An Investigation of Social Media Addiction among Moroccan Adolescent Students

Abstract

This is a quantitative study that aimed at investigating the extent to which Moroccan adolescent students are addicted to social media platforms. Kimberly Young’s Internet Addiction Test was adopted and adjusted to serve the objective of this study. The sample consisted of 200 Moroccan adolescent students from the region of Meknes. The results highlighted that Facebook is the most frequently used social media site among participants, while twitter is the least. Furthermore, when they go online, they prefer to communicate with family and friends, entertain themselves, and read about social issues. To add, the findings revealed that only 11% of participants are severely addicted to social media, 24 % are MILD or average social media users, and 61 % were reported to be moderately addicted. On the other hand, the test showed that 3.5 % of participants are not social media addicts. Finally, a statistically significant difference was proven among students in terms of their social media addiction level based on their educational stream. In the same vein, no statistically significant difference was revealed based on gender.