Abstract

Social media, which is commonly used by the youth, is seen as both a socialization tool and an area also causes them to became lonely, depending on the way that they are used. Being hand in hand continuosly through networks is accepted as socialization on the one hand, but not being actually physically together and also the superficiality of the communication is understanded as isolation. Accordingly, the research was carried out in order to both see and show the socializing and isolating effects of social media on the youth together and to find out possible unnoticed facts. The study that conducted in Karadeniz Technical University, 8 female and 6 male student were conducted with semi-structured interview forms through face-to-face interviews. The gathered data were collected under the generated codes and analyzed by descriptive analysis method. Interviews and study results shows that the youth use social media for information, communication and entertainment purposes. Their usage duration of social media can vary from 1 to 12 hours a day. This socialization form affects the youth’s daily lives; hindering from doing their chores, from time to time causes them te feel unhappy and lonely. In the research applicants frequently experienced both loneliness and socialization at the same time. It has been observed that the use of social media is a tool that isolates the youth while socializing.