What makes a difference in social media addiction among university students?

This study examines whether university students’ levels of social media addiction differ according to various demographic variables. The sample of the study consists of a total of 998 university students enrolled in different faculties at a university located in a province in the Central Anatolia Region during the 2022–2023 academic year. The ages of the participants range from 17 to 48 years, with a mean age of 22.59 (SD = 3.2). Of the participants, 51.5% were male (n = 514) and 48.5% were female (n = 484). The findings indicate that female students and active social media users are at a higher risk in terms of social media addiction. Similarly, longer time spent on the internet and more frequent access to social media platforms emerge as significant factors that increase addiction levels. In addition, it was found that students enrolled in the Faculty of Education exhibited higher levels of social media addiction compared to students from other faculties, while students from the Faculty of Agriculture demonstrated higher addiction levels only when compared to students from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. The findings are discussed in comparison with previous studies in the literature.