A research on the relationship between social media addiction and communication skills of 14-18 high school students in terms of various variables (Bilecik province example)

Students, who are mostly passive listeners in school environments, perceive schools as boring environments where they cannot express themselves much due to these situations. With the social media components directing the students towards the source of information and socialization environments outside the school, the students start to turn to the learning environments outside the school. In recent years, the developments in İnternet technology have made social media components mobile by placing them in mobile phones, it has been widely accepted by young people who live very fast and have an active structure, and especially by secondary school students, and students' life and communication styles have changed depending on the social media components in their mobile phones started to change. In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between social media addiction and communication skills, which developed depending on the social media usage experienced in high school students in terms of various socio-demographic variables. In this study, the relational survey model, which is one of the descriptive research techniques, was used. A group of 1060 students, who were randomly selected from among the students studying in different types of high schools in Bilecik during the 2021-2022 academic year, constitute the research group. In the study, a 'Personal Information Form' was used to obtain information such as place of residence in terms of socio-demographic variables, age, gender, number of siblings, school type and grade level. Along with these variables, the 'Social Media Addiction Scale' was used to determine students' levels of social media use, and the 'Communication Skills Scale' was used to determine their communication skills levels. In order to test the data obtained from the survey study, social media addiction and communication skills were taken into account by taking into account the variables of gender, age, class level, school type, number of siblings, family income level, place of residence, education level of parents, school success, time spent on social media. Hypothesis questions analyzed with the scale were asked and their evaluations were taken. Within the framework of the research problem, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 40 students of different age groups, grade levels and genders, based on the "Personal Information Form", "Social Media Addiction Scale" and "Communication Skills Scale" as a preliminary study. Notes from these interviews were added to the researcher's diary. In the light of these notes, the literature was narrowed. For this reason, the researcher's notes were shared in the text of the thesis where deemed relevant. In this research, in which the quantitative method was adopted, the data collected through the questionnaire and analyzed via SPSS program. Firstly, validity, reliability and normality tests were performed. Parametric tests were used in double and triple comparisons, since the data were considered to be normally distributed. In the study, analyzes were made using independent "t-tests" in bivariate comparisons. In comparisons made in the dimensions of three or more variables, parametric analyzes and correlation analyzes were performed in the dimension of "ANOVA" tests. In the evaluation made depending on the findings obtained after the study, social media addiction negatively affects communication skills, students are moderately addicted to social media, female students' communication skills are higher than male students' communication skills, school type, age and class level, settlement area. The number of siblings, parents' educational status, socio-economic status of the family do not differ on social media addiction and communication skills. School success, internet presence, duration of social media use, social media addiction and communication skills differed at the level. It was seen that the media platform created statistically significant differences on social media addiction, but did not create statistical differences on communication skills. As a result of the research, it was determined that the demographic variables differed partially with social media addiction and communication skills. Additionally, there is a negative significant relationship between social media addiction and communication skills.