Pre-service teachers’ views about the use of social networks

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.