The effect of social media use on eating disorder in university educational individuals

In this study, there is a dependent variable (Eating Disorder) and an independent variable (Social Media Addiction) prepared in line with its purpose. The sample of the study consists of 392 university students between the ages of 18-30 at the university level. Personal information form, Social Media Addiction Scale and Eating Disorder Rating Scale were used as data collection tools in the study. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the gender, age, weight, height and class of the participants did not make a difference between the group average scores, but the number of social media application usage and media usage purposes created a difference between the group average scores. In addition, there was no difference between the group mean scores of social media addiction, occupation, mood changes, repetition, conflict, eating disorder, body shape and weight-related feelings and thoughts, restricted eating motivation and behavior, loss of functionality and control, and binge eating. It has been concluded that there is no difference in terms of the devices used, the time of using social media and the time of connecting to social media. When the relationship between social media addiction and eating disorder is analyzed by "Pearson Correlation Analysis", one of the parametric test methods; It was determined that there was a statistically significant, positive and low level relationship between social media addiction and eating disorder and as the participants' social media addiction increased, the eating disorder increased. In addition, it was determined that social media addiction could explain 5.3% of the variance of eating disorder and social media addiction predicted eating disorder statistically significantly and positively.