The effect of social media usage on social participation skills

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the skill of social participation, expected to be acquired through education, and its association with social media. The research employed an explanatory sequential design, which is one of the mixed methods designs. In the quantitative phase of the research, data were collected from 297 middle school students in the city center of Bingöl for Exploratory Factor Analysis, 283 for Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and 787 for the final data of the study. The qualitative data of the research were collected from 21 middle school students actively using social media and voluntarily participating, selected from the quantitative sample group. The quantitative data of the research were collected using the "Middle School Students' Social Participation Scale" and the "Social Media Usage Purposes Scale." The qualitative data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and a student evaluation form. Since the quantitative data of the study showed normal distribution, parametric tests were used. Content analysis was conducted for the analysis of qualitative data. According to the results obtained from the tests, it was found that students who use social media intensively have lower levels of social participation skills compared to students who do not actively use social media. Researchers who plan to study similar topics are recommended to focus on research on strengthening social participation skills and family, teacher and school cooperation, along with training students in using digital technologies. Keywords: Social Participation Skill, Social Media, Skill Education, Social Studies.