Factors influencing the evaluation of information on social media by Kuwait University students: College of Social Sciences

Objectives: The study aimed to examine the relationship between a set of demographic variables and the assessment scale - for undergraduate students at Kuwait University - for information in social media. These variables include gender, age, academic year, devices used to obtain information, and information knowledge. Method: An E-survey was used for the study, a link to the questionnaire was sent to students through the Teams platform, and the usual procedures of reliability were tested on the scale approved. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between some demographic variables and the assessment of information found in social media. Those variables include age, information literacy related to the use of the library and reading culture, in addition to the use of devices related to the internet (laptops, desktops, smartphones, and ipads). No statistically significant differences were found between gender and the evaluation of information in social media. Conclusion: There are demographic factors influencing the ways by which social science students evaluate the information circulated in social media, and these results can be relied upon and benefited from in increasing university students’ awareness of how to evaluate and benefit from the information they obtain from social media.