Social Media use Across Generations: from Addiction to Engagement

Abstract

Social media is used at very high rates among young people not only in Europe and other developed countries but also developing and people from almost all generations have started to use social media. The use of social media has become an addiction regardless of country and changed the daily behaviour of users. Studies related to social media addiction are generally done on youth. It is observed that middle-aged and older individuals started to have engaged in social media. Therefore, the lack of research related to social media addiction of middle-aged individuals and over has made this study important. The aim of this study is to understand the tendencies to use social media as people get older. In the study, a survey was conducted on people aged between 24 and 49, and on people aged 50 and over; the goal was to understand the difference between the two age groups.
Social Media Addiction Scale Adult Form was used in the study was conducted on a total of 650 participants. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was concluded that as the age increased, the level of social media addiction decreased but that the social media addiction levels of individuals over middle age were considerably high more than expected. As the education level increases, the virtual tolerance sub-factor increases and the risk of social media addiction increases. There is a significant relationship between participants' marital status, smartphone use and social media addiction. The use of social media in the society can be transformed into an environment that can be used in education, self expression, creativity, media literacy and integration with society by getting rid of addiction. In addition, since addiction issue is being spread in Turkey and Europe, we want to increase an awareness for individuals and policymakers.