Investigation of the relationship between technology addiction and recreational tendencies

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between technology addiction and recreational activity participation. The study sample includes 462 students from 103 different departments of total number of 43 universities in Turkey. The sample of the study mainly consists of universities located in Ankara. The data of the study were collected via 'Personal Information Form', 'Digital Dependence Scale' and 'Recreation Activities Participation Scale' surveys. The methods of frequency and percentage analyses, t-test, Chi-square test, Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were used for data analysis. Results: There is a significant divergence between men and women in the time spent on mobile or computer gaming (p <0.05). A significant relationship is observed between the areas of interest and daily technology usage (p <0.05). There is a positive correlation between the preferred physical, outdoor and group activities and the gaming type choices. A positive correlation was detected between the expression of photography under hobbies title with the social media dimension. A negative correlation was discovered between the expressions in physical activities, cultural activities, hobbies and other activities and the effect of gaming in daily life. There is also a negative correlation between expressions in physical activities, outdoor activities, cultural activities, hobbies and other activities with the social media dimension (p <0.05). Cultural activities adversely affect the dimension of the gaming (B = -.293 p <0.05). Physical activities (B = -.269 p <0.05) and cultural activities (B = -.137 p <0.05) negatively affect the dimension of social media. Other activities positively affect digital addiction (p <0.05). There is a positive correlation between the expressions of table tennis, camping, ski, paintball and football with gaming dimension (p <0.05). The preference of spending leisure time on the internet, playing games and watching television positively correlate with the technology addiction.