Qualitative Study of Students' Information Sharing Behavior in Social Network Sites

The main purpose was to investigate the students’ information sharing behavior in social network sites with a qualitative approach.

An applied research with qualitative approach - A Thematic Analysis method was used.  Population consisted of all the students at the Universities in South Khorasan Province affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology who had a  minimum of six months experience in using one of the social network sites such as: Telegram, Instagram or WhatsApp.   A non-probability (non-random), and a snowball sampling procedure was used and 17 persons were interviewed. The semi-structured type of interview was incorporated.

Results showed that most students’ information sharing was done on Telegram and Instagram, respectively. Eighteen primary codes were provided by  students as motives for information sharing in social network sites. These primary codes were categorized into two main categories (personal and social motives) and seven subcategories. Among all the primary codes of the two main categories, the sub-category of “net-surfing and entertainment” had the highest occurrence. For the types of information shared on social network sites by student, 24 primary codes were obtained. These primary codes were categorized into eight sub-categories and two main categories (knowledge and entertaining information). Among the sub-categories identified, the most recurrently shared types of information were “literary-artistic information” and “scientific-educational information”.

For surfing and entertainments’ own good - information sharing on social network sites could lead to admittance of valuable information. If properly planned, it may function as a suitable platform (available to diverse strata of the society, especially the students, at the lowest possible cost) to attain the best possible practice especially in educational settings.