The aim of this research is to examine adolescents' perceptions of the concept of social media through metaphors. The study group of the research consisted of 182 high school students studying in the Aegean Region of Turkey in the 2023-2024 academic year. In the research, a questionnaire consisting of two parts prepared by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. The first part of this form included questions about demographic information (gender, age, school, class, etc.). In the second part, “Social media is like … because …” were asked to complete the statement. The data obtained from the research were evaluated by content analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. In the study, 93 metaphors related to the concept of social media were obtained from adolescents. It was determined that the most frequently used metaphors were “book”, “water”, “cigarette”, “teacher”, “chocolate” and “life” metaphors. The created metaphors are divided into conceptual categories and themes. As a result of the positive category, the themes of happiness, need and useful were reached. As a result of the negative category, addiction, time wasting and harmful themes were obtained. In addition, when we look at the content of the meanings that adolescents attribute to social media, it was concluded that 53.28% of them ascribed a positive meaning to the concept of social media, and 31.31% attributed a negative meaning to social media.

The aim of this study is to examine adolescents' perceptions of the concept of the internet through metaphors. The research is a descriptive study and based on the qualitative research method.The study group of the research consisted of 200 high school students studying in the 2021-2022 academic year. As a data collection tool in the research, the researchers used a questionnaire consisting of two parts that they prepared. The first part of this form included demographic (gender, age, school, class, etc.) questions. In the second part, “Internet is like / similar……….; because ……….” were asked to complete the statement. The data obtained from the participants were analyzed by content analysis method. In the study, 107 metaphors related to the concept of internet were obtained from adolescents. In the study, 107 metaphors related to the concept of internet were obtained from adolescents. It has been determined that the most frequently used metaphors are “book (%6.9)”, “water (%4.9)”, “cigarette (%4.4)”, “teacher (%3.9)”, “chocolate (%3.9)”. Depending on the reasons for the adolescents to explain the metaphors, 6 conceptual categories were reached: the internet as a source of happiness, the internet as an indispensable part of life, the internet that harms, the internet that gives benefits, and the internet that consumes time. It has been determined that the internet category is the most beneficial among the conceptual categories, and the internet category is the least source of happiness. In addition, when we look at the content of the meanings that adolescents attribute to the internet, it is concluded that 64% (n= 128) ascribe a positive meaning to the internet, 30.5% (n= 60) ascribe a negative meaning to the internet, and 6% (n= 12) ascribe both positive and negative meanings to the internet.