The impact of social media on educational process

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effects of social media usage in high school students on the education process in the province of Diyarbakir, Turkey. The study was conducted on the assumption that the social media usage habits of high school students effect students in terms of inclination towards studying, socialization, cultural and sporting activities. In the study, the social media and education issues were discussed, and the data of the survey applied to 420 people, and data obtained from the in-depth qualitative interviews performed with 30 teachers and 30 students were analyzed. In the in-depth qualitative interviews performed with students and teachers, negative assessments were made on the students busy with the social networking sites without allocating the time necessary for their courses, their use of ready-made information from the Internet without doing an in-depth research, the lesser time allocated for the physical activities, use of social networking sites during the lessons secretly, and the exposure to cyber-violence and information pollution. On the other hand, it was assessed positively in terms of socialization, teaming, easy access to information and acquiring professional knowledge. In the interviews performed with 206 male students and 204 female students in the 4 high-school in the 4 districts located in the Diyarbakir city center, it was found that 82.7% of the students uses one of the social media tools, 66% had an account in the social networking sites, 64% uses the social media as an aid to his/her classes, 73% performs homework research in the social media, 33% messages with classmates during the course through social networking sites, and 32.1% spends more than 5 hours on social networks. The time allocated to the studying outside of school, friends, cultural activities, sporting activities decreases as the time spent by students on social networks increases. Keywords: Social Media, Social Network, Education, Communication