Investigation of Digital Game Playing Tendencies of High School Students in Sakarya Province

This study was conducted in order to investigate the tendencies of playing digital games of high school students in Sakarya. The study was carried out in the survey model and a questionnaire developed by the researchers, which measures demographic information, general media usage tendencies and digital game playing tendencies, was used as data collection tool. The sample of the study consisted of 302 high school students from three provinces with low, medium and high socio-economic level profile in center of Sakarya province. According to the results, the daily usage rate of digital media and tools from high to low was like that; using mobile phone (170 min), using internet (162 min), using social media (131 min), playing digital games (90 min), watching TV (80 min). 54.4% of whom were online and 40.4% of whom were playing offline digital games. They mostly play digital games on mobile phones (59.6%) and desktop computers (37.5%). It was seen that the types of digital games most preferred by students were violent games. In addition, the proportion of those who prefer violent and aggressive digital types was 44.7%; the rate of those who prefer war and terrorism type was 31.5%. However, men were more likely to play both digital games and violent digital games than girls. Moreover, with the increase of academic achievement, it was seen that digital play time was also decreased. The rate of playing computer games was the lowest in families which a mother or father dies than others. It was also seen that the lowest rate of play is in the group with a family income level of 1400TL and below. The results of the study showed that 70.2% of high school students played digital games at least 1 hour a day and 44.7% preferred violent content digital games