Examining the relationship between social media use purposes, basic psychological needs, and well-being among university students

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between individuals' social media usage purposes and their basic psychological needs and well-being levels. In line with this aim, the relational survey model, a quantitative research method, was employed. The study group consisted of 469 university students. Data were collected via an online survey, and participation was voluntary. During the data collection process, the following instruments were used: the Personal Information Form, General Well-Being Scale Short Form, Social Media Use Purposes Scale, and the New Psychological Need Assessment Scale. In addition to descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted. Based on the findings obtained from the analyses, the relationships between university students' social media usage purposes and their basic psychological needs and overall well-being levels were examined. The study also evaluated differences in terms of variables such as time spent on social media, application type, number of accounts, frequency of sharing, and content type. The findings revealed that students' overall well-being levels did not change significantly according to social media time, platform type, number of accounts, and frequency of sharing; however, significant differences were observed according to gender and sharing content. It was observed that male participants had higher well-being scores than females, and individuals who shared information and expertise content had higher well-being levels than other groups. In terms of psychological need levels, no significant differences were found based on gender, time, number of accounts, posting frequency, or content type; however, a significant difference was found based on the social media application used, though the direction of this difference could not be clearly determined. Within the sub-dimensions of social media usage purposes, it was determined that entertainment scores differed by gender, with male students having higher averages. Significant changes were observed in the sub-dimensions of entertainment, social interaction, information acquisition, and communication according to the variables of social media usage duration, number of accounts, sharing frequency, and content type. In particular, students who use social media for 6–8 hours or more, have 6–8 or more accounts, share content daily or several times a week, and share video content have higher scores in these sub-dimensions. In analyses conducted based on the social media application used, it was determined that TikTok users had higher scores for entertainment, social interaction, and communication purposes compared to users of other applications; however, no significant difference was found in terms of information acquisition purposes. Furthermore, positive relationships were found between general well-being, basic psychological needs, and the purposes of social media use. Significant and positive correlations were also observed between the achievement, relationship, autonomy, and dominance dimensions of basic psychological needs, and the entertainment, social interaction, information, and communication dimensions of social media use purposes. The findings were discussed within the framework of the relevant literature, and recommendations were provide.