This is How Iraqi Youth Use Social Media Sites: Findings of A survey
This report is based on a survey conducted in late 2019 in 20 secondary schools in Sulaymaniah City, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The survey was designed to find out effects of social media sites on students’ educational attainment.
The youth’s new life style is all presented on the different social media sites in Iraq. The number of users and amount of time spent on social media sites are expected to expand as smart-phone industry expands. Studies show that youth are the most represented among social media users. This report and descriptive statistics behind it is based on survey conducted to understand how Iraqi youth use social media, especially teenagers in the secondary schools.
The study looks into the time spent on the social media and the type of social media sites are used in addition to the purpose behind using it. Moreover, the survey is trying to find out the effects of parental role on the young social media users.
The Survey
As an activity of a Social Science class, four students with the supervision of their teacher (The author of this report) at the Azmar College for Gifted Students surveyed 1,700 students in 9th grade classes in 20 public and private secondary schools in Sulaymaniah. 1,650 students filled out the survey-forms. Of this number, 1538 students properly filled up the survey-forms (51% female and 49% male) as the Figure above illustrates.
The schools were chosen randomly and from both types of public and private equally, trying to include all poor, middle class, and affluent neighborhoods in the city. The sample population is chosen to give an overall picture of both social and economic conditions of the students.