Identifying and Prioritizing the Causes of Social Network Addiction in Students

Virtual social networks are a new generation of Internet websites. In these websites, Internet usersvirtually gather around a common axis and form online communities. Undoubtedly, today, one of theessential issues of societies such as Iran is the quantity and quality of using such networks and familiesand officials' concerns about the spread and type of use among Internet users. Therefore, the presentstudy investigates the identification and prioritization of social network addiction causes in students. Thesample size was ۳۸۷ people, and the random sampling method was used to reach the respondents. Formalvalidity was used to assess the validity of the questionnaire, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used toassess the questionnaire's reliability. Data analysis of descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean,and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation test, one-way analysis of variance,independent t-test, and multivariate regression by step method) using SPSS software Was used.Independent variables of the research included modernity, tendency to have a relationship with theopposite sex and consumption of new communication media (Internet, satellite, mobile) and thedependent variable of social media orientation. The results show that the most influential variable on thetendency to social networks was modernity, which alone determined ۳۳% of the dependent variablevariance. But contextual variables did not affect the dependent variable. However, in total, the researchvariables explained ۴۳.۲% of the variance of the tendency to social networks.