Abstract:

The aim of the study is to determine the opinions of students in Develi Vocational School about their social problems prompting them to use social networks. The qualitative research method was used in this study and phenomenology design was taken into consideration. The sample of the study consisted of students studying in Erciyes University Develi Vocational School in fall semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. The sample group was determined according to criterion sampling. The data of the study were analysed by using a computer program appropriate for the qualitative data analysis by being collected from a total of 15 students through a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researchers and consisting of open-ended questions. In analyses, descriptive analysis technique was used. As a result of the study, social problems prompting the students to use social network were collected under five categories. These categories were determined as problems caused by social environment, decreased social activities, transportation to city centre, personal characteristics, and finance. Due to limited social environment and social activities for which they spent time in the campus and district, time they spent on the internet and their social network addiction were found to increase. They had difficulties in establishing communication within the campus and with people of the district due to social and cultural reasons and they stated that they spent more time on social networks due to these reasons. Moreover, another results were that the students had an increased social network addiction due to problems in transportation network between the district and city centre, financial problems of the students and their personal characteristics. 

Keywords: