Investigating the Seeking Behavior for Religious Information in Social Media

Abstract

Reading and learning about religious information is a habit that Saudis practice to increase their understanding of Islamic rules. It is common now for people to learn about religion from social media. Therefore, 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 a resource. In addition, the study is an attempt to investigate how religious information on social media changes and influences people, and what obstacles and difficulties Saudis encounter when they use social media to obtain religious information.

Islamic Faith-Based Content and Religious Social-media Motives

“…Likewise, numerous religious scholars communicate with their followers on different social media channels (Buckley et al, 2021). Hence, it is very convenient for those who want to enhance their knowledge regarding religious guidelines and teachings (Almobarraz, 2021;Huda & Nur, 2021). Therefore, people repeatedly visit different social media pages/accounts/sites to gain religious information.…”

“…Simultaneously, religious information is the third most important factor that has been considered an outcome of accessing faith-based content on social media pages/accounts/sites with variable intensity and frequency. Religious information reflects the information available on various Social Networking Sites (SNSs) related to the religious guidelines, rules, regulations, ritual details, and a complete code of dos and don'ts in light of examples (Almobarraz, 2021). This further shows that one key goal of using social media is to gain religious information that someone can utilize in every walk of life as a guideline provided by their religious scholars.…”