Evaluation of Spending Leisure Time in Social Media

This study evaluates the conditions of prioritizing social media as a mean for spending leisure time, the way people use social media, and its negative and positive impacts from the viewpoint of users. It was carried out via grounded theory approach and qualitative interviews with 10 active users. According to the results of data analysis, four factors were pinpointed as the main underlies of using social media as a mean for spending leisure time, including communication needs, leisure needs, technological needs, and the need for various experiences. Three main positive impacts of social media are growth of communication abilities, psychological effects, and improvement of individual interests. On the other hand, it has negative impacts on family and social relations, physical and mental health and individual effects. Technological-technical effects and mental-psychological are activity continuity factors. The result of this research confirmed a process of replacing the virtual leisure with real leisure and Combining the concepts of work and leisure for users.