Abstract
Among the social networking sites, Facebook is most popular and extensively used by people for communication, information, socialization and learning purposes. Therefore the use of Facebook is anticipated for strengthening relationship for religious understanding and purposes. The current study is aimed at finding religious motives for using Facebook among youth by employing Uses and Gratifications Theory. A survey was conducted to find out patterns of Facebook usage and specifically find out religious motives for using Facebook. The results indicated that more than 80% of young people are Facebook users and a significant number of users are heavy users. The preaching to others is a most notable motive or using Facebook and found beneficial for building and maintaining relationship. The degree of gratifications, the students were seeking with regard to religious information was more than 50%. However, this ratio was higher among females as compared to male students. Almost, more than 45% of female students revealed that they shared only religious information and seek the same while using Facebook. Similarly, the frequency of using Facebook was higher among male students as compared to females.
Keyword(s)
Facebook, Communication, Information, socialization, Learning, religion, Islam