Abstract
Today being able to access the internet in every moment and area of our lives as a result of the rapid internet access to mobile phones thanks to the development of communication technologies has made social media an indispensable part of the users. However, social media, which increases its place in human life gradually, can penetrate every area of our lives as a result of intensive and unconscious use, can cause academic or business-related problems (Young, 2004: 402), and many physical and psychological disorders (Gürsu, 2016). Depending on these developments, field experts consider social media addiction as a serious health problem.
Social media that has doubled its importance in human life has become an addiction because of its ignorant overuse by the people. The aim of this research is to measure the addiction level of social media usage and piety among adolescents and determine the relation between them. In this direction, a sample group, which has 707 students consisting 440 girls and 267 boys studying at 9 middle schools in 5 central towns of Antalya, was formed. To measure the social media addiction "Social Media Addiction Scale" and to measure the piety "Religious attitude and behavior scale" was used. According to the results, there are significant differences between socio-demographic factors, social media addiction and piety. It has also been determined that among adolescents if the level of piety is high, the social media addiction level becomes lower. In our study in which we investigated the relationship between social media and religiousness in adolescents, it was found that there is a negative relationship between religiousness and occupation, mood, repetition, and conflict dimensions which are the sub-dimensions of the social media addiction scale. In other words, as the level of religiousness increases social media addiction decreases in adolescents. These data are important in terms of showing that religion or religiosity has a protective / preventive function on social media addiction that is common. The data we have obtained is compatible with the literature. On the other hand, it is worth noting that religion, morality and variety of values play an active role in minimizing the negative effects of social media. In this sense, it would be appropriate to support educational programs with areas such as character, religion and value education that will contribute to the moral maturity of young people.