Technology, Internet and Social Media Addiction in Adolescence

During the period of identity crisis the adolescent experiences, he questions himself and friendships gain importance during this period, which may lead to the emergence of antisocial behavior. The need for social approval and acceptance that emerges in adolescence is tried to be satisfied with the opportunities offered by technology (virtual chat rooms, social media applications, e-mail, instant messaging, etc.). (Tsai and Lin, 2003) This satisfaction results in routine use and addiction. The age group that frequently uses technology is mostly adolescents, this has been officially proven by many studies. The results of the research show that adolescents generally use the internet for entertainment and communication purposes, supporting this statement. The crisis situation experienced in adolescence already leads adolescents to addiction to technology and substance use, etc. It makes you open/prone to many situations. In addition, current behavioral patterns, desire to communicate, desire to join groups, purpose of receiving personal help, importance given to being "here and now", need to be aware of the agenda, etc. The reasons are also among the reasons that trigger addiction. During this identity crisis, the "virtual identity" created by technology plays a savior role. Because it distracts adolescents from real life and real responsibilities. Adolescents use this opportunity and reveal their "ideal identities" in the virtual environment. This provides adolescents with the opportunity to recognize their own characteristics. However, it is not easy to transfer the experiences experienced in the technological world to real life, which makes adolescents psychologically sensitive. The effects also increase depression. A study showed that excessive internet use triggered depression in individuals who were not lonely and depressed (kraut-ark, 1998). The result of this research confirms what has been written about the negative effects of excessive internet use in people. Apart from this feeling of bad feeling and depression caused by excessive internet use, there are also negative effects;

The perception of time is distorted, vital functions and responsibilities remain in the background, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms occur, some health problems (physical hand) has also been observed to occur. Data from another study reveal that depressive thoughts and loneliness increase in adolescents when they use the internet excessively, because the experiences gained on social media cannot be transferred to real life. Suicidal tendencies are a common diagnosis in cases of internet addiction. Of course, these results and the reasons put forward are not absolute reasons. While there are cases of depression and bad mood as a result of internet addiction, there are also cases of people who prefer to use the internet because they are depressed and bad. (Lin and Tsai, 2002)

When we look at the literature, many studies have been conducted on the internet use of adolescents around the world. If the rough average of these is taken, it can be said that it is between 1.1% and 8.2%. (This difference arises from methodologies such as sample selection etc.)(Thatcher and Goolam,2005;Park, Kim and Cho,2008). No research has been conducted directly on the internet addiction of adolescents in our country, but when the internet usage patterns of adolescents were examined, it was determined that 7.6% of them used the internet problematically (more than 12 hours a week). (Tahiroğlu et al,2008)

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