena for their identity construction, and relationship development, playing a vital role in shaping future society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide descriptive information about the use of Facebook by Arabic college students with a focus on gender differences in motivations and perceived consequences of Facebook usage.