Abstract:
Objective: The objectives of this study were to investigate the types and purpose of social media use, estimate the prevalence of social media use and determine the association between social media use and psychological effects among university students.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out in International Medical University among 12 Undergraduate programmes for a period of three months in 2018 with 396 respondents. Proportionate random sampling was carried out using the students name list. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire with three parts (socio-demographic, types and purpose of social media use and DASS-21). Social media use (dependent variable) was measured by the frequency of site-checks across five social media (Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube and Twitter) per week and converted to a global score of 0 to 1050. While respondents with scores higher than 280 were categorized as high social media use. Independent variable this study includes socio-demographics such as gender, age, and course, types and purposes of social media use.
Results: Results showed that 50.8% (95% CI: 49.5, 55.7) of respondents were considered to be high social media use. Depression is found to be significantly associated with high social media use (p < 0.05). The most used social media is YouTube (93.9%) followed by Facebook (89.4%). Majority of the respondents (88.4%) used smartphone to access social media, and 88.8% used more than two social media sites among the five. Other results showed that Instagram users reported more body image concerns while/after using the site. Whereas more YouTube users reported feeling motivated while/after using the site.
Conclusion: Social media is an indispensable tool for students to communicate and engage with friends and family, search for information, and for self-expression. However, overusing social media might cause undesirable effects on their psychological well-being. Therefore, awareness should be raised among users of social media of these negative effects and public health talks targeted at them should be held.
Keywords: Social media, Psychological effects, university students
