Social media has become a large part of modern-day lives, especially in the use of Twitter among young adults globally. As such, this study aims to analyze the relationships that Twitter usage, attitude, and social experience may have with social support among university students. The study is guided by social support theory, and it adopts a quantitative research design using the survey method with a questionnaire as the research instrument for data collection. A total of 250 university students from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) participated in the study. The findings of the study indicate that students do use Twitter for social support among them. The levels of Twitter usage, attitude, social experience, and social support were found to be high. The study also found significant relationships between Twitter usage, attitude, and social support. However, the social experience in using Twitter was insignificant for social support. Thus, the social support theory used in this study is partially supported. Suggestions for future research are also provided.
Statista (2023) Twitter Statistics & Facts. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/
Antonakaki, D., Fragopoulou, P., & Ioannidis, S. (2021). A survey of Twitter research: Data model, graph structure, sentiment analysis and attacks. Expert Systems with Applications, 164, 114006.
Dommett, E. J. (2019). Understanding student use of Twitter and online forums in higher education. Education and Information Technologies, 24(1), 325-343.
Bukhari, S. R., & Afzal, F. (2017). Perceived social support predicts psychological problems among university students. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(2), 2349-3429.
Michaeli, N., Mokhtarpourhabashy, A., & Meisami, S. (2013). The role of perceived social support, coping strategies and resilience in predicting the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis. Journal of Social Psychology (New Findings in Psychology), 7(1), 5-17.
Becker, R., & Bishop, P. (2016). Think bigger about science: Using Twitter for learning in the middle grades. Middle School Journal, 47(3), 4-16.
Kim J., & Song, H. (2016). Celebrity’s self-disclosure on Twitter and parasocial relationships: A mediating role of social presence. Computers in Human Behaviour, 62, 570-577.
Blight, M. G., Ruppel, E. K., & Schoenbauer, K. V. (2017). Sense of community on Twitter and Instagram: Exploring the roles of motives and parasocial relationships. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(5), 314-319.
Fischer, E., & Reuber, R. A. (2017). Social interaction via new social media: (How) can interactions on Twitter affect effectual thinking and behaviour? Journal of Business Venturing, 26(1), 1-18
Alias, N., Sabdan, M. S., Aziz, K. A., Mohammed, M., Hamidon, I. S., & Jomhari, N. (2013). Research trends and issues in the studies of Twitter: A content analysis of publications in selected journals (2007-2012). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 103, 773-780.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310-357.
Duncan, D. G., & Barczyk, C. C. (2013). Facebook in the university classroom: Do students perceive that it enhances community of practice and sense of community? International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(3), 1-14.
Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1),30-41.
Al-Khalifa, H. S., & Garcia, R. A. (2013). The state of social media in Saudi Arabia’s higher education. International Journal of Technology and Educational Marketing (IJTEM), 3(1), 65-76.
Luo, T., & Dani, D. (2015, October). Using Twitter to support peer instruction: A case study. In 2015 International Conference of Educational Innovation through Technology (EITT) (pp. 210-212). IEEE.
Mejova, Y., & Lu, A. H. (2022). I feel you: Mixed-methods study of social support of loneliness on Twitter. Computers in Human Behavior, 136, 107389.
