High school students' attitudes based on social media (Example of Kaynarca /Sakarya)

The purpose of this research is to decide and evaluate the social media based attitudes of high school students, aged between 15 and 18. It is also a goal to learn how these high school students' views and relationships with their family, friends and teachers change while they use or don't use social media. This study's another target is to learn whether all these social media based attitudes of high school students are changeable according to some variables such as sex, age, academic field, economic conditions and so on. The universe of research is composed of 1029 High School Students (416 female, 613 male) in Kaynarca. The sample of the study consists of 342 students (205 female, 137 male) at Kaynarca Anatolia High School.According to results of research it is found out that the students mostly chose options stating they can't spend time with their families and friends while they use social media. It is also obvious that students tend to select choices expressing they can't concentrate on lessons and homework because of social media. Students also clarify that they can't join some of social activities due to social media. It is appointed that social media implications disassociate the high school students especially from their families and friends. It can be concluded from research that these implications can isolate young people from their social environment. It is clear from tables in this research that these tools can distract students. Another result we have got from the study is that high school students tend to be appreciated in an imaginary world rather than to be praised in real world. While there are no differences between students according to some variables such as sex, usage period of social media, social media preference; there are differences between students according to some other variables such as academic field, membership of social media, usage frequency, period of spending time at social media, and places where students use social media. Keywords: Social Media, Attitudes, Behaviours, Relationships, High School Students