Abstract:

Internet technology has many positive features. This ever-evolving and changing network has become indispensable for many people. In addition to all these positive features, today this situation is emerging as a new addiction phenomenon. People, especially young people, use internet technology to access social media. In the absence of parental and teacher supervision in social media use, adolescents are likely to encounter and be affected by negative content. Social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Tumblr, which have become parts of our lives and are now very popular, have been used by many people in the world for a long time. As a result, usage rates and durations will continue to increase rapidly, as opposed to decreasing. The intensive amounts and durations of use bring the phenomenon of "addiction" to the current agenda.

Social media addiction is a psychological problem that occurs in the form of cognitive, affective and behavioral states that cause a number of problems such as mood regulation, desire for repetition and conflict in social relationships while the individual is busy in private, professional, career and social relationships in daily life routine.

People seek and express in virtual environments what they cannot achieve and express freely in real life. These types of actions increase the duration of social media use, which then leads to addiction.

It was determined that as the duration of social media use of university students increased, their social media addiction also increased. Digital media has ultimately become highly complex with intertwined integrated technology. The internet, social media and smartphones, which have both undeniable positive and as well as negative effects, are areas to be studied meticulously as new technologies. In parallel to the positive effects of new technologies, their negative effects have a significant impact on individuals, especially young people.

The aim of this study is to examine social media addiction among the students in Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa. In this direction, the differences in the scores of social media addiction and its sub-dimensions in terms of gender, age groups, grade level and frequency of Internet use were examined. Since the data were normally distributed, t-test for 2 groups and ANOVA for more than 3 groups were used. For a total of 890 students, the social media addiction score of female students, students between the ages of 18-24, 2nd grade students and those who use the Internet for 5 hours or more per day were significantly higher.

Keywords:

Social Media Addiction, University Students, Statistical Analysis.