Typology of Young Users of Social Media in Iran

With regard to increasing growth of social media and different aims and motivations which young users have to use them, the present study is to identify Iranian young users’ aims and motivations to use social media and different types of those young users. In fact, the present study is to investigate the typology of young users of social media using the mixed method research and employing the semi-structured interviewing technique and a researcher-made questionnaire conducted on 2100 Iranian young users in five cities of Isfahan, Tabriz, Tehran, Mashhad, and Sari. Findings of the present study indicated that the most important aims and motivations of young users in using social media are as follows: getting news and information; communicating with friends, relatives and classmates; making new friends and connecting with old friends; forming groups and participating in discussions and other facilities, expressing their emotions; seeing photos of their friends and their activities; making familiar with virtual and modern communication styles; tracking and following their favorite topics; listening music; sharing any video, photo, clips, entertainment and truancy; and running away from the problems of everyday life. Other findings of the study indicated that Iranian young users can be divided into eight groups of actives, passives, communication seekers, down loaders, news readers, discussers, pornographers and entertainment seekers.