An examination of the relationship between university students' social media addiction and desire to be liked

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to examine the relationship between social media addiction and desire to be liked among 18-24 year old university students. Other objectives of the study are to examine whether there is a relationship between the variables of social media addiction and the desire to be liked, and the variables of gender, age, and the frequency of phone use, and to examine whether the gender, age, and frequency of phone usage differ for the variables. Method: The population of the study consists of individuals between the ages of 18-24 studying at Bursa Uludağ University and Istanbul Gelişim University. The sample of the study, which was conducted with the participation of 393 individuals from two universities, consists of 281 females and 112 males. The sample group was reached on a voluntary basis via the mobile social network. In the study, the population was reached by convenience sampling technique. Individuals participating in the study on a voluntary basis were given detailed information about the research before the scales were applied. Personal Information Form, Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form (SMBÖ) and Desire To Be Liked Scale (BAÖ) were applied to the participants. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. Findings: Participants consisted of 112 (28.5%) male individuals and 281 (71.5%) female individuals. According to the findings obtained as a result of the study, it was concluded that there is a positive relationship between the social media addiction of university students and their desire to be liked. In addition, there is a positive correlation between age of university students, frequency of using telephone (frequency of using telephone for 2-3 hours and more than 3 hours) and social media addiction and desire to be liked; it was determined that there is no correlation between frequency of using phones for less than 1 hour and 1-2 hours and scores obtained from the scales. For social media addiction, this relationship differs for gender and frequency of phone usage variables; however, it is concluded that it did not differ for the age group participating in the study. For the desire to be liked variable, looking at whether the variables differ; it was found that age, gender and frequency of phone usage did not differ. Result: There is a positive relationship between university students' social media addiction and their desire to be liked. Based on the fact that social media addiction is related to the desire to be liked, it is understood that meeting the likes of the individuals is among the purposes of using social media. In addition, age and telephone frequency variables were found to be associated with social media addiction and desire to be liked. Social media addiction scores from existing relationships differ for the gender variable. Considering the relationship between phone usage frequencies and social media addiction, it is seen that phone usage durations had different results. There is no difference in age, gender and frequency of using the telephone for the desire to be liked scores. Key words: social media, social media addiction, desire to be liked.