The impact of social media on intercultural adaptation: a study among the undergraduates of south eastern university of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social media is a platform that plays vital role in human life. From young to old everyone depends on it and they plan their daily activities based on it. Among the youth it plays a significant role in shaping their behaviors and attitude. Cultural adaptation is new trend that spreads among them in recent years. While cultures among different races value their individual traditions, values, believes, attitudes and norms that make them unique, social media connects people around the world regardless of these differences and geographical boundaries. Any sites that allow social interaction is considered as social media. Social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and so on. During intercultural adaptation, people use social media to learn about their host culture, establish and maintain relationships, and stay informed with events in their home towns. The main focus of this research is to investigate the impact of social media on the intercultural adaptation among the undergraduates of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The study finds that students have more interaction with social media, particularly male students are fully immersed and spend more time on it. They use many kinds of social media such as face book, twitter, Instagram, myspace and etc. Among those students show more interest to use face book. They use social media for many purposes such as entertainment, searching study material, sharing researches, opinions and ideas among their friends. Now their view has turned to intercultural adaptation. This has potential challenges and increase the sense of community. In conclusion, the impact of social media on intercultural adaptation by the younger generation is depending on how they make use of it, either positively or negatively.