How Social Media Shapes Culture and Identity Among Youth : Empirical Insights from the Gulf Region

This edited volume introduces underrepresented narratives on how digital media platforms shape identity, culture, and politics among young audiences in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with a special focus on Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s most digitally connected regions. The 17 quantitative studies in this collection explore the extent to which social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat influence Saudi youth values, affect Bahraini women’s beauty standards, foster critical thinking among students, and enhance Saudi Arabia’s global image and public diplomacy.It also examines how journalists at media institutions and Bahrain's Ministry of Information utilize artificial intelligence applications and WhatsApp to facilitate their work and communication. The volume’s reliance on a systematic adaptation of Cultivation Theory as a theoretical framework across the chapters ensures a coherent research agenda and methodological rigor.Its adoption of descriptive and quantitative approaches reinforces its academic contribution to media effects research. The empirical insights presented in this volume are an essential resource for scholars, students, and policymakers interested in media, culture, and youth in the Gulf region. Technological Innovation and Sustainability for Business Competitive Advantage highlights business problems faced by institutions in a scientific way, finding possible practical solutions.Contributing to setting and improving business theories and practices and encouraging scientific research in technological innovation and sustainability, volumes activate dialogue between academics, practitioners and individuals and provide recommendations to improve institutions.