The Role of Social Surveillance on Social Networking Sites and its Impact on Engagement Decision and People’s Behavior on Social Platforms :

This study aims to identify the role of social surveillance on social networking sites on engagement decision and the extent of its impact on individuals' behavior on their social accounts. The study is one of the descriptive studies that used the survey method and applied a questionnaire to a sample of (450) young Saudi men and women from the city of Jeddah. The study was informed by (1)The Uses and Gratifications theory to explain the individual’s tendency towards using social media platforms, and (2)The Surveillance theory to explain the Surveillance behavior practiced by individuals and the resulting change in behavior. The results showed that people practiced social Surveillance on social networking websites, especially Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat to search for information and monitor the content of the potential partner's accounts to proceed with engagement decision. People were also divided in the degree of confidence in the information displayed on social websites, but the result proved a great impact of social Surveillance on refusing a potential partner. The study revealed that there are factors that negatively affect engagement decision such as (1) the content that is conflicted with norms or (2) the content that does not appeal to the observer. The result also revealed that people delete the content that gives a negative impression about themselves. The results and future recommendations of the study were discussed.