Smartphone Addiction in Undergraduate Athletes: Reasons and Effects of Using Instagram Intensively

Abstract

Instagram has become a popular social network software based primarily on the concept of sharing visual content. As the most popular mobile application among university students, it is thought to be a major component of excessive smartphone use cases due to the need of its users for frequently checking updates. As a result, heavy Instagram-use for both sharing personally generated content and checking on others’ updates is thought to be a contributor to smartphone addiction. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Instagram social network usage characteristics upon smartphone addiction levels of university students, specifically those enrolled in the Athletics Departments, in order to examine the particular case of young athletes that use Instagram extensively. Therefore, the study group consists of 97 undergraduate students enrolled in the Athletics Department of a state university located in the Thrace regions of Turkey during the 2017-2018 academic year, who were also taking up a pedagogical formation certification course for becoming prospective K12 physical education teachers. Adopting a mixed method research model, the study has shown that, as far as young athletes who report Instagram as their favorite smartphone application is concerned, heavy Instagram use statistically predicts smartphone addiction. Moreover, according to qualitative data, the Occam’s Razor rule applies with these young athletes’ interaction with Instagram. Problematic use patterns are more easily explained by passive-observant behavior associated with a certain Fear of Missing Out, rather than a strong desire to exhibit their body image and sports success.