A research on social media addiction of university students: The case of Sakarya University

Internet and social media are constantly being renewed and improved. With the development of the Internet, the use of social media is also increasing. The use of social media takes place in every aspect of our lives. Especially young people use social media constantly. Social media addiction arises as a result of unconscious and excessive use of social media when the rapidly increasing social media use is not taken into account. In this study, the social media platforms that young people use extensively and their purpose of use were examined. In addition, the levels of social media addiction and its differentiation according to various variables (gender, age, education level, type of social media used, daily internet usage time, daily social media usage time, time to start using social media, type of device to use social media, social media usage purposes) were also examined. The research was applied to the students studying at Sakarya University in the spring term of 2019-2020 academic year. A questionnaire was applied to the students to collect the research data. The first part of the survey consists of questions to determine the demographic characteristics of the participants, the second part consists of 5-point Likert-type statements for social media usage purposes and the last part consists of 5-point Likert-type statements for social media addiction. The research sought answers to the following questions: Which social media platforms do university students use the most? For what purposes is social media mostly used? What is the social media addiction level of students? Is there a difference between social media addiction and its subscales according to demographic characteristics? Is there a significant relationship between the number of social media platforms used by the participants and social media addiction? Does social media addiction of university students differ according to their social media usage purposes? Does social media addiction differ according to the type of social media platforms used? The data obtained through the survey were evaluated with the SPSS program. . As a result of the research, it was determined that the social media addiction of university students is at a middle level. Social media addiction did not differ by age, gender, and type of device used for access. It differed depending on the educational level, the duration of daily internet and social media use, the time to start using social media, the types of social media and the purposes of using social media. Identifying the factors affecting social media addiction is important in terms of taking measures to reduce social media addiction.