Investigation of the Effect of Social Media Addiction on Adults with Depression

• Main Authors: Serdar Aydin, Orhan Koçak, Thomas A. Shaw, Betul Buber, Esra Zeynep Akpinar, Mustafa Z. Younis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Healthcare
• Subjects: social media; addiction; depression
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/4/450

This study aimed to investigate the effects of social media addiction on depression in adult individuals. For this purpose, the researchers analyzed whether social media dependence had differing impacts according to various variables (age, gender, the highest level of education, duration of daily use of social media, frequency of social media use, etc.). A sample population of 419 people who live in different provinces in Turkey between 18 and 62 years of age participated in the research. The questionnaire form was developed to obtain the Social Media Dependence Scale (SMDS), Beck Depression Inventory scores, and demographic information from the participants. The research was conducted according to the general screening model. Significant differences were found between depression and social media dependency in variables such as the number of children, age, and income. As a result of the study, when social media addiction was examined in terms of gender among socio-demographic variables, no significant difference was found.