Examination of university students' level of threat awareness regarding digital recreation

Increasing digitalization transfers recreational activities, which were previously reserved for physical environments, to digital environments. In this framework, it is necessary to take into account the possible threats of recreational activities in digital environments to individuals. In this direction, this study aimed to examine the threat awareness levels of university students regarding digital recreation according to certain independent variables. The research was carried out with quantitative survey and causal comparison models. The study population of the research is students at the undergraduate level at Batman University. A total of 444 undergraduate students, 278 female and 174 male, were included in the research sample. The research data were collected using the "Digital Recreation Threat Awareness Questionnaire of University Students" developed by the researcher. The data analysis used mean, frequency and percentage from descriptive statistical techniques. On the other hand, due to the normal distribution of the data in the analysis of differences according to independent variables, parametric statistical techniques were used and in this context, t-test and analysis of variance were used. In the study, the level of threat awareness of university students regarding digital recreation and whether it changes according to gender, year of birth, faculty, family income level, daily presence in the digital environment and the purpose of being in the digital environment were examined. It was found that the students were both at the level of "agree" in the dimensions of "Protection from Digital Recreation Threats" and "Possible Negative Consequences of Digital Recreation" and the whole scale. Thus, it was concluded that the students perceived themselves as sufficient against the threat of digital recreation. In addition, it was determined that the threat awareness levels of students regarding digital recreation differed only according to gender and in favour of male students among all variables examined and did not cause a statistically significant difference compared to other variables.