Abstract
While it is known that the COVID-19 epidemic has adversely affected many countries in the world, the stress and anxiety experienced by elderly individuals, especially during pandemic periods, has been more than that of younger individuals. The avoidance of the disease, especially by individuals over the age of 65, has prevented these individuals from communicating face-to-face with other people. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to determine the effect of communication concerns of individuals over the age of 65 on social media addiction. The research question was determined as “Does the communication anxiety seen in individuals over the age of 65 have an effect on social media addiction during the COVID-19 process?” In order to answer the research question, a study was conducted on the population of individuals over the age of 65 living in Konya. 423 individuals who use social media actively participated in the research. As a result of the research, it was determined that communication anxiety strengthens social media addiction behavior.
TopIntroduction
People live in society. It is known that the most basic communication occurs within the family because the individuals who make up society are brought up in the family environment. Communication within the family is also seen as the most religious education. It is known that the lack of communication is the basis of the conflicts and disagreements experienced by individuals in societies formed by families. Societies are prosperous with the spread of healthy communication to society, starting from the family. Family members then continue their education by establishing friendships with their external environment and then continue their lives with business friendship relations. In this context, bilateral relations are of great importance for the lives of individuals. Individuals meet their physical needs through their relationships with their external environment. On the other hand, in addition to their physical needs, individuals should also meet their psychological needs. Especially as Masluw explains in the hierarchy of needs pyramid, after the physiological needs of the individuals that make up the society are satisfied, individuals want their security needs to be met, and after these needs are met, they wait for their needs for love and socialization to come. Since the socialization and communication needs of individuals, who are social beings, are the most basic needs, it is vital to meet these needs.
Individuals living in societies live collectively in interaction with each other in order to maintain their lives. This does not mean that individuals only come together. It is used in the sense that individuals should live in a society by establishing relationships. Because individuals are expected to have this whole cultural, economic, and social relation at the point of meeting their needs from the most basic to the most complex, in this framework, society can be characterized as a complex set of relations rather than a numerical community. The most basic tool in establishing the interactions between individuals is communication. For this reason, individuals are in constant communication with each other, and communication is an activity that requires individuals to live in society. Establishing and maintaining these relations can only be achieved through communication activities. Although communication is the sharing of feelings and thoughts with other people, it contributes to the development of societies by ensuring that individuals exist in society. On the other hand, it will be possible for the individual to gain sufficient communication skills in establishing healthy human relations by recognizing their self. Individuals will live peacefully in society by continuing to interact with others. For this reason, communicating and acquiring communication skills are considered indispensable obligations for society.
Key Terms in this Chapter
COVID-19: The Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is a virus that was first identified on January 13, 2020, as a result of research conducted in a group of patients who developed respiratory symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath) in Wuhan Province, China, in late December.
Addiction: Addiction continuing to take a substance although it causes mental, physical, or social problems, not responding to the desire to quit, and the desire to take the substance cannot be stopped. For many years, it has been thought that the problem of addiction is a moral problem, that it arises as a result of a lack of will, and even that it is a result of personality weakness.
Communication Anxiety: Communication anxiety is a human quality characterized by fear or anxiety that arises in some communication efforts with other people.
Social media: Social media is an interactive communication platform that users search for, use, and produce content on the internet. With the introduction of Web 2.0 from the traditional media, it is media communication that provides access from one-way content sharing to two-way content exchange.
Age: It is each of the phases of existence, such as childhood, youth, old age, or time, which has passed since birth and is measured in years.
Anxiety: Anxiety is the response to an uncertain, potentially dangerous stimulus, while fear is the response to a “concrete danger”. Sensation about future events with uncertain outcomes but believed to have negative results.