Abstract:

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the status of Whats-app applications usage by the information technology and computer science students at Yarmouk University in Jordan. A total of 180 University students participated in the study by completing the questionnaire designed by researcher which demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. Results indicated that 71% of the students used Whats-app, while 29% of the students didn't used it, and results shows that 90 students used Whats-app daily, while 38 students occasionally, beside that 84 students used it less than 2 hours a day, 28 used it from 2-4 hours a day, 16 students used it more than 4 hours a day. Also results shows that 51 students used Arabic language, while 35 students used English language and 42 students used chat language. In addition the results show that the most important advantage of Whats-app use is exchange letters on special occasions with 94% of the respondents, the highest disadvantages of Whats-app use is the exchange pornographic pictures and movies and cheating in exams with 75% of the respondents. Moreover the results show that 97% of the students send and received Entertainment information. The study ends by suggesting a number of practical and theoretical recommendations.

Keywords:

WhatsApp usage, advantages, disadvantages, obstacles university students, Jordan.