Examination of the relationship between self-confidence and depression in the duration of social media use in adults

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship of social media usage time with self-confidence and depression. The research was conducted with 210 individuals between the ages of 18-45. Scales without data loss were included in the assessment and 198 participants who made the markings completely formed the research group. SPSS v26 program was used for the analysis of the obtained data. The dependent variables of the study were Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Self-Confidence Scale (SLS) and its sub-dimensions. Its independent variables were determined as gender, education level, marital status, the social media tool used, age and the time that they spent daily on social media. In this study, t-test was used for independent samples. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the difference between education level, social media tool used and daily usage time, depression, self-confidence and internal self-confidence and external-self-confidence scores. In cases where the difference was significant, the Scheffe test was used to determine the significant differences between the groups. Pearson Correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between age, depression, self-confidence, and its sub-dimensions, inner self-confidence, and extraneous self-confidence. In addition, Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was performed to determine to what extent inner self-confidence and external self-confidence, which are sub-dimensions of age and Self-Confidence Scale (SL), predicted depression scores. In the research, the level of significance was taken as 0.05. Depression and self-confidence differed according to the research findings, depending on the social media tool used. Depression scores of Twitter users were found to be higher. It has been determined that individuals using Twitter had lower self-confidence scores compared to those who use other social media tools. It has been determined that as the frequency of spending time on social media increased, the self-confidence of individuals decreased. In addition, there was no significant relationship between the frequency of social media use and depression. The consistency of the results with the literature and other variables that may affect the results were discussed and various suggestions were presented.