Abstract:
The development and spread of Internet technologies made an important
breakthrough in communication between people. Social networks are regarded as a
virtual way of social life created by people via the Internet. With the help of these
networks, individuals define themselves and communicate with other people from the
same cultural background thanks to the opportunities provided by the Internet. It is
important to reveal the rate of university students’ use of social networks, which have
the capability of guiding societies and their future. Determining which social networks
pre-service teachers prefer and how often and why they use these social networks will
help better-understand the concept of social network. This study was carried out with
566 pre-service teachers attending Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty at Dicle University.
In the study, the descriptive relational survey model was used. As a result of analysis
of the research data, it was found out that 73,50% of the students had social network
accounts. It was also revealed that the students with a social network account
established connection generally with their friends via their own accounts (59,1%). In
addition, the Fisher Exact test revealed that the preservice teachers’ social network use
time depended on the number of their friends they communicated with via social
network and that there were relationships between the individuals the preservice
teachers communicated with and the duration of their being social network users and
between the individuals they communicated with and the duration of their being
social network users.
