Understanding Social Media: An Analysis Through University Students’ Word Choices

This study which is inspired by the game called “Television makes a person…” that is proposed by communication sociologist Eric Maigret to mention the challenges of thinking about media effects, aims to understand how participants position social media in their lives by analyzing their word choices and justifications. In this context, 65 final year students, who had taken at least one course related to social media, were interviewed. By analyzing the participants’ responses, chosen words were categorized under three main themes with both positive and negative groups : “Psychological effects“, “social interaction and behavioral effects” and “personality effects”. The findings indicate that while social media is considered as a significant tool for communication, information sharing, and being informed but also posses serious social and psychological risks such as addiction, asociality and loneliness. The study presents a social media narrative from the students’ perspective, emphasizing the importance of identifying the broader effects of social media on young individuals beyond its function as a communication network. In addition to that, this research is expected to be a foundation for further and more in-depth studies about the role of social media in the lives of young people.