OPINION EXPRESSIONS TOWARDS OTHERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN SONGKHLA PROVINCE

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate university students’ behavior in expressing opinions about others through social media and the factors affecting such behavior among students in Songkhla Province. The sample consisted of 396 students from three institutions: Thaksin University, Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, and Songkhla Rajabhat University.

The findings revealed that the students’ behavior in expressing opinions about others through social media was at a high level (  =3.82)  . The most common practice was setting opinion posts to public visibility ( =4.18), followed by refraining from using harsh language in comments ( =4.08). In addition, many comments reflected personal opinions that could not necessarily be judged as right or wrong ( =3.83).

           Regarding the factors affecting students’ behavior in expressing opinions about others through social media, demographic factors, particularly differences in educational institution and income, were found to result in statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level. With respect to social media usage behavior, differences in the number of hours spent on social media and in the sharing of personal information also resulted in statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level. Furthermore, knowledge and understanding of laws governing online media use were positively correlated with students’ behavior in expressing opinions about others through social media at a low level, with statistical significance at the 0.01 level ต่ำ (  =0.307). Among these, knowledge of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), B.E. 2562, showed the strongest statistically significant correlation with such behavior (  =0.455).