*Ismail Sheikh Yusuf, Ahmed Dhaha & Abdikarim Barqadle Igale
Abstract:
Facebook (FB) has increasingly become an essential part of the lives of people, particularly youths. Youths use this site extensively, mainly for fun, interacting with friends, making new friends, and keeping in touch with old friends. FB has become a big part of their daily routine, sometimes influencing them to neglect their duties and responsibilities. Guided by the uses and gratifications theory, the present study investigates the motives for using Facebook and their effect on the addiction to the site among Somali youths. The study employed a quantitative method by adopting an online survey to collect data. The data was collected for a period of one month by posting a questionnaire on Facebook walls. A total of 327 respondents participated in the study. The results suggest that there is a significant relationship between FB motives and FB addiction. Furthermore, the results of the multiple regression analysis suggest that motives related to political (ß=.142, p=.016), social interaction (ß=.203, p=.002), and entertainment (ß=.329, p=.000) significantly contributed to FB addiction among the youths. Among the motives, entertainment and social interaction were the best predictors of FB addiction. Implications, future research scope, and contributions of the study are also discussed.
Keywords: Facebook addiction, Facebook motives, uses and gratification theory, Somali youth