The Impact of Social Media on Undergraduate Medical Students in the University of Kerbala, Iraq

Background:Social networks refer to web-based and mobile applications available on various platforms that allow users to exchange information, ideas, feelings, files, update their status and interact with other user-generated contents over internet. Social networks are becoming increasingly popular among university students.

Objectives:Explore the impact of social media on undergraduate medical students in the University of Kerbala and to determine the factors affecting the attitude and practice of medical students to the social media networks.

Method:A cross sectional study, was conducted among medical students, of both gender, from first to sixth stage in University of Kerbala/Iraq. The total sample collected was 774 students, 40 students were excluded, and accordingly, the sample was 734 students. The data were collected using a valid self-administered questionnaire that was modified to be suitable for Iraqi society. Student T test and Analysis of variance test were used to identify factors correlated with the impact of social media and p-value at the level of less than 0.05 is considered as significant value.

Results:About 98.2% of the medical students were used social media daily, they were used more than 4 sites to access, Majority of them used Telegram 93.7%and YouTube 89.6%. spent about 6 hours/day, more than 10 time/day, they were used social media during free time, more active at night, also the students had got a benefit from the site of college. There was a high significant difference between positive impact and stage, time spent. While there was no significant correlation with duration of sleep at night.

Conclusions: Overall, the impact of social media on undergraduate medical students in the University of Kerbala was positive. There was no significant correlation between gender, time spent on social media, duration of sleep at night and students’ performance.