The process of university students' identity construction via location based social networks

This study aims to identify university students' practices of mobile social networks based on location and to analyze the process of their identity construction on networks via check-ins. The study was designed as mixed research involving both qualitative and quantitative data collection technics. Therefore, questionnaires were administered to 240 students actively using Swarm from six faculties selected from Anadolu University and Osmangazi University from November 22, 2017 to December 11, 2017. Moreover, semi-structured detailed interviews were conducted with 13 students selected from the ones completing the questionnaire. Quantitative data was analyzed by using frequency calculation on SPSS program, using crosstabs and using Chi-square analysis. The study mainly revealed that there is a significant difference between gender practices about using the application Swarm and sharing some information about user identity such as contact information. In addition, social networks based on location have an important role in diversifying ways of getting socialized. Moreover, as a result of the semi structured interviews, most participants revealed that the identities they are trying to create via location informing are consistent with their offline identities, stating they do not try to create a certain image. Key Words: Swarm, check-in, location-based service, social networking site, identity construction