Hubungan Intensitas Penggunaan Media Sosial dengan Loneliness pada Mahasiswa di Yogyakarta

Abstract

This study aimed to determine: (1) the level of social media use intensity among university students in Yogyakarta; (2) the level of loneliness among university students in Yogyakarta; and (3) the relationship between social media use intensity and loneliness among university students in Yogyakarta. This study was motivated by the increasing intensity of social media use among university students, which may affect their psychological condition, particularly the emergence of feelings of loneliness amid social life that has increasingly shifted into the digital realm. This study employed a quantitative approach with a correlational research design. The participants were 82 active university students aged 18–25 years who lived in Yogyakarta and were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected using a social media use intensity scale consisting of 30 items with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability index of 0.749 and a loneliness scale consisting of 20 items with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability index of 0.303, both of which had undergone validity and reliability testing. The data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, linearity test, and Spearman’s Rho correlation hypothesis test. The results showed that: (1) social media use intensity was categorized as moderate (38%), high (33%), low (22%), very high (4%), and very low (4%); (2) loneliness was categorized as moderate (49%), low (34%), very low (13%), high (4%), with no students in the very high category (0%); and (3) there was a significant negative relationship between social media use intensity and loneliness, with a Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient of -0.219 and a significance value of p = 0.048 (p < 0.05). These results indicate that the higher the intensity of social media use, the lower the level of loneliness among university students in Yogyakarta in this study.