Impact of Social Networking Usage on Level of Youth Self-Confidence

This paper intends to examine the effects of virtual space usage on the youth self-confidence. The methodology of this study has been survey research and the data collected by using questionnaires through randomly sending emails to an unspecified number of people. The fully responded questionnaires have been picked from among the received ones and 384 cases were chosen randomly to extract the data. The theoretical framework of the study is based on McQuail’s theories. The virtual networks’ usage has been the independent variable of the research and the youth self- confidence the dependent variable. The research hypotheses have been tested using Pearson correlation coefficient. The findings of the study indicate that virtual space affects the youth self-confidence that is to say with the increase in the usage of virtual space, the users’ tendency to communicate grows in the virtual space and reduces in the real space. The findings also show that the more the respondents use the virtual space, the higher the degree of their independence-seeking becomes. According to this study, with increase in the social networking usage among the respondents, the self-confidence of those who are faced with social isolations increases.