Abstract:

The effective adaptations and development of individuals are possible through the strong interaction of family, friends and elements within the individual's social support system. In situations where social relations are not supportive enough, the individual may turn to social media tools because of the reasons as loneliness and the need to share. The widespread use of social media among students may lead to a weakening of peer relationships and increasing loneliness. The aim of this research is to reveal the impact of perceived social support levels of secondary school students on attitudes of using social media. This relational research was carried out with 360 students studying at public secondary schools in Artuklu district of Mardin province in the academic year of 2018-2019. The study's data were collected by the “social media attitude scale” and the “perceived social support scale.” Pearson correlation coefficient method and PATH analysis method were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the research, it was determined that the path estimates hypothesized among perceived family support, perceived friend support and perceived teacher support and attitude variables related to social media did not have statistical significance. However, the findings of PATH analysis performed among the scale infrastructures proved that increasing teacher support increases social competence and decreases the level of social isolation.