International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 15, No. 4 (2019)

Development of a scale for university students’ Facebook use purposes and an examination in terms of their Facebook use profiles

Mustafa FİDAN, Bartin University

Abstract
The purposes of this study are to: (1) develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring university students’ Facebook use purposes (FbUPs), and (2) investigate their FbUPs in terms of the variables of gender, Fb friend number, and use frequency as the indicators of Fb use profile. A total of 1098 students participated in the study from a university located in the north of Turkey. The study was conducted in two separate stages. First was the stage of scale development with 788 participants. Findings of this stage showed that The Scale-for Facebook Use Purposes (S-FbUPs) had three factors with 11-items, indicating good measurement features. In the second stage, data were collected from 310 participants to examine the effects of their Fb use profiles on the FbUPs. The findings of this stage showed that females used Fb more meaningfully than males, for educational and informational purposes. There were main significant effects of Fb friend number on the variables of “interpersonal interaction” and “self-promotion to others”. Besides, the findings indicated that the students who accessed Fb most often had higher self-promotion tendency. Points for future research and practical implications are also discussed in this paper.

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