Social Media and Life Satisfaction in University Students: The Mediating Role of Loneliness

The aim of this study is to examine social media addiction and loneliness, which are among the factors affecting individuals' life satisfaction. The study group consists of 305 students studying at different universities and selected by convenient sampling method. Of the participants in the study, 81.6% (249) were female and 18.4% (56) were male. The age range of the participants included in the study varies between 18-43. According to the results obtained from the research, it is understood that social media addiction has a significant positive relationship with loneliness. Life satisfaction and social media addiction were found to have a significant negative relationship. Similar to social media addiction, loneliness was also found to have a significant negative relationship with life satisfaction. Similarly, loneliness was found to have a significant negative relationship with life satisfaction. In addition, the measurement model of the variables was tested and it was understood that the goodness of fit values were within acceptable ranges. Finally, according to the results of the mediation analysis, it was seen that the loneliness variable fully mediated between social media addiction and life satisfaction. Based on the results of the current research, suggestions were made to the researchers.