Abstract:

The present study aims at examining the effect of social networks (WhatsApp as a model) on human relationships (social, family, marital, self) in a sample population of married Saudis. The importance of this study is the recently of this social network, and the fact that the study serves as an attempt to enrich social networks research and studies that are to some extent a few especially in the Arab societies. The current study aims to identify the percentages, frequencies, patterns and habits of married couples and the subsequent WhatsApp. Moreover, the study highlights, with statistical significance, the differences in human relationships for married couples, according to the variables of gender and the number of hours of use, along with the interaction between among the variables. This study was based on the comparative descriptive method, because the researcher used descriptions, as opposed to amendment and intentional change, to represent and process the independent. The independent variables here are the gender and the number of hours of use of WhatsApp and the dependent variable is the effect on the human relationships (social relationships, family relationships, marital relationships, self). The study was conducted on a sample of (436) individuals, (309 male 127 female) married, Saudi nationals. Using computerized psychometric properties and measures, the researcher examined the societal tendency to migrate from physical human relationships to virtual relationships (Whatsapp as the case here), the study concluded the following results:

• For the number of years of use, the largest percentage of the sample was one to three years, more than three years came next, while less than a year ranked last.
• For frequency of usage, the majority of respondents were those who used WhatsApp daily from one to three hours, next came those who used WhatsApp for less than an hour, and the lowest percentage of the sample was to those who use WhatsApp less than three hours a day.
• The largest proportion of respondents were those who had more than 20 friends, then came from 10 to 20 friends on WhatsApp in second place of the sample, while came from has less than 10 friends on WhatsApp ranked last of the sample in the number of friends on the WhatsApp.
• The largest percentage of the sample was anyone who has a 5 to 10 sets on WhatsApp, then came from has less than 5 sets on WhatsApp in second place of the sample, while came from has more than 10 sets on WhatsApp ranked last of the sample in the number of groups on WhatsApp.
• There is a show in the relative weight of items every dimension of human relationships (social relationships, family relationships, marital relationships, self) in the affected by WhatsApp.
• There is the impact for factor the number of hours of use WhatsApp (less than an hour, from one to three hours, more than three hours) on human relations dimensions of social, family and marital and self.
• There is the impact factor of gender (male and female) on social relations only.
• No effect of the interaction between the number of hours workers use WhatsApp and gender on human relations dimensions of social, family and marital and self.

Keywords:

Social networking, WhatsApp, human relations, social relations, family relations and marital relations and self.