Investigation of high school students' decision processes regarding the accuracy of information on social media

The aim of this study is to examine high school students' decision processes regarding the accuracy of information on social media. In the study, the mixed method combining (triangulation) design model, in which quantitative and qualitative research methods were used together, was used. The research covers students from two Anatolian high schools in different grades in Zile district of Tokat in 2023. In the quantitative dimension of the research, 519 students were reached and in the qualitative dimension, 12 students were reached with equal number of students from each grade level. Quantitative data were collected with the questions prepared by the researcher in accordance with the research purpose, the social media reliability perception scale and the social media confirmation/trust scale. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interview questions developed by the researcher. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 22 package program and Microsoft Excel 2013 program. According to the results of the research, the social media platforms that students use the most are Instagram, WhatsApp and Youtube. Most of the high school students participating in the study have been social media users for 3 years or more and use social media every day. Students mostly follow current developments on Instagram and mostly prefer entertaining posts. According to the perception of trustworthiness scale, students are skeptical about social media posts. The highest dimension in the social media credibility perception scale is the media engagement dimension and the lowest dimension is the argument strength dimension. According to high school students, the most trustworthy social media platforms are WhatsApp, Youtube and Instagram; the most trustworthy social media content is determined as video, text and photo. It was determined that students' trust in other users on social media was low and that they saw the posts as entertaining. In the social media confirmation/trust scale, students trust institutional posts on social media more than individual posts. Almost all of the high school students participating in the study stated that they do not accept the information they encounter on social media as true. The reasons for the few participants who accepted the information on social media as true were that they trusted social media platforms, social media users and believed that the posts were associated with reliable news sources. The reasons why high school students who participated in the study did not accept the information on social media as true were determined as the abundance of political trolls on social media, the fact that there is a lot of misinformation on social media, and the fact that anyone can post on social media. The methods used by the students to verify the information on social media are; verification sites, examining the sharing organization and checking the reliability and validity of the sharing content. In the social media confirmation/trust scale, students stated that they frequently confirm posts on social media.