The Relationship Between Social Media Addiction, Happiness, and Life Satisfaction in Adults: Analysis with Machine Learning Approach

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between social media addiction, happiness, and life satisfaction in adults. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted on 15/03/2022-30/12/2022 with 1008 adult individuals in Turkey. Personal Information Form, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, Oxford Happiness Scale Short Form, and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, AMOS V 24.0, G*Power 3.1, R programming language 4.1.3 programs. As the level of social media addiction increases, life satisfaction (& beta;=-0.235, p<0.05) and happiness (& beta;=-0.290, p<0.05) levels decrease. It was found that life satisfaction had a mediating role in the effect of social media addiction on happiness (& beta;=-0.139, 95% confidence interval=-0.186/-0.096). It was determined the structural equation model. The best performing algorithm for predicting the happiness variable was elastic net regression. When the contributions of the variables to the model are calculated with Shapley values (Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP)), the most important variables that should be in the model to predict the happiness variable are life satisfaction and social media addiction variables. As the level of social media addiction increases, life satisfaction and happiness levels decrease. Longitudinal studies on social media addiction are recommended.