Identifying and Prioritizing the Causes of Social Network Addiction in Students

Abstract

Virtual social networks are a new generation of Internet websites. In these websites, Internet users virtually gather around a common axis and form online communities. Undoubtedly, today, one of the essential issues of societies such as Iran is the quantity and quality of using such networks and families and officials' concerns about the spread and type of use among Internet users. Therefore, the present study investigates the identification and prioritization of social network addiction causes in students. The sample size was 387 people, and the random sampling method was used to reach the respondents. Formal validity was used to assess the validity of the questionnaire, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the questionnaire's reliability. Data analysis of descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation test, one-way analysis of variance, independent t-test, and multivariate regression by step method) using SPSS software Was used. Independent variables of the research included modernity, tendency to have a relationship with the opposite sex and consumption of new communication media (Internet, satellite, mobile) and the dependent variable of social media orientation. The results show that the most influential variable on the tendency to social networks was modernity, which alone determined 33% of the dependent variable variance. But contextual variables did not affect the dependent variable. However, in total, the research variables explained 43.2% of the variance of the tendency to social networks.