GROWING USE OF INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN PAKISTAN: EFFECTS ON FAMILIES AND CULTURAL VALUES GROWING USE OF INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN PAKISTAN: EFFECTS ON FAMILIES AND CULTURAL VALUES
Nazir Ahmed Sangi, Nasim Khan Mahsud · 2015
The Information & Communication Technology-ICT devices are indispensable today. Globally, it is evident that such technologies have variant effects on work and non-work situations. It is generally assumed that these devices are facilitating the fast-moving societies. Though positive effects of ICT usage are improving lifestyle but literature emphasizes over negative consequences of social media on families particularly on child-parent inter-relationships. ICT has well-blended itself to the everyday life of people in modern times throughout the globe. Keeping this situation in view, the current paper presents outcomes of an exploratory study conducted at Islamabad and Rawalpindi with 200 postgraduate students of Allama Iqbal Open University – AIOU. Mainly quantitative approach was employed to have a clearer and reliable understanding about the issue under study. Specifically, to assess the effects of these technologies on family domains at i) social, ii) cultural and iii) individual level, purposive/judgmental sampling technique was used for data collection. The samples consist of both male and female respondents’ views, which advance our understanding about how social media is shaping social, cultural aspects of family life and relationships of individuals in families. The study also examined the positive/negative influences of social media, which provided several dimensions helping to offer suitable measures for the optimum beneficial utilization of ICT at family level.