The effect of conspicuous consumption on social media addiction tendencies

There are many changes in the field of communication through developing technology. Recent developments in the Internet world have also changed the direction of communication. With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, individuals have created an effective target group that produces content and disseminates content. Social media has eliminated borders on the world. While people are aware of all experiences, they also have access to some information about their products. It uses social media with the requirements such as getting information, having fun, meeting people and getting rid of the burden of life. Thus, social media transforms people from a stable structure into creative individuals. In the first part of the study, the subject of research, its importance, purpose, scope, model of research, variables and data collection methods have been included. In the second part of the study, conceptual and structural information, social media addiction, conspicuous consumption and narcissism concepts of social media platforms that have been created by Web 2.0 technology. In the third part of the study, the findings and evaluation of this search have been involved. Demographic findings related to the research sample, evaluation of the validity and reliability of the scales used in the research, evaluation of factor analysis and evaluation of regression-process analysis have been included. In the application part of the study, Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale developed by Andreaessen and colleagues (2012) and Taylor and Strutton (2016), was used to measure social media dependency. And Narcissistic Personality Inventory by Ames vs. (2006) was used to measure for the narcissism. The results obtained in the last part of the study and the discussion of these results have been comprised. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of social media addiction level of students studying at Gaziantep University on narcissism and conspicuous consumption trends. The data of 708 people from Gaziantep University students were collected through face-to-face interview technique. As a result of the study, it was determined that narcissism dimensions had an effect and social media addiction factors had an effect on conspicuous consumption trends. Keywords: Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking Addiction, Narcissism, Conspicuous Consumption.