المجلة الجزائرية لبحوث الإعلام والرأي العام
Volume 9, Numéro 1, Pages 163-181
2026-07-07
Unveiling Saudi Digital Spaces: A Walkthrough Of X, Instagram And Snapchat
Authors : دكتور آلاء بنت سلطان باهبري .
Abstract
This study investigates Saudi digital spaces through a systematic walkthrough of X (previously Twitter), Instagram and Snapchat, aiming to understand how social media platforms intersect with local cultural norms of privacy, modesty, and communal reputation. Studies shows that Saudi users practices are influenced by the Islamic norms of privacy and lyres. They negotiate their uses of social media to accommodate these norms. As many research studied these negotiated uses, limited research have been conducted to analyses the platforms’. This research focuses on analyzing the platforms interface and compare it to the Saudi usages that previous studies found. The research applies the walkthrough methodology to analyze each platform’s environment of expected use—vision, operating model as well as technical walkthroughs of registration, everyday use, and discontinuation. The methodology is an ethnographical observation of user flows and feature interactions across the three platforms : X, Instagram and Snapchat. The study finds that platform’s structure and design influence the social roles to each app: X as a public space and a professional application; Instagram as a semi-public space emphasizing curated aesthetic and reputational management; Snapchat as a private space that aligns with cultural norms of privacy through ephemeral content, closed networks, and screenshot alerts. These findings demonstrate that platform’s design and affordances plays a significant role in shaping user’s behavior on the platforms. The study contributes to platform studies by extending the walkthrough method to a non-Western context. It also contributes to the research on privacy and digital culture by revealing how technical architectures interact with local values, producing a segregated spaces of Saudi digital spaces.
Keywords
Saudi Arabia ; social media ; walkthrough method ; digital privacy ; public-private digital space
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