Supervisors info:
Τζαβέλλας Ηλίας, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Παπαρρηγόπουλος Θωμάς, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Τριανταφύλλου Καλλιόπη, Διδάκτωρ, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: The need for communication, interaction, information and entertainment has led to the great development and popularity of social media. The transition from normal to excessive use of social media is often a mechanism for relieving stress and loneliness effects, resulting in more active participation in more social media. Social media addiction can lead to negative consequences on social, professional, academic issues, health problems and loneliness. As the development of a decisive image on social media is a common practice to ensure social acceptance and admiration of others, one of the characteristics that is directly affected is the authenticity of the individual.
Scope: The present study aims to investigate the possible relationship between the use of social media and the degree of authenticity of social media users among young people in Greece. Specifically, it aims: 1) to calculate the degree of use of social media among students, 2) to investigate the influence of the socio-demographic profile of the users on the use of social media, and 3) to investigate the relationship between social media use and authenticity for students.
Methodology: For the investigation of the relationship between use, social media addiction and the authenticity of the individual, as well as for the empirical documentation of what is mentioned in the literature, a quantitative research was conducted on a sample of students in Greece. Responses were collected from 425 students from all over Greece, that use social media. For the needs of the research, questionnaires were used to measure the addictive behavior on social media and the authenticity level of individuals. The questionnaires were distributed electronically in November 2020.
Results: The sample consisted mostly of women, 66.6%, and the mean age was 22.7 years of age. Most of the participants connect very often on social media (70.8%) and spend 2 to 3 hours daily online (40.9%). The results of the analysis showed that the participants do not show addictive behavior, with average of the responses on the addiction scale being 2.38 on the five-point scale used, with 5 indicating high addiction. Gender, age, employment status and duration of daily use are associated with statistically significant differences in participants' responses to the addiction scale (p <0.05). A negative relationship is found between the use of social media and the authenticity of the participants, with statistically significant differences in terms of acceptance of external influence (p <0.05). Statistically significant correlations were found between the factors of authenticity and the dimension of addiction on social media (p <0.05). The highest percent of variance explained appeared in the model of interpretation of the acceptance of external influence from the dimension of addiction (R2 = 21.3%). All models with authenticity factors as dependent variables and the addiction dimension as independent, although showing low prediction ability, are found statistically significant (p <0.05).
Conclusions: The present study is an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between the use of social media and the authenticity level of the individual. The research has found that by increasing the frequency and duration of social media use positively influences the addictive behaviors on social media. Also, the high level of use of social media negatively affects the authenticity of the individual, mainly in terms of increasing the influence of the external environment and less in terms of increasing self-alienation and reducing the authentic living.
