Pattern of social media use and social anxiety among the undergraduate health professionals with social media addiction

Abstract

Background: There has been a significant surge in the usage of smartphones, Internet, social media platforms, and also the growing concern about the impact of Internet, gaming, and social media addiction (SMA) on mental health in the community since the last decade. Aim: This study is aimed to know the pattern of social media use and social anxiety (SA) among medical undergraduates with SMA. Materials and Methods: This was a 12-month cross-sectional, observational study of 640 medical undergraduates. Social media disorder scale was used to detect SMA and Liebowitz social anxiety scale was used to detect SA. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Chi-square test were used for the analysis of data. Results: According to our findings, 11.04% of the participants had SMA. More than 60% of the participants with SMA spent 2 h or more time on social media in a day. About 29.41% of students with SMA spent more money compared to 11.86% of nonaddicted ones. About 47.05% of students with SMA reported fear of missing out (FoMO) as compared to 34.12% of nonaddicted students. Participants with SMA reported a significantly higher level (P