The Effect of Personal and Academic Variables on Student Adoption of Twitter as an Information Source

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the use of Twitter in terms of personal and academic variables of students. These included gender, grade point average (GPA), and year level. Data were collected from undergraduate students at the College of Social Sciences at Kuwait University. A structured questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. The findings show that the majority of respondents use social media, 42.8% use Twitter “sometimes,” and 44.4% use it “always.” There is no significant difference between males and females, except for social influence (SI). There is a statistically significant difference in the use of Twitter as an information source among students for different academic year levels, with the highest mean for senior students. However, no significant differences were found by students' GPA scores. Further investigation focusing on variables such as students' level of confidence and skills of using Twitter, such as the effect of course content, etc., would provide more insight into ...