An Investigation of Attitudes of Students Towards Privacy on Facebook

OpenAlex İngilizce

The social media studies have frequently investigated the changes occurring in the individual’s behaviors within the social network, and the cause-and-effect relationship of these changes focuses on personality, but very little research has investigated the relationship between Facebook and privacy within the theoretical framework of individualism. In this study, it was aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between the tendency of students to hide their problems and their attitudes towards this tendency. This study is a descriptive one, and was evaluated by surveys. A Likert-type online questionnaire including 36 items was answered by 568 high school students from 26 classes (grades 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th) in Ordu, Turkey (Male=279, 49.1%, Female=289, 50.9%) in March and April in 2016. Participants ranged from 14 to 18 years of age (M = 16.15, SD = 1.00). Mean and standard deviation values were calculated for the obtained data and those were indicated in findings by making interpretations of the tables. As to the results of t-test and One Way ANOVA test which was conducted to determine the reasons of usage of social media by the students in terms of gender, monthly income and family attitude, there was a significant difference among variables. Findings point to the complex ways of the problems of privacy of adolescents on Facebook. The study results will raise more questions for future studies in terms of social media usage and privacy management.