Qualitative Research on Social Media Addictions of Psychological Counsellor Candidates

Abstract

Social media (SM), which is frequently preferred by young people, poses a risk of addiction when used excessively and unconsciously. Having self-awareness and becoming digitally literate, unlike other university students, is essential for psychological counselor candidates (PCC) in terms of preventive counseling they will do in the institutions they will work in the future. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare young people who use social media intensively or less by examining the views of PCC with high or low levels of social media addiction (SMA). This study presents a phenomenological approach to qualitative research. The SMA Scale-Adult Form was applied to the students (total 138 students) from the Department of Psychological Counselling and Guidance at Artvin Çoruh University. Focus group interviews were conducted with 20 PCC students who got the highest (11 students) and lowest (9 students) points on the scale, and extreme case and outlier samplings were preferred from the interviews. The data collected through the interviews were analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the study, SMA and related addiction symptoms have been observed in the PCC. The opinions of the PCC with low and high SMA levels varied in terms of the frequency of SM usage, application preferences, usage purposes, emotions, and opinions on the effect of SM on professional use. The results of the study are discussed and interpreted in line with the relevant literature, and recommendations are presented.