Social network sites and methodological practices

The internet and its social applications have imposed themselves as the essential tools in people's everyday life. Social network sites (SNS) researches hence become a lucrative field of study among diverse scholars who have developed and published several studies throughout the past ten years. Drawing on the methodological research work accomplished so far to study SNS and its impact on people and communities around the world, this paper focuses on the type of methodologies practiced in most researches addressing SNS global phenomenon. Hence, the paper queries are: 1) what are the publications trends normally used in publishing SNS literature? 2) What are the research methods commonly practiced in literature? 3) Suggestions for various other methodological options to employ. This paper is grounded on studying an array of 112 research papers published from 2006 to 2016 where articles were identified through a systematic process. Articles followed a four staged process where they were reviewed, analysed, and coded through a qualitative content analysis approach. Findings show the publications in all disciplines are discussing SNS from one angle or another. Secondly, the most used research method by researchers and scholars across various disciplines is quantitative tools mostly online surveys followed with ethnography through observation of content analysis of sites. The mixed methods methodology represents only 9% of the investigated sample. Further, not much research is accomplished about the Middle East region as the analysis presents only 15% mainly focusing on SNS's usage pattern rather than arising in-depth investigation of changes in people's life. Recommendations to obtain offline genuine human preferences and opinions gathered through face to face focus group and interviews in addition to online behaviours trending for more informative results and predications. Likewise, for the Middle East region, need to investigate acutely SNS's impact on changing people pattern of behaviour and cultural structure.