Do Teachers Experience Social Anxiety When Using Social Media?

Abstract

This study aims to investigate teachers’ social media usage purposes and the association between these purposes and the social anxiety they experience while visiting social media platforms. In the study, a correlational research design and causal-comparative research design were employed. The participants of the study consisted of 322 teachers. Data were collected online during the 2021- 2022 academic year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Two data collection tools were administered; the usage purposes scale of social networks and the social anxiety scale for social media users. The results reveal that teachers visited social media sites in order to mainly conduct research, partly to cooperate, to communicate, and to maintain communication, and to a lesser extent to share content and to entertain. In addition, teachers reported that they had mostly privacy anxiety and less anxiety caused by the shared content and self-evaluation while using social media. In addition, as teachers’ use of social media purposes increased, their social anxiety increased. Another critical finding of the study is that teachers’ education level is a significant predictor of their social anxiety.