Examination of Social Media Use of University Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the social media usage of university students, and to determine whether different characteristics of university students such as gender, academic average, socioeconomic level, world view, social media usage make any difference in the usage patterns. The study was drawn from the quantitative data collected for a bigger research project. A total of 2253 students from 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade in letters faculties of 12 state universities participated in the study. Frequency analysis, t-test and one-factor ANOVA were performed to analyze the data gathered through Social Media Usage Scale developed within the scope of the study. The results of the research showed that university students use social media mostly for research purposes and use social media least to get information about political issues and groups. It is also found that gender is a predictive variable in using social media for different purposes. Moreover, the world view (political affiliation) of university students and the frequency of social media use are variables that cause differentiation in all of the social media usage purposes. On the other hand, the academic grade point average and socioeconomic level of students are the two variables that cause differentiation only in social media use for entertainment and getting information about political issues and groups.