The predictive role of attachment styles and alexitymia on social media use for university students

Social media occupies a large portion of people's lives and it's indicated as a virtual platform where relationships with other people are maintained. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship of attachment styles and alexithymia with social media use and network size (number of the account's following). Another aim of the study is to examine the role of attachment style and alexithymia in predicting social media use. In addition, it is intended to examine the effect of socio demographic characteristics, daily usage (time spent) and the number authentic and fake accounts on social media. Participant consisted of 464 university students (257 women, 207 men) in the age range of 18 to 26. Participants were respectively given Socio-Demographic Information Form, Social Media Use Integration Scale (SMUIS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Experiences in Close Relationships-II (ECR). Analyses were made separately for 3 different social media platforms (Facebook-Instagram-Twitter) with were examined in the study. According to the findings, social media use integration was found to be increased along with the time spent on Instagram and Twitter, it was also found to be more increased for participants who use fake account on Instagram compared to ones who use authentic account. For each platform; social integration and emotional connection was found to be positively correlated with alexithymia, anxious attachment and avoidant attachment. For Instagram; integration into social routines was found to be positively correlated with alexithymia and anxious attachment. For Instagram and Twitter; integration into social routines was found to be negatively correlated with avoidant attachment. At the same time, for Facebook; anxious attachment variable was predicted for social integration and emotional connection. For Instagram; daily usage, alexithymia and anxious-avoidant attachment variables were predicted for social integration and emotional connection. For Twitter; daily usage (3 hours or more), alexithymia and anxious attachment variables were predicted for social integration and emotional connection. For Instagram; fake account, daily usage (0-30 min/ 30 min-1 hour, 3 hours and more) and anxious-avoidant attachment variables were found to be predictive factors for integration into social routines. For Twitter; daily usage (0-30 min/ 30 min-1 hour, 3 hours and more) and avoidant attachment variables were found to be predictive factors for integration into social routines. Furthermore, online network size was not found to be correlated with alexithymia and insecure attachment. The results showed that individuals' attachment styles and levels of alexithymia have an effect on their use of social media. The obtained results from the study contributed to the literature on the subject of evaluating the causes for social media addiction and problematic internet use from a different perspective.