The Analysis of Adolescents Attitude to Social Media and their Loneliness Level*

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the attitudes towards social media and loneliness levels of high school students who is studying in high schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Another aim of the study is to investigate whether there are significant differences between students' attitudes and loneliness levels towards Social Media in terms of various socio-demographic variables. The students participating in the study consisted of a total of 195 people, 59% of who were women and 41% were men. The data of the research were used Social Media Attitude Scale developed by Argin (2013) and UCLA Loneliness Scale, which was validated in Turkish by Demir (1989). The data of the study were analysed using One-way analysis of variance ANOVA, t-test and Bivariate Correlation analysis programs. No significant difference was found between the attitudes towards the use of social media according to gender. Significant differences were found between the family's moderate or high economic level, having any social media accounts, and their level of loneliness. As a result of the study, it was found that female students have higher levels of loneliness than male students.