The Social Media Addiction Among Turkish University Students

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the place and importance of social media in the lives of university students according to several demographic variables. 323 Turkish students in total, 186 of whom were males and 137 of whom were females, studying in different departments at Selçuk University, participated in the study. A personal information form was used to obtain the socio-demographical information of the students, while “Social Media Addiction Scale” (SMAS), developed by Tutgun Ünal (2015), was implemented to determine the media addiction levels. Although no differences were observed concerning the age factor among the students; statistically significant differences were found among the averages of social media addiction with regards to sex, income, educational background of the parents, the means to access the internet, the number of years of access and the number of hours of access (p<0.05; p<0.01). Statistically significant variances were also found in all the dimensions of social media addiction concerning the time and the hours the students spend on social media (p<0.05; p<0.01). Based on the findings of this study, it can be said that the social media addiction levels of the male students are higher compared to that of the female students; this situation is caused by the social roles imposed on men and women depending on social status and responsibilities and the cultural structure; and as the number of days and hours spent on social media increase, so does the addiction to social media.