A Sociological study of the role of social networks on social indifference (Case of study: Residents of Districts 1 and 2 of Tehran in 1398)

Social indifference is a situation in which individuals avoid social-political participation, social responsibility, altruistic activities, and active and civic engagement in social issues by ignoring the facts surrounding them. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social networks and social indifference. The variables included social networks (amount and variety of use), altruistic attitude and behavior, civic attitude and behavior and social indifference. The research population consisted of the residents of regions 1 and 2 of Tehran, who were selected as the sample using cluster sampling. In the theoretical framework of the research, optimistic, pessimistic and moderate views and theories of theorists such as Marx, Weber and Merton were used to explain the relationship between social indifference and social networks. The results showed that the rate of indifference is moderate to high. The variables altruistic attitude, altruistic behavior, civic attitude, civic behavior, diversity of use of social networks, the rate of use of social networks, contextual variables (age, gender, socio-economic status), social solidarity were significantly correlated with indifference. Among these, social solidarity as an intermediary variable was the most important in explaining social indifference.