Social network addiction among medical students of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Abstract

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Objectives: To determine the impact of Social Networking Sites (SNS) addiction among medical students of University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJP) Methods: One Hundred forty three (143) students of FMS.USJP of 2013/2014 A/L intake completed a simple selfadministered questionnaire containing Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale to measure usage of Facebook and YouTube. Two sets of criteria were used to calculate addiction rates (a score of 3 on at least four from all 6 survey items (moderate) and a score of 3 on all six items- (severe)}. Results: Out of 156 students 143 have completed the survey with the response rate of 91.6%. Out of this 94 were female with a general ratio of 2:1. Facebook was most commonly used (89.5%), followed YouTube by (84.6%) Addiction rates varied significantly across the two SNSs and varied according to the criteria used. Severe Facebook addiction was noted on 2.09%(3/143) and all were female. Moderate Facebook addiction was noted 15.3%(22/143) and 9.7%(14/143) in females’ and males’ respectively. Percentage 2.79(4/143) of students were severely addicted to YouTube and % were male. Moderate YouTube addiction was noted among 9.09% in female and 6.99% in male students. Percentage74.8(107/143) students stated less than 20% usage of Facebook for their academic related activities while majority of 33.5% of students have highlighted of using You Tube for academic related activities was between 40-60%. Conclusions: Rates of SNS addiction among this batch of medical students is moderate and somewhat academic related. Addiction rates decreased when work-related activity was taken into consideration which indicates that rates may adjust according to purpose of use.