Analysis of the relationship of social media addiction and loneliness in university students

In recent years, it has attracted attention that the use of social media among people is increasing gradually. University students have an important place among the groups with a high rate of social media usage. This situation paves the way for high social media addiction among university students. Although social media addiction is a behavioral addiction type, it affects the social life of the individual negatively. In the studies in the literature, it is stated that social media addiction affects social life negatively and makes the individual isolated. On the contrary, in the studies in the literature, it is seen that there are studies on the relationship between social media addiction and loneliness in children and adolescents, and it has stroked that the studies on this subject on university students are limited. At this point, it is an important problem to investigate whether there is a significant relationship between social media addiction and loneliness in university students. In this study conducted, it is aimed to investigate the relationship between social media addiction and loneliness in university students. A total of 413 university students, who include 203 women and 208 men, participated in the study. In the data collection process of the research, Google Forms were used. The 'Social Media Addiction Scale' was used to determine the social media addiction of the students who participate in the study, and the 'UCLA Loneliness Scale' was used to determine the level of loneliness. In the process of analysing the data obtained in the study, Mann Whitney test, Kruskal Wallis H test and Spearman Correlation analysis were used in SPSS 22.0 program. At the end of the study, it was determined that the social media addiction level of university students was medium and the level of loneliness was low. When handled according to demographic variables, it was found that the loneliness levels of the students did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, education level of mother and father (p>0.05). On the other hand, it was determined that the level of loneliness of the students differed significantly according to the variables of the class which is received education and having a personal computer (p<0.05). In addition, it was concluded that the social media addiction levels of the students did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, class which is received education, education level of parents and having a personal computer (p<0.05). In addition, it was determined that there is a positive significant relationship between students' loneliness levels and social media addiction (p<0.05). Consequently, it can be said that social media addiction and loneliness levels are not high in university students, demographic variables are not determinant especially on social media addiction, and social media addiction is a factor that increases the level of loneliness.