Social Media Use and Its Influence on Nursing Students’ Health Status: A Study at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Sunpasitthiprasong

Abstract

Social media has become an integral part of nursing students’ lives and serves as an easily accessible learning resource for students. Understanding students' behavior in using social media can help educators manage teaching and support students in using social media more effectively and safely. This study aimed to explore social media usage behavior and its relationship with the health status of nursing students at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Sunpasitthiprasong. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 270 first to fourth year nursing students, selected through multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using two validated questionnaires that assessed social media use and health status. The instruments’ reliability coefficients were 0.87 and 0.78, respectively. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests.

Results: Most students used social media in excess of 6 hours daily (53%). The most frequently used platforms were Instagram (100%), Line (99.6%), TikTok (96.7%), Facebook (96.7%), and YouTube (94.6%), with students having at least three hours a day usage time. They used social media for recreational purposes, such as listening to music and watching movies, as well as searching for learning content. Social media usage was significantly associated with physical symptoms such as back pain (p = .019), headaches (p = .015), numbness in the fingertips (p = .024), irritability (p = .003) and difficulty concentrating (p= .010). Over half of the participants reported that these symptoms negatively affected their daily lives, particularly their sleep quality (71.5%), academic focus (66.3%), social interactions (56.7%), and engagement in preferred activities (53.7%). The findings suggested that excessive social media usage has measurable negative impacts on students’ physical and mental health. Providing education and encouraging students to shorten the duration of social media use during each session may help reduce the negative impacts of social media on students' physical and mental well-being. Educators can utilize popular types of social media among students as a channel to distribute instructional materials, making them easily accessible and widespread.