AN INVESTİGATİON OF THE RELATİONSHİP BETWEEN SOCİAL MEDİA ADDİCTİON WİTH ALTRUİSM AND EGOCENTRİSM

Abstract

This study with a simple random sampling design aimed to determine the relationship between social media addiction and altruism and egocentrism in adolescents and explain factors predicting social media addiction. The sample of the study consisted of 898 adolescents in the 14-18 age group, a little more than half of whom (51.7%) were female students (n=464). According to the findings, the majority (92%) of the participants was using “WhatsApp.” There was a significant difference between sex and the use of “Facebook” (X²=137.220; df=1; p<0.05), “YouTube” (X²=10.511; df=1; p<0.05), and “Snapchat” (X²=14.869; df=1; p<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between social media addiction and sex (r=.108, p<0.01), Adolescent Egocentrism-Sociocentrism (r=.165, p<0.01), and among its sub-dimensions, Egocentrism (r=.194, p<0.01), Self-focus (r=.071, p<0.05), and Imaginary (r=.116, p<0.01). Moreover, while most of the effect sizes obtained by hierarchical multiple regression analysis were relatively modest, the results explained 7% of social media addiction. Future studies should investigate the role of social resources in addition to personal resources in preventing social media addiction in adolescents.