Study of Attractiveness of Membership in Online Social Network for Students

The purpose of this research was to investigate the online social network membership’s attractions for students. The present study was done with qualitative approach and phenomenological approach at Ahwaz city in 2018. Hence, sampling method was Purposeful and data were collected using in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 12 students and 3 teachers those were active members of at least one virtual social network. The method of data analysis was seven-stage of Colaizzi analysis. From the data analysis, the main theme of attractions using cyberspace was extracted including three sub-themes: Motivation for interaction and communication, Motivation of obtaining information and Motivation for entertainment. The results of this study highlighted the different attractiveness of virtual networks for students. In addition, findings showed that students have used these networks for interaction and communication, information acquisition and entertainment. Accordingly, the results offers the country planners to identify the attractions of these networks and attempt to facilitate their proper use by providing students with the necessary backgrounds to increase their familiarity with these networks.