Social Media Addiction and Mindfulness in University Students

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate any association between social media addiction and mindfulness in university students.
Methods: Students studying at Ordu University participated in our research. For our study, survey questions measuring sociodemographic information, and Social Media Addiction Scale and mindfullness Scale questions were asked to the participants via the online platform.
Results: Of the university students participating in our study, 140 (65.4%) were female and 74 (34.6%) were male. It was observed that 208 (97.2%) of the participants used WhatsApp, 192 used(89.7%) Instagram, 188 (87.9%) used Youtube, 122 (57%) used Twitter and 46 (21.5 %) used Facebook. It was determined that 106 (46.5%) of them spent 60-180 minutes and 70 (32.7%) spent 180 minutes or more on social media during the day. There was a statistically significant difference between the mood regulation mean scores of the university students participating in the study in terms of gender (p=0.014), and the mood regulation score of women was significantly higher than men. It was detected that there was a statistically significant association between the students' mindfulness level score and the social media addiction scale total score, and occupation, mood regulation, repetition and conflict scores.
Conclusion: The mood regulation score of women was significantly higher than that of men. As the level of mindfullness increased, social media addiction decreased.

Keywords

• Social media addiction
• internet addiction
• mindfulness

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