Social Media Addiction of New Media and Journalism Students

ABSTRACT

Social media addiction problem emerges when the users cannot limit the use of social media networks and spend more time online. Today social media platforms have become work habits in many work areas as well media industry. So, it is important to determine the social media addiction tendency of university students who will work in the media after graduation.

The aim of this research is to investigate social media addiction of the New Media and Journalism students, who were heavy users of new media tools, at Üsküdar University. The sample of the research consists of 85 students from New Media and Journalism Department. The research was conducted using a comparative survey model, with the data collected from Social Media Addiction Scale developed by Tutgun-Ünal and Deniz (2015); and social media addiction of students were examined in terms of various demographic variables. In the research, social media addiction of the students was found to be low. When the sub-scales were examined, occupation and mood modification levels of social media addiction of students was found to be moderate. The findings of the research revealed that (a) Social media addiction increases as the daily time spent increases, (b) Students sharing photos in social media by applying filter/makeup were found to be more addicted regarding the mood modification aspect, (c) Students use social media when they wake up in the morning, during the day, and before bed, (d) New Media and Journalism students’ Instagram use is high, followed by students using Twitter the most.