High School Students’ Social Media Usage Habits

Abstract

Social media which is an important product of Computer and Internet Technologies has a growing usage level day by day. Increasing social media usage level gives opportunity for new software developments and making investments in this area. From this aspect, therefore, social media has not only economic function but also make persons participate in social life. Furthermore, it also provides opportunities for undemocratic actions and operations as in terms of democratic society life. Identifying users’ habits has an important function on determining economic, social and cultural effects of social media. From this perspective, this research aims to determine social media usage habits of high school students. The data was collected from 853 students in total (419 female and 434 male).  In research, “Frequency of Social Media Instruments Usage Scale” for determining usage frequency of 10 different social media instrument, and to determine the reasons of these instruments’ usage “Reasons of Social Media Usage Scale” consisting of 20-item are used for collecting data. Scales are also rated on 5-point scale. The results show that the most commonly used social media among the students participating in questionnaire is “Youtube”, and “Facebook” follows it in the second place. “MySpace” and “LinkedIn” are the least used social media sites. Top reasons of students’ social media usage are sharing document, information and opinion, and entertainment.  It was determined that students do not use social media instrument for presenting themselves by using others profiles too much. Gender differences has an important impact on social media usage. Students access and use social media mostly with using their smartphones. Students spend between 1-3 hours daily on social media.

Keywords: Social Media, Hıgh School Students, Technology Usage Habits, Educational Usage of Social Media