Social media addiction among Moroccan university students: a cross sectional survey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: social media (SM) has become an increasingly popular leisure activity over the last decade with excessively use. Social media addiction is often associated with negative effects. University students are a particularly vulnerable group to SM addiction. The objective of the study was to assess SM addiction among Moroccan university students and its negative effects on their lives. METHODS: a cross-sectional survey was conducted among university students in Faculty of letters and Human sciences of Ibn TOFAIL University of KENITRA. A total of 104 students were included. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) was used to assess the level of SM addiction. RESULTS: the median age was 22 years. The most social networking sites used among the study population were facebook and watsup. Seventy three point five percent of the students daily used the internet for social networking the last seven days with an average of more than four hours per day in 68.8%. Fifty seven percent of the students had a BSMAS score ≥ 18 showing that they may have or be developing an actual addiction to using SM. More than half of the participants has experienced a negative impact of the SM use on their job, relationship or studies, health and well-being. CONCLUSION: there is a need to focus on SM addiction as worldwide problematic issue and behavioral disorder increasingly reported by younger internet users especially university students to undertake the appropriate preventive measures to reduce the burden of SM addiction and its negative effects on people lives.