A Quantitative Research on the Level of Social Media Addiction among Young People in Turkey

Internet technology today shows a quick progress, and social networks increase their number of users on each day. Social networking, which is one of the main indicators of the technology era, attracts people of all ages while the virtual world goes beyond the real life via the applications it offers. Especially young people show an intense interest in social media which is an extension of the Internet technology. Social media addiction is increasing both in Turkey and all around the world. This study aims to determine the level of social media addiction in young people in Turkey, and to make suggestions on the prevention of the addiction while stating the current work carried out on the subject in Turkey. Survey type research model is used in the study, and social media addiction is examined in depth to determine causes of the addiction among young people. In this study, the addiction factor of the Social Networking Status Scale is used as a data collection tool to measure social media addiction among young people. The scale has three factors including addiction, ethics and convergence, and it is a reliable and valid scale, as the reliability and validity of the scale had been tested. The study is conducted on 271 students between the ages of 13-19. It has been found that gender (t=0.406; P>0.05) makes no significant difference in social media addiction while the factors of age (F=6.256; P<0.05), daily time spent on the Internet (F=44.036; P<0.05) and daily frequency of visiting social media profiles (F=53.56; P<0.05) make significant differences in addiction level. The results have showed that low addiction level of 14-year group increases with age up to 17 years, and the level decreases in 18-year group. Social media addiction level shows a dramatic increase also in the case of daily time spent on the Internet increases. More frequent daily visits to social media profiles increase the addiction as well. The study also provides suggestions on possible actions to prevent addiction.