The Relationships Among Social Media Intensity, Smartphone Addiction, and Subjective Wellbeing of Turkish College Students

Abstract

Excessive use of new technologies appears to be potentially addictive for a minority of young people. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between personal environment factors (self-esteem and subjective wellbeing) and behaviors (social network site [SNS] intensity and smartphone addiction) drawing upon the Social Cognitive Theory and utilizing structural equation modeling. The sample comprised 734 undergraduate Business School students. Findings indicated that young people tend to use SNSs to enhance their extrinsic outcome expectation (network size) rather than intrinsic one (subjective well-being). Based on our knowledge, the present study is the first to address SNS usage behavior to assess extrinsic and intrinsic factors separately. Results also show that high SNS intensity is associated with high levels of smartphone usage, which decreases the individuals’ level of subjective wellbeing. It is also proved that low self-esteem causes smartphone addiction. Lastly, there is a weak but significant relation between SNS intensity and network size is also found. Overall, the present study contributes to our understanding of problematic smartphone and social media use.