Effects of Social Network Use on Happiness, Psychological Well-being, and Life Satisfaction of High School Students: Case of Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

This study aimed to assess whether or not the social network site (SNS) usage of high school students predicts levels of psychological well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction. In order to determine SNS usage, the question “To what extent do you use Facebook and Twitter in a day?” was asked, and the hours spent on SNS were summed and examined. The study was conducted with 459 students in high school educaitob in Bolu district of Turkey. The applied structural equation modeling indicated that SNS usage predicted levels of happiness, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction. It was observed that the fit indexes of the created structural equality modeling(x2: 483.28, df: 166, x2/df: 2.91, RMSEA: 0.065, NNFI: 0.95, CFI: 0.95, SRMR: 0.057, GFI: 0.91) had good fit values. According to the results, the social network usage of high school students is an important predictor in terms of making students happy, and ensuring psychological well-being and life satisfaction.