Abstract:

In the post Industrial Revolution period, technology developed rapidly and the interaction of people increased in line with the developing technology. Nowadays, advances in computer and internet technology, in particular, play a major role in this interaction. One of the facilities that the internet offers is undoubtedly social media. While the studies show that people spend a significant part of their time on social media, it has been revealed that there are many needs, desires, and motivations behind this interest in social media. However, young people of high school age are a significant part of the social media users. The purpose, motivation, and habits of high school-age youth in following social media is an important issue that needs to be revealed. Based on this, this study focused primarily on different studies conducted in domestic and foreign literature related to social media, and then a field study was conducted within the framework of the habits, goals, and motivations of using social media in a sample of high school students. The data of the study were collected from central districts of city of Kayseri through the survey method. In this context, the study was conducted with a total of 1026 high school students selected through stratified sampling. Six factors were identified as a result of the analysis of the resulting data. These are the factors of social escape, enlightenment, leisure, economic benefit, social interaction, and entertainment. From these factors, the social escape factor has been observed to stand out compared to other factors. Also, it was found that male high school students were found to mostly use photo/video sharing sites on social media, while females use video sharing and messaging/calling applications more. 

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