Impacts of Social Media on Academic Performance and Mental Health of Alzaiem Alazhari University Medical Students (Nov 2020 - June 2021)

Abstract

Introduction: Social media is a network of websites and applications that enables individuals to converse with each other. With billions of people using, it worldwide. Social media overuse is quite common among university students. Which has been linked to mental health issues and it is negative effect on emotional wellbeing. Also, it affects the academic performance either positively or negatively. This study aims to determine the correlation between social media usage and academic performance and its impacts on mental health on undergraduate medical students of Alzaeim Alazhari University. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the impacts of social media using on academic performance and mental health of undergraduate medical students of Alzaeim Alazhari University students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study, during the period from November 2020 to June 2021. on medical students of Alzaeim Alazhari University in Khartoum, Sudan. The total population of his study was 280 By Stratified random sampling technique, according to their academic year then the sample selected randomly from each stratum. The data was collected by using electronic structured questionnaire by google form. SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the collected data. Result: All the study population was used social media and the most common program used by students was whatsapp then youtube, facebook, twitter, instagram and telegram in order. The majority of students spend more than 4 hours daily on social media however 79.6% use it for recreational purposes and just 14%for academic purposes. Also 73.6% their academic performance was affected. 51.8% negatively affected and 78.3% their mental health negatively affected. 55% of sample member need less than half an hour to sleep. Conclusion & recommendation: the study showed the negative impact of social media had higher compared to positive impact academically and mentally so the faculty should consider that the students need more awareness and advices about appropriate usage of social and positive aspect of social media should be improved also students should be learned how to manage their time on social media. So, we encourage the establishment workshops and conferences about social media problems.