Investigation of the relationship between conscious social media use and secondary traumatic stress symptoms following the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes

This research was conducted to examine the secondary traumatic stress levels of the earthquake in individuals who were not directly exposed to the February 6 Kahramanmaraş-based earthquakes, but followed the earthquake news through the media. In this direction, the universe of the research consists of adult individuals who have not been exposed to the February 6 earthquakes. In the survey study, which reached a total of 409 people, questionnaires that did not meet the participant requirements were removed and the research was conducted with 382 participants. The questionnaire was delivered to the participants by online methods. Personal Information Form, Social Media Confirmation/Trust Scale and Post-Earthquake Trauma Level Determination Scale were used in data collection. The data of the research were transferred to IBM SPSS Statistics 25 Statistical Program and t-test, ANOVA and correlation analyses were performed in accordance with the hypotheses. In the findings related to demographic variables in the study, it was found that socially conscious social media use and secondary traumatic stress levels after the earthquake led to a significant difference according to the gender variable. According to the age and education variables, a significant difference was observed in the confirmation sub-dimension of the social media confirmation trust scale. At the level of trauma after the earthquake, a significant difference was reached in all sub-dimensions according to the age variable, and a significant difference was obtained in the cognitive configuration sub-dimension in the education variable. In the correlation analysis, a negatively significant relationship was found between the confirmation sub-dimension of the social media confirmation/trust scale and the trust sub-dimension of individual shares. In addition, a positively significant relationship was found between the affective sub-dimension of the post-earthquake trauma scale and the confirmation sub-dimension of the social media confirmation/trust scale. When the correlation analysis for the post-earthquake trauma level and social media usage processes was examined, a positive significant relationship was found between the time spent on social media and the post-earthquake trauma level sub-dimensions. The data obtained support the view that the unconscious use of social media during and after the earthquake increases the symptoms of secondary traumatic stress.