Impact of Social Networking on Psychosocial and Academic Wellbeing of Nursing Students:A Retrospective Study

A retrospective study was conducted among 150 nursing students of a selected Nursing college in Dehradun to determine the impact of Social Networking on psychosocial and academic wellbeing. Students who were users of Social Networking sites were recruited for the study through snow ball sampling. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess the pattern of usage of SNS and perceived psychosocial and academic wellbeing retrospectively. Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess the depression level of participants.

Out of 150 participants, 23% (n=34) were using Social Networking Sites (SNS) for 1-2 hours/day, 30.7% (n=46) participants agreed that after joining SNS, time spent on face to face interaction with friends has decreased a lot and 28% (n=42) agreed that they were addicted to SNS. Three fourth (75 %) of the participants agreed that their level of confidence has improved after joining SNS and 15.3% (n=23) had mild to moderate depression. The depression score was significantly higher in high users of SNS than that of low users (p=0.01). One third (32%) of the participants accepted that SNS consumes their study time, 20.7% responded that they were unable to stop using SNS even during exam time and 18% agreed that they were using SNS in classroom. Domains of sleep, interpersonal aspect and self concept were negatively affected due to SNS, whereas self confidence and life satisfaction were positively affected.