Research on addiction to social media and mobile phones among 1st-year medical students

Abstract

Background: In the past few years, there is alarming rise in the technology which includes advancement in the speed of internet, development of various online games, introduction of several new applications, and also debut of many social media applications. Because of this today, a lot of people, majorly including the youngsters, are getting addicted to social media which is bearing a negative impact on their academic performance and personal life. Many individuals are so much addicted to this social media that they cannot stay even a single hour without using it, also using mobile phones. The continuous usage of social media leads to increased screen time, and hence leads to prolonged gazing of the screen, which has a negative impact on the vision, can lead to headache, blurring of vision, redness of eyes, dryness of eyes, and sometimes even severe conjunctival irritation. Individuals will be so much glued to the screen that, they hardly change their body posture which may lead to the onset of cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis at a very young age and also using more mobile phone. Aims and Objectives: This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of technology addiction, usage of social media, and dependency on them. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 150-year medical students. The questionnaire was being prepared using Google forms which included questions on how often do they use the social media and for what purpose they use social media; there were also questions regarding the ill effects the social media is causing on their lifestyle including their academical performances and social connectivity with family members and friends and also on their physical and mental health. The consent from the participants was also taken in the Google forms after ensuring that there is no harm for them while they are a part of this study. Results: The results showed that the majority of the 1st-year medical students are very much addicted to social media; about 94.6% of the study subjects use social media daily. Furthermore, many of them prefer to use Instagram as a major source of entertainment. Conclusion: This study showed that the 1st-year medical students are more addicted to social media, have increased screen time and majority of them spend time in watching more and more reels on Instagram. We can also conclude that the addiction to social media is bringing a lot of health hazards and loss of cognition among students and disturbs their mental health and personal life.