العلاقة بين تصفح صور مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي و المقارنة الاجتماعية لدى المتصفحين السعوديين : دراسة ميدانية

Abstract EN

This study sought to monitor the relationship between browsing images of social networking sites and social comparison among Saudi browsers, and knowing the topics of images submitted to social comparison between the study sample more than others, and the degree of their interaction with it, and whether social comparison processes and the degree of influence of the published image differ according to the degree of relationship (or kin-ship) between the browser and the owner of the image or not.

in addition , the sample’s trends towards images published on social networking sites were also concerned, through a opinionnaire administered to a sample of 352saudi surfers of social networking sites in Jeddah.

the questionnaire consisted of several axes, namely the intensity of the use of social network-ing sites, the rising and falling social comparisons that surfers make auto-matically when browsing the various pictures of others (their travels, their personal appearance, family meetings, personal achievements, the calami-ties they are exposed to) and the extent of their interaction with these pic-tures and their trends towards them.

the study revealed that snapchat is the most viewed among the sample with a mean of 4.32, and that there is a direct relationship between the degree of closeness of the relationship be-tween the browsers and the follow-up of photos, and that the achievements of others are considered the most attractive to surfers of social networking sites images, followed by travel images, and motivation ranked first among the resulting feelings about browsing pictures of others’ achievements, fol-lowed by feeling frustrated.

thus, results emphasized that there were sta-tistically significant differences between the study sample in their social comparisons after viewing pictures of others and their demographic charac-teristics according to gender in favor of males, and that these differences were not proven in age nor education .the study recommended the need to enhance awareness of young people about the concepts influencing their vision and goals, such as the term “upward comparison,” “downward com-parison” and “electronic envy” .it also stressed the need for media studies to paying attention to the theory of social comparison in its various aspects, in order to help develop the hypotheses of the theory in line with our Arab culture and values.