Islamic Ethics & Social Media Use: A Study in Theory & Practice

Abstract

Islamic ethics are always considered an important factor that can affect the perceptions of users or consumers. These ethics are studied in detail in the context of traditional media but their implications are ignored in social media. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the main Islamic virtues, discuss them in relation to current universal media ethics, and bring the issue of Islamic ethics and social media into the realm and academic discussion through conducting interviews with selected Arab & Muslim scholars who have conducted extensive research on the subject. Moreover, it analyzed social media users’ behaviors attempting to understand and explain the phenomenon of using Instagram and social media by a sample of users in the Arab Muslim context.  The study adopted a mixed-method approach by focusing on both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The data for qualitative methods was collected through semi-structured interviews with six specialists to study their perceptions and analyze their answers to find out how Islamic ethics relate to other ethical systems and how Islamic ethics relate to media ethics. The data for the quantitative method relied on a questionnaire designed for a sample of social media end users. The results highlighted that Islamic ethics do converge with universal media ethical values yet differ from other ethical systems in the principle of “monotheism,” having a unity of divine reference and relating to media ethics when it comes to virtues of accountability, honesty, and truthfulness. Furthermore, the study revealed that social media users in the Arab Muslim context are not necessarily guided by an Islamic ethical perspective even when the content of social media does violate such ethics, a fact which indicates that ethics in such context and the pervasive nature of social media environment have little if any impact on users’ behavior even when they are claimed theoretically.