An investigation on the habits middle-school students' social media usage

The aim of this work is to detect the habits of Middle-School Students Social Media Usage. The purpose of this study is to determine the social media usage habits of middle school students. The aim of the study is to contribute to the media literacy education of the findings of the students' social media perceptions, usage, communication and preference tendencies. This work consists from 118 5th grades, 118 6th grades, 146 7th grade and 146 8th grade students located in schools those within the purview of Ministry of Education in Bolu Province between 2015-2016. The descriptive methodology of this work derives from a quantitative research pattern. Research data consists from semi-constructive interview forms. The interview forms accepted the social media in a four dimensions: The personal information of students, their perceptions of social media, their usage durations, the space where the usage takes place and whom they communicate through social media. Information and opinions from students are analyzed through constructive analysis. Following this procedure themes are formed from previously analyzed data and later dived into sub-themes, any information of students found striking have been presented directly by using coding. As a conclusion it is detected that students' perceive of social media functionally. It is detected that majority of students are using social media accounts and they are in communication with their friend's. Findings of this work discussed pending on literature while recommendations were presented. It is evaluated that the findings of this work would aid researchers and teachers on media literacy. Key Words: Social Media, Secondary School Students, Media Literacy