Exploring the Interconnections: Predictors and Mediators of Internet, Mobile Phone,Social Media Addiction, and Technology Usage Behaviors of University Students
6th International Conference on Educational Technology and Online Learning – ICETOL, Bremen, Almanya, 17 - 20 Ağustos 2026, ss.511, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Bremen
- Basıldığı Ülke: Almanya
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.511
- Galatasaray Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Despite the advantages provided by the internet and social media as educational technology,the alarming rise of excessive usage among university students has been shown to adverselyimpact their academic, professional, and family well-being. While recent research hasexplored the demographic and psychological factors influencing technology addictions,limited studies have examined which type of technology addiction acts as a precursor to theothers or how these dependencies are shaped by various mediators. To address these gaps,this research aims to delineate a pervasive issue of internet addiction, mobile phoneaddiction, and social media addiction, highlighting their associations simultaneously byinvestigating the interaction among these technology addictions and technology usagebehaviors, examining the predictors and mediating effects. The study utilized a correlationalresearch method and involved 280 university students in Türkiye with ages ranging from 18to 41. Data collection tools included a demographics form, the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale,Internet Addiction Scale, and Social Media Addiction Scale. Descriptive analyses indicate thatstudents spend an average of approximately 5.50 hours per day on smartphones, 5.06 hourson the internet, and 3.32 hours on social media platforms. Regarding the dimensions oftechnology addiction types, it was observed that the values for academic problems, virtualproblems, and negativity in social relationships were notably high. Regression and mediationanalysis revealed that the models with the strongest explanatory power were social mediaaddiction or social media use hours as predictors, mobile phone addiction as the mediator,and internet addiction as the criterion variable. These results suggest that social mediaengagement significantly contributes to the development of both mobile phone addiction andinternet addiction. This study had the novel finding that among technology usage predictors,only daily social media use significantly predicted all three addiction types. Future researchshould investigate the underlying causes of social media addiction while considering theinterconnected nature of technology addictions and specific aspects of social mediacontributing to addictive behaviors.
Keywords: Mobile Phone Addiction, Internet Addiction, Social Media Addiction, UniversityStudents, Technology Addiction, Technology Use Behaviors