SOCIAL MEDIA MISUSE (SMM) AND ITS INFLUENCE ON FAITH AMONG SOCIAL MEDIA (SM) USERS IN BRUNEI

Abstract

The prevalence of social media uses is not a recent development, it has been rampant and rapidly evolving for the past decades. This usage however is not necessarily equivalent to positive uses only, but negative uses has become a mainstream practice among social media users. This resulted into negative consequences where one of them has detrimental influence to the users’ faith. Much like the whole world, Brunei is also not immune to this phenomenon. Hence, this study aims to explore the influence of social media misuse to one’s faith, particularly in the context of Muslim social media users in Brunei. To serve this objective, a qualitative method was employed, where semi-structured interviews were conducted to a total of 11 Bruneian Muslim. The data was analysed using a thematic analysis, where the finding revealed the consistent link between the degree of user’s religious devotion to the influence of social media misuse on faith. The study also highlighted the crucial role of knowledge in managing the impact of the influence. The implications of this research extend to policy makers, educators, developers and even parents, in understanding the significance of knowledge, religious understanding and commitment in barricading the misuses’ influence on faith. Subsequently, future research may delve deeper on the aspect of how religious understanding influence the effects and impacts.