Effects of Various Social Media on Users’ Intercultural Communication Competence in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Intercultural communications have been transformed in recent years, largely due to the proliferation of social media applications. People from different countries and diverse cultures are now able to communicate with each other digitally, using multiple web-based communication platforms that have rapidly become an integral part of people’s daily lives. Thus, the effects of social media use on the intercultural communication competence (ICC) of individuals has attracted the attention of many scholars. This study examines, in a Saudi Arabian context, the extent to which different social media applications affect users’ ICC. The study is based on quantitative research methods, namely an online questionnaire to which 267 users responded. The study aims to explore participants’ perceptions of the effects of different social media applications on their own ICC, taking into account various demographic factors such as the age, gender, and level of education attained by each participant. In addition, the study investigates which social media applications are most common in Saudi Arabia, and which have the greatest influence on users’ ICC. The study’s findings show that while WhatsApp is the most commonly used social media application in Saudi Arabia, Twitter is perceived to have the greatest effect on users’ ICC.