The impact of social media use on family communication

Social media use has increased with the introduction of smart phones today. Various changes have occurred in the communication among individuals due to the increase in social media use. Families, the smallest unit of the society, are also affected by these changes. This study was planned and conducted with the aim of examining the impact of social media use on family communication, and of determining the similarities and differences between spouses in families according to gender, age, level of education, employment status, profession and avarage monthly income. The research sample consisted of 652 married couples aged between 28-68 chosen among the parents of 8th grade students of secondary schools of Keçiören district's Primary Education Institutions affiliated with the Ministry of National Education of Republic of Turkey, Ankara Provincial Directorate of National Education, and the schools were determined by statistical methods. A 3-part questionnaire was prepared in order to collect research data. The first part of the questionnaire included demographic information of the participants. The second part consisted of questions about the participants' use of social media, while there were questions about the impact of social media use on family communication in the third part. The study has shown that the impact of social media use on family communication does not differ according to gender, employment status, profession and avarage monthly income, yet varies due to age and level of education. It has been proved that the differences found according to age are in the age group of 48-57, while they were found at the highschool and associate degree levels according to level of education.