Social research in the digital age: reality and requirements for advancement

Abstract

Social research is almost incessant in its importance as it is the correct gateway to comprehensive change and the desired reform، as it is the safest way to know and limit the phenomena of society and to determine the degrees of problems in terms of their importance and ways to deal with them. It is the only way to preserve the competitive potential of society in a rapidly moving and developing world.  On this basis، the research is based on an attempt to identify social research in the digital age and the requirements for its advancement. The process of defining social research in light of digital transformations is an extremely important issue because the variables that the social researcher deals with are not traditional، but rather the computer has come to control them and makes the individual and society subject to its pressures. This requires new methodological tools that are appropriate to the nature of these pressures. The research also attempted to shed light on the most prominent requirements for advancing social research in the field of sociology، which relate to the academic researcher and the academic institution to which he belongs. These requirements may constitute a real starting point towards investing digital culture in the field of social research on the one hand، and towards studying the outcomes of digital transformation. Towards society. The study reached results، including that digitization is a contemporary concept that came as a result of technological changes and developments and lacks more studies and research and needs its applied aspects. Social research methods in the digital age allow saving time، human effort and money، and social media platforms allow researchers to interact. Directly with the research participants، this leads to an increase in research participants and thus improves the quality of the data، with the availability of huge amounts of data about behaviors and social interactions، as social researchers use it to study a group of social phenomena، for example، immigration، education، politics، and health.