## 1 Introduction  
In 2016, [PERSON] noted a high rate of social media use in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Today, Social Networking Sites and Apps (SNSAs) occupy a large part of Internet usage in the KSA, where more than half of the population of 31 million is under the age of 29 [1]. This suggests that a high proportion of users would be students. Increasing popularity of SNSAs has led to interest in the impact of these on the social lives of students, particularly females, who may face cultural social challenges within Saudi society. Studies within the KSA have found mixed results in relation to the perceived social impact of SNSAs use.  
[PERSON] [2] examined the effects of SNSAs use on undergraduate students' behaviors with 642 participants (358 males and 284 females). The results highlighted the positive impact of using SNSAs to support communication with friends and family as well as cultural participation. The negative impacts included spreading of insults and verbal abuse as well as crowding out the colloquial language. The results also indicated that females were more positive than their male counterparts about the social impact of SNSAs.  
[PERSON] [3] also conducted a study to investigate the role of SNSAs in increasing political awareness with 486 (305 males, 181 females) undergraduate Saudi students. The results indicated that the level of political awareness for students who used SNSAs was low in most of the political awareness indexes, which was attributed to the low level of political culture among students. The incitement for verbal violence and intolerance, as well as the instability of security in the region, were the issues most often discussed by students using SNSAs. Another study conducted by [PERSON] [4] with 150 female Saudi university students found that expressing opinions freely, openly exchanging cultural and intellectual ideas, fostering old friendships, and searching for new friendships were the most important reasons for using SNSAs.  
[PERSON] [5] study involving 470 male undergraduate students from King Saud University, found that 88% of participants spent up to two hours per day communicating with others and learning about the latest political news, events and occasions in the community, and these motivations to use SNSAs had a positive impact on students. Similarly, a study by [PERSON] [6], with 2274 male university students, found that being educated on local political news, learning about new ideas and expressing opinions candidly and openly with the opposite sex had a positive impact on students who used SNSAs.  
Despite the increased popularity of SNSAs and their social impact on Saudi university students' lives, little research evaluates the role of these sites and apps in promoting social trust or civic and political participation. These areas of interest form part of the framework of social capital, which represents key markers of one's well-being and healthy civic life [7; 8]. A positive association has been reported between the level of students' education and their civic and political participation [9; 10]. A number of single gender studies [5; 6] have provided interesting insights, but comparative studies, particularly at the postgraduate level, are relatively uncommon.