Investigation of social media addiction levels and recreation area participation barriers of provincial directorate of Youth and Sports employees

In this study, the social media addiction levels and recreation area participation barriers of the Edirne Youth and Sports Provincial Directorate personnel and the difference between these levels and barriers according to different variables; the level of relationship between social media addiction levels and recreation area participation barriers were examined. In this study conducted on 283 personnel working in Edirne in 2024, it was analyzed how social media addiction and recreation area participation barriers changed according to demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status and education level. "Demographic Information", "Social Media Addiction Scale" and "Recreation Area Participation Barriers Scale" were used as data collection tools. Accordingly, since the data provided the normality assumption, t-test, ANOVA test and Pearson correlation parametric tests were used. According to the results, it was observed that the participants' social media addiction levels were at an average addiction level (X̅ 45.55), and they had an average perception of participation barriers in recreation areas (X̅ 48.44). In terms of gender, it was observed that men had higher scores in sports area barriers (X̅ 3.01), while women had higher scores in individual barriers (X̅ 3.23). Single participants had higher virtual tolerance scores than married participants (X̅ 2.54), and married individuals had more difficulty in individual barriers (X̅ 3.12). It was observed that factors such as education and age were also effective. As a result of the Pearson correlation analysis test for the overall SMBS and RAKE scale, it was concluded that the data obtained from the two scales showed a very low level of significant relationship (r=-.225; p <.01). The data obtained as a result of the research were discussed and some suggestions were made in the light of these data.