Impact of social media on the academic performance of second-year medical students at a public sector medical college in Pakistan

Abstract

Background and aim: The students are using a lot of social media in recent times which was not the case in old times. The excessive use of social media may have an impact on the annual academic performance of the students. We studied the impact of social media on academic performance. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among second-year medical students at a public sector medical college in Pakistan from 5th June 2022 till 5th July 2022. Informed consent was taken, and a validated questionnaire was designed to collect data and was hosted in Google Forms to allow students to fill out the questionnaire. Results: The Mean ± SD of the marks secured by the students in anatomy was 135±14.5, the average cumulative marks of students in physiology were 142±12.3, in biochemistry, the average cumulative marks were 154±13.1 and the mean of the total marks secured by the students in their first Professional examination was 431±33.4. Regarding grade distribution, in anatomy the median of the grades was 2.5±1.0, in physiology, the cumulative grade of students was 3.0±1.0, the cumulative grade of students in Biochemistry was 3.5±0.7. The combined grades of students for all the subjects were 3.0±1.0.