Investigation of the relationship of social media use with body perception and depression in university students: Çağ University sample

Looking at the most basic, all of the channels that allow people to share according to their thoughts and wishes, and help them to share and obtain information, are called social media. People can communicate with people they have determined by using social networks. It is sufficient for people to create a profile account of their own on the desired social media platform. Through social networks, people can share their ideas, interests and sections of their lives with other people. If the person has an irrepressible desire to use social media and excessive use of social media disrupts the person's work, private and social areas, it can be said that the person has become addicted to social media. While social media paves the way for people to share their thoughts, many people are exposed to the positive and negative effects of social media in every aspect of their lives. Along with the culture experienced in the development and change of body image, the effect of social media is undeniable. Every person has positive or negative evaluations about his/her own body. The feelings and thoughts that people develop about their own bodies form their body perceptions. Studies show that social media and depressive affect also interact with each other. Emotionally and psychologically distressing periods longer than two or three weeks, and the inability to do things that need to be done in the flow of life is called depression. People's use of social media can affect their depression levels as well as their body perceptions. Therefore, in this study, the relationship between university students' social media use and body image and depression was studied. Within the scope of Çağ University sample, a total of 297 people, 198 women and 99 men, participated in the study. In this study, which is based on the "voluntary" participation of the students, a personal information form prepared by the researcher was used to learn the personal information of the participants. The "Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form" was used to measure the social media addiction levels of the participants, the "Beck Depression Scale" to measure the depression levels, and the "Body Perception Scale" to determine the body perception levels. The data collected from the participants were analyzed with the IBM SPSS 22.00 statistical program. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship between the level of social media addiction and body image and depression levels. It is aimed that this study will be a source for other studies on the relationship between social media use and body image and depression available in the literature. It is recommended that this study be studied with different variables and a larger study group.