Social Media Use and Physical Activity among Junior High School Students in Indonesia

Abstract

Social media users regularly log in via online platforms to communicate and interact with other network users. There are many different social media sites that are popular among teenagers, including Facebook and Twitter, and these platforms offer alternatives to email for communication. Purpose: This study examined the relationship between social media use and physical activity among junior high school-aged adolescents. Methods: This study was a further analysis using data from a previous study that explored the use of online electronic media and physical health, mental health, and school performance among -junior high school students in East Jakarta, Indonesia. That cross sectional study included 315 adolescents from junior high school. Data were collected with the Social Media Use Scale and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents. Results: This analysis showed that students fell into four social networking use groups: low use (n=78, 24.8%), average use (n=143, 45.4%), high use (n=81, 25.7%), and very high use (n=13, 4.1%). In terms of physical activity, 54 students (17.1%) had low activity, 181 (57.5%) had moderate activity, and 80 (25.4%) had high activity. The relationship between social media use and physical activity had a low correlation (r=0.005), indicating a weak, non-significant (p=0.928) relationship. Conclusion: This study found no significant relationship between social media use and physical activity among adolescents at junior high school in Indonesia.