Social Media as a Mechanism of Corresponding with Home Based Friends a Study of International Students in EMU

Social media has continued to play a major role in the establishment and sustenance of relationship in many ramifications. The platform has helped in keeping friends and families together thereby breaking the walls of communication gap that might have existed. Social media is also used by students to keep in touch with their friends and families. This study seeks to find out the use of social media by university students in keeping in touch with their friends and families as well as its rolls as a digital medium of communication as against the conventional mobile communication. Using a quantitative methodology, the research randomly samples 351 post students of the Eastern Mediterranean University. Findings from this study indicate that majority of the students attest to the fact that they use social media to share information about the cultural values of their current base as well as use social media to strengthen the relationship that exists between them and their home based friends. Statistical findings in this study also indicate that male respondents use social media to discuss about their academic activities with their Home-based friends more than the females. Also results from a statistical analysis show that male respondents use social media to discuss about life challenges with their Home-based friends more often than female respondents in this study.