Investigating the Engage in Electronic Societies via Facebook in the Arab World

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a comprehensive framework to elucidate the relationship between members’ motivations, attitudes, behavior, and usage patterns of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as a platform of Electronic Societies (e-societies) focusing on Facebook social networking platform. A questionnaire survey method was used to collect data. The sample included Facebook users from six Arab countries. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using EQS, was conducted to analyze the data. The results indicated that motivations to engage in e-societies via Facebook, including self-presentation, social interaction, and curiosity, play a pivotal role in explaining Facebook user’s attitudes, electronic behavior, and usage patterns. The findings suggest that Facebook has succeeded in providing the fundamental building blocks of e-society construction and copying the features of physical societies, satisfying the basic human needs of social networking. The present study contributes to a deeper understanding of why and how people join the SNSs as a major standardized instrument in building the universal e-societies across boundaries, languages, and cultures.