Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Sosyal Medya Kullanımları ile İletişim Becerileri Arasındaki İlişki: Bir Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Örneği

Abstract

Aim: The use of social media is a part of daily life, especially among young people, and creates a great transformation in the way young people think, interact and communicate. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between university student's social media use and communication skills. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and crosssectional study was conducted at a university's faculty of health sciences with 400 students in 2018. Participant Identification Form, Social Media Addiction Scale and Communication Skills Inventory were used for the data collection. Results: The average age of the students was 21.01±1.86 and 73.8% of them were females. Of the students, 94.5% used social media, 58.5% spend one to four hours daily in social media, and 39.7% used social media to follow up on current events. The total score of Social Media Addiction Scale was found as 88.53±26.64 and the average score of Communication Skills Inventory was found as 116.47±12.38. there was a negative and low level of correlation between social media addiction and communication skills (r= -0.09, p=0.071). Conclusion and Suggestions: In conclusion, the vast majority of students were found to use social media actively and social media addiction negatively affected their communication skills. Planning and implementation of education and counselling programs about the issue to increase the awareness of the university students is recommended.