A Qualitative Study on the Reasons for Social Media Addiction
Open accessAbstract
The aim of this study was to determine the causes of social media addiction of individuals, who define themselves as social media addicts, in a clearer and more concrete way. In order to achieve this aim, participants have been tested with an addiction test, and 25 university students who perceive themselves as social media addicts were selected for the study. The findings of the research showed that participants' reasons for using social media were lack of friends, social necessity of social media, feeling of fulfillment, fear of missing out, intertwining of social media and daily life. The study also pointed out that social media addiction has a beginning and a continuity phase. It has been shown that the individuals who were in the beginning phase tended to start using social media for reasons such as not being able to find friends, lack of socialization, and monotony of life. In the continuity stage of individual addiction, they stated that they use social media for reasons such as, fulfilling a duty, and protecting social relations that they had. One of the reasons for addiction was the need to socialize, while male participants were more interested in acquiring new friends, female participants were more interested in communicating with their real life friends.
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- Authors
- Aksoy, M. E.
- Affiliations
- Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa Üniversitesi (TR)
- Corresponding author
- Aksoy, Mehmet Emin
- Venue
- European Journal of Educational Research
- Published
- 2018-10-15
- Volume
- volume-7-2018
- Issue
- volume7-issue4.html
- Pages
- 861-865
- ISSN
- 2165-8714 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2926575001
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 7.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- European Journal of Educational Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Digital Media and Philosophy
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- social media addiction, motivations for social media use, university students, socialization, fear of missing out, gender differences
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