The Impact of Social Media on Family Cohesion of Rural Families in Ismailia Governorate

The research aimed to identify the positive and negative effects of social media on the family, as well as to determine the role of the family in dealing with the phenomenon of their children's use of social media programs, to identify the impact of social media on family cohesion, to identify the variables associated with and specific to the impact of social media on family cohesion, and to identify the obstacles facing rural families in directing their members towards the appropriate use of these media. This required designing a research form to collect data through personal interviews on three villages: Abu Ashour, Al-Jazirah Al-Khadra, and Al-Malak in Tal Al-Kabir Center in Ismailia Governorate, on a sample of rural families consisting of 359 individuals. The data collection period took two months, November and December 2024, and some descriptive and analytical statistical methods were used, including frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean, stability coefficient, simple correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression coefficient and ascending stepwise regression to analyze the research data. The most important results of the research were as follows:
1- The study concluded that social media has some positive and negative effects on the rural family from the point of view of the respondents, as the respondents mentioned eleven negative effects, the most important of which was the existence of a generation of youth and children suffering from loneliness and isolation with an arithmetic mean of 2.60 degrees. The respondents also mentioned twelve positive effects, the most important of which, as mentioned by the respondents, was the exchange of opinions and ideas on a specific topic with an arithmetic mean of 2.38 degrees.
2- The respondents mentioned that the rural family has ten roles that it plays to reduce the impact of social media, the most important of which was guiding children to use social media in a purposeful manner, with a percentage of (88.30%) of the respondents.
3- The respondents mentioned that social media has an impact on family cohesion in increasing family problems and disputes, and it also had a negative impact on family roles, which leads to weak cohesion among family members.
4- The results showed that there were a number of variables that had a positive moral relationship and contributed to explaining the variance in the degree of influence of social media on family cohesion and that these variables combined explain about 64.9% and the variables are the number of rooms in the house, the number of sites used, the number of family phones, monthly income, and cultural openness.
5- The respondents mentioned ten obstacles facing the family in directing its members towards the appropriate use of social media, the most important of which was the difficulty of isolating children from their peers.