The Identity of Motherhood Transformed by Social Media: A Phenomenological Study

Objective: This qualitative study was conducted to examine the effect of social media use on women's mothering roler and childcare attitudes.Methods: The study group for this research was determined using the criterion sampling method, which is a purposeful sampling method. The sample consisted of 27 women who actively use social media and have children between the ages of 0-6. Data were collected using an “Introductory Information Form” and a “Semi-structured Interview Form”. Data analysis was conducted using Colaizzi's phenomenological interpretation method.Results: The mean age of the women who participated in the study was 32.03+4.89 years. It was determined that 96.3% of the women used Instagram, 63% used Youtube, and 40.7% used Twitter, and they spent an average of 1-3 hours daily on these sites. It was determined that the mothers who participated in the study mostly sought help from their own mothers and close environment (70.4%), web browsers (22.2%), social media (14.8%) and health personnel (7.4%), respectively, as a solution approach when they encountered a situation or problem they did not know about child care. It was determined that the working mothers (59.3%) who participated in the study had a sense of guilt and inadequacy due to the perception of super motherhood created by the social media accounts they followed, and therefore, they were more lenient, soft and ignored the error in the care approach of their own children.Conclusion: Guidance for parents on accessing reliable health information and proactive use of social media by health care providers to promote healthy decisions is an important requirement of our age.