High school students' social media usage:An application on user behaviors, preferences and reasons based on the uses and gratifications theory

In today's world, there is an interactive communication process between people and mass media.The type of new media technologies or courses through which individuals interact each other is called social media. In this sense, individuals who spend most of their time on social media courses have constructed an online life apart their daily lives. One of the most influenced groups by social media is high school students. Therefore, this study aims to determine the motivations of social media usage of high school students in Eskisehir within the framework of Uses and Gratifications Theory. In the research conducted with the questionnaire, 445 users prepared scale questions were asked. The questionnaire, which is one of the quantitative data collection techniques, is applied and, the obtained data is interpreted through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. The data obtained were interpreted by coding. Factor analysis revealed 5 different uses and gratificaiton. These can be listed as Recreation and Relaxation Motivation, Social Interaction Motivation, Observation and Guidance Motivation, Decision-Making-Information Motivation and, Personal Presentation Motivation. Some user demographics and social media usage patterns have been associated with different uses and gratifications.