The impact of using social media as a popular culture tool on leisure habits and life satisfaction

The accessibility of popular culture places it within the realm of media in individuals culturally. Social media has become an essential part of our daily lives in the creation and transfer of popular culture. Accordingly, the main purpose of the research is to examine the level of social media usage and its effects on leisure habits and life satisfaction, as well as possible relationships among some variables. The purposive sampling method was used to reach 411 participants online. The universe of the research consists of social media users, while the sample consists of 411 voluntary social media users that could be reached. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 software based on the data obtained from the study. The research used a demographic information form, a social media usage scale, a leisure motivation scale, and a life satisfaction scale. According to the empirical results of the research, it is observed that participants mostly agreed with the statement "I can manage all my daily activities (communication, gaming, banking, shopping, etc.) through social media" in the social media usage scale. In the leisure motivation scale, participants mostly agreed with the statement "It pleases me to learn more about topics that attract me" in response to the question "Why do you generally engage in leisure activities?" In the life satisfaction scale, participants mostly agreed with the statement "I am satisfied with my life." Furthermore, based on the results of the correlation analysis, it was determined that social media usage factor has a significant effect (0.316, p<0.001) on leisure motivation as the dependent variable. In conclusion, it can be stated that individuals' leisure motivation improves positively as their social media usage increases. Additionally, there is no significant impact of the increase or decrease in leisure motivation on life satisfaction. Lastly, the increase in social media usage does not affect individuals' life satisfaction.