Cybersecurity Awareness and Habits Among Social Media Users: A Survey-Based Study

Social media platforms are central to everyday communication, but users' security practices do not always correspond to the risks associated with these platforms. This study investigates password reuse, two-factor authentication (2FA), phishing response, prior scam or phishing experience, profile privacy, real-time location sharing, and self-rated security confidence among social media users. An anonymous cross-sectional online survey produced 84 responses during the originally defined three-day collection period. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an exploratory Pearson chi-square test after transparent item-level data cleaning. Overall, 79.8% of respondents reported reusing passwords at least occasionally. Among 83 valid 2FA responses, 45.8% reported using 2FA, while 15.7% did not know what 2FA was. Among 83 valid phishing-response records, 22.9% reported that they would click the fraudulent link. In addition, 42.9% reported previous scam or phishing experience. Mean security confidence was 3.39/5. Confidence group was not significantly associated with willingness to click the phishing link, χ²(2)=0.558, p=.757.