Social Media Addiction and Sources of Spirituality Among University Students During the COVID-19

The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between the fear of COVID-19, social media addiction, and sources of spirituality among university students. A total of 626 university students, 355 (56.7%) being female and 271 (43.3%) male, participated in the study. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), which was developed by Andreassen and his colleagues and adapted into Turkish by Demirci, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) which was developed by Ahorsu and his colleagues and adapted into Turkish by Bakioğlu and his colleagues, and the Trait Sources of Spirituality Scale (TSSS), which was developed by Westbrook and his colleagues and adapted into Turkish by Ekşi and his colleagues, along with a socio-demographic information form, were used in the study. The data were collected using a web-based survey system. SPSS 20.0 statistics program was used for the statistical analysis of the data obtained from the scales. Of parametric tests, independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. The relationship between dependent and independent variables was tested using Pearson correlation. The findings of the research revealed that the fear of COVID-19 among university students differs based on gender and the increase in the daily use of social media platforms during the COVID-19. The sources of spirituality of university students were also found to differ based on age, gender, and social media use. Additionally, a moderately positive and significant correlation was found between university students' social media addiction and their fear of COVID-19, as well as a weakly positive and significant relationship with their humanitarian spirituality.