Investigation of the relationship of secondary school students' academic achievement with Internet addiction and social networking use levels

Nowadays, Internet addiction and social networking use are the two of the most important concepts in the world of the Internet. It is seen that Internet addiction arises as a result of unconscious Internet use and social networking arises as a result of the need to communicate and share. Both concepts have a huge influence in world of education and are subjects of many studies in the field. This study aims to investigate the relationship of secondary school students' academic achievement with Internet addiction and social networking use levels. The universe and the sample group of the study consisted of 10th, 11th and 12th grade students in Istanbul. In data collection process, Internet addiction scale developed by Young (1996) and social networking use scale developed by the researcher. Scales were distributed to the students in the districts and 1302 were accepted as valid from 1800 questionnaires. The data obtained from these questionnaires were analyzed with statistical data analysis programs. The study consisted of 664 female and 638 male students. The most significant reason for students to use social networking was to communicate with their friends (75%). It was determined that Internet addiction level of male students are higher than that of female students and academic achievement levels decrease as the Internet addiction levels increase. However, it was determined that level of social networking use does not affect academic achievement. Based on the results of this study, it was seen that Internet addiction level in Turkey among the sample population of this study was at an average level but at a level close to the level of problematic behavior. Moreover, level of social networking use was at the average level. It was also found that social networking have an influence on the Internet Addiction. For this reason, it is important to raise the awareness of teachers and students about the possible uses of social networking for educational purposes in order to prevent the uncontrolled use of these sites. Key Words: Internet Addiction, Social Networking, Academic Achievement, Secondary Education