The Relationship between Students’ Social Media Attitudes and the Effects of Social Media on the Values

Abstract

In today’s environment, where technological advancement affects individuals of all ages, it is an important research topic to determine how much the values of teenagers who are in the learning and personal development stage are affected by this change. This research aims to determine the effects of students’ social media attitudes and social media use on values. A social media attitude scale, social media’s impact on values scale, and a semi-structured interview form had been utilized in the research conducted with a mixed method. Four hundred fifty-seven secondary and high school students had participated in the quantitative dimension of the study conducted in all regions of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and 45 students and 33 teachers had participated in the qualitative measurement. According to the research, both the social media attitudes of the students and their perception of social media’s impacts on values are high. there is a strong correlation between the student’s perception of social media and their beliefs that it influences values. Solidarity, sharing, patriotism, togetherness, sensitivity, and love of nature had been expressed as values that increased with social media usage. It had been stated that the importance of sociability, empathy, love, respect, honesty, responsibility, and diligence decreases with the use of social media. Rich content can be prepared, and individual and institutional studies can be increased, especially for the values aimed to be gained in terms of honesty, transparency, and privacy.