THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND CYBER BULLYING

Abstract

This study was done to clarify the mediating role that social media addiction plays in cases where individuals who use digital formations at high levels, which are an extension of the modern life understanding changing in parallel with current technological developments, have digital citizenship understanding and individuals in the virtual environment voluntarily and repetitively hostile behaviors occur. Revealing this relationship is important in terms of the extent to which digital media opportunities and the compulsive and malicious behaviors of digital citizens, who own it, in the virtual world, are associated with social media addiction. Considering the impact of digital environments, and as an extension of social media, on daily life in shaping the future of humanity, research on digital environments has strategic importance for determining new living and working conditions. Within the framework of these variables, 390 questionnaires collected by simple random sampling method on 4 different university students were analyzed. Since it is accepted that 384 samples will be sufficient for a population of 100,000 and above (Sekeran, 2003), the sample size of 390 obtained is sufficient to represent. In addition to the assumption that the answers reflect the truth, the research also includes limitations such as the application being limited to 4 Universities. To investigate the connection between digital citizenship and product-moment correlation, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis, cyberbullying and social media addiction. Mediation analysis (Sobel Test) was applied to reveal the mediating role of social media addiction between digital citizenship and cyberbullying. The mediation hypothesis was tested using hierarchical regression analysis. Following the analysis, it can be stated that there is a statistically significant relationship between digital citizenship and cyberbullying. In addition, in order to reveal the existence of the effect of social media addiction, which is the mediating variable, it is necessary to look at the change in the relationship between digital citizenship and cyberbullying, which are dependent and independent variables. Considering the effect of social media addiction, which is the mediating variable in this relationship, on the model, it was determined that the relationship was significant but weakened the relationship between dependent and independent variables.. This result shows that there is a partial mediation effect. It was determined that there is a strong connection between digital communication, access to the internet, security, and ethics., which are sub-dimensions of digital citizenship, and cyberbullying behaviors. According to this partially significant relationship, as digital citizenship attitudes increase, cyberbullying behaviors tend to decrease. Examining this research conducted among university students in different sample groups or according to demographic characteristics will contribute to the literature.