Author Affiliations
Abstract
Background: The rapid integration of social media into daily life has significantly influenced the academic environment, particularly among nursing students. While social media provides access to educational resources, peer collaboration, and networking opportunities, its excessive use may lead to distraction, poor time management, and decreased academic performance. Understanding this dual impact is essential for developing effective academic and behavioral strategies.
Aim: The study aimed to explore the relationship between social media addiction and the academic performance of nursing students.
Methodology: There was a quantitative, cross-sectional study on 232 nursing students in Swat; the questionnaires were self-administered. The sample was based on convenience sampling, and the data were analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. The chi-square tests were used to determine the relationships between demographic and social media consumption patterns.
Results: The findings revealed that 94% of participants perceived social media addiction as negatively affecting their academic performance. Platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter were identified as beneficial for group learning and collaboration; however, excessive use reduced study time, academic performance, and clinical practice engagement. Social media usage showed significant associations with gender, age, marital status, and year of study. Non-academic usage was higher among male and younger students.
Conclusion: Social media’s dual role as a learning tool and a source of distraction highlights the need for effective management strategies. Educators should focus on promoting responsible usage and providing support to students, enabling them to balance their academic responsibilities with social media activities.
Keywords
Social media addiction, Academic performance, Nursing students, Social networking sites, Time management.
Introduction
Social media addiction has, however, displaced the otherwise normal ways of doing things in today’s society, including learning in academic institutions.[1] Social media addiction is a term used to describe a scenario where people spend much of their time on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for example, most of the time without attending to other activities.[2] Especially for nursing students, where social media is used for communication as well as a distraction. Aspects such as students’ grades, their competence in clinical assessment, and their interaction with the learning process are analyzed as indicators of academic performance here. Learning the correlation between social media use and academic achievement is very important because it affects concentration, time organization, and learning outcomes among students in a high-stress profession, for example, nursing.[3]
Prevalence is the aspect of the extent to which a certain condition is common in a certain population at a given time.[4] The rate at which social media addiction is increasing among university students is so high all over the world, and the figures of 15 to 36 % are being reported in higher learning institutions.[5] Students of nursing are especially susceptible to the pressures of the clinical practice, overwhelming study time, and their psychosocial development.[6] Studies carried out in other nations also reveal that excessive use of social media can be strongly related to bad academic performance, low concentration, and sleep deprivation. The prevalence is high, which means that there is an urgent need to study its implications in nursing education.[7]
Social media is meant to be interactive, addictive, and entertaining, usually by means of notifications, likes, and shares. These aspects add to the increasing screen time and could slow down the time spent on academic tasks.[8] Students of nursing who have a high volume of academic and clinical work might struggle to find a balance when the constant use of social media interferes with their study time. This imbalance may undermine theoretical knowledge, as well as the acquisition of the necessary clinical skills.[9]
Social media addiction has not only academic effects, but also mental health and well-being. They have been associated with excessive use leading to high levels of stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, and fatigue among students.[10] Nighttime use also causes sleep deprivation, which worsens attention, memory, and decision-making skills, which are crucial to nursing practice. The inability to focus in training on patient care is a significant issue for future professional competency since it leads to poor clinical performance.[11]
The interrelationship between social media addiction and the academic performance of nursing students is important to understand to develop preventive and corrective measures. A significant role can be played by nursing institutions in terms of awareness, guidelines that can be applied to healthy usage, and time management support to students.[12] By mitigating the dangers and enhancing the beneficial educational value of social media, universities can be assured that students are successful in their studies without causing the traumatic impact of being overly dependent.[13]
Methodology
The research was conducted in three nursing colleges at District Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Nightingale Nursing College at Charbagh Swat, Upper Swat Nursing College at Swat, and Fatima Nursing College at Charbagh Swat. They were chosen because of the academic requirements in nursing education and the accessibility of these institutions, a factor that facilitated the collection of the data. The sample was made up of students of different academic years to make sure that the results were representative of a wide range of nursing students in the area. The study was a quantitative cross-sectional study to examine the adverse effects of using social media on the academic performance of nursing students. This design enabled the researcher to gather the data at one point, which enabled a snapshot of the impact of social media on the study hours, clinical practice, and academic outcomes. The Raosoft formula was used to compute the sample size, which was 232 participants, and thus it guaranteed reliability of the results at a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error. Convenience sampling was used in the study, and this allowed the researcher to access willing and available participants who were willing and available to respond to help in the collection of data. The inclusion criteria were that the participants had to enroll in nursing programs, actively use social media, and consent; non-nursing programs and students who could not participate owing to health factors were excluded. The data collected were in the form of self-administered, paper-based questionnaires based on the modified version of past validated studies. These tools obtained demographic information, social media-use patterns, perceptions, and experiences of its effects on scholarly and clinical performance. The data collected from the responses helped understand the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students regarding social media. The data was worked out with the help of SPSS version 22, and descriptive statistics, including the means, the standard deviations, and the graphical presentations, were used. Correlation analysis was also conducted to establish the relationship between social media use and academic outcomes. This choice guaranteed valid conclusions concerning the importance of social media in nursing education and gave a foundation to recommend future interventions.
Results
The study sample consisted predominantly of male students (87%), with females making up 13%. Most participants were 18-22 years old (76%), and the majority were unmarried (83%). In terms of academic year, the largest groups were from the 2nd and 4th years (35% each), followed by the 1st year (17%) and the 3rd year (14%).
| Variables | Category | Frequency (n) | Percentage (%) |
| Gender | Male | 202 | 87% |
| Female | 30 | 13% | |
| Age | 18-22 | 176 | 76% |
| 23-27 | 51 | 22% | |
| 28-32 | 5 | 2% | |
| Marital status | Married | 39 | 17% |
| Unmarried | 193 | 83% | |
| Year of study | 1st Year | 39 | 17% |
| 2nd Year | 81 | 35% | |
| 3rd Year | 32 | 14% | |
| 4th Year | 80 | 35% |
Table 1: Demographic characteristics of participants
The results show that the vast majority of students (94%) are sure that social media addiction harms academic performance, and many of them do not spend time studying, but spend time online. WhatsApp (80%) and Twitter (63%), Wikipedia, and blogs are perceived as helpful in the learning process 80 to 85% academic assistance). Gender and age affect usage, where males are more inclined to non-academic usage, and 76% indicated that age influences habits. On the whole, social media can be educational, but too much of it cannot allow one to study and perform (Table 2).
| Observation | Main finding | Percentage (%) |
| Academic impact | Students strongly agree that social media addiction harms academics | 94 |
| Study vs. social media time | Students report spending more time on social media than on books | 84 |
| Twitter use | Students find Twitter discussions helpful for academic performance | 63 |
| WhatsApp use | Students see WhatsApp as useful for knowledge sharing | 80 |
| Wikipedia & blogs | Students consider Wikipedia and blogs relevant for research/class learning | 80–85 |
| Gender differences | Students believe gender affects use of social media (males more for non-academics) | 80 |
| Age influence | Students agree that age impacts social media usage | 76 |
| Boredom with age | Students state that social media becomes less interesting as they grow older | 80 |
| Younger generation | Students believe younger users are most active on social media | 94 |
Table 2: Key findings of the study on social media and academic performance
The chi-square test showed that the student demographics and the use of social media had significant relationships among nursing students. There was a strong association between gender and addiction, WhatsApp knowledge sharing, and variation in networking (p < 0.005), and the age associated with distraction, waning interest, and increased activity among young users. Marital status had an impact on the perception of grades and blogging sites, but the year of study had a significant impact on the negative impact of Facebook and the positive effects of Twitter. These results emphasize the importance of demography on the usage patterns as well as the perceived academic impact of social media (Table 3).
| Demographic variable | Survey item | Chi-Square value (χ²) | p-value | Significance |
| Gender | Addiction to social networks affects academics | 12.4 | 0.001 | Significant |
| Use of WhatsApp for knowledge sharing | 8.7 | 0.004 | Significant | |
| Males use social networking for non-academic purposes | 15.2 | 0.001 | Highly Significant | |
| Female students foster social connections | 9.8 | 0.002 | Significant | |
| Age | Social media distracts from studies | 7.1 | 0.013 | Significant |
| Social media becomes boring with age | 18.5 | 0.000 | Highly Significant | |
| The younger generation is the most active user | 20.2 | 0.000 | Highly Significant | |
| Marital status | No improvement in grades due to social networking | 5.3 | 0.022 | Significant |
| Blogging sites complement classroom learning | 6.9 | 0.009 | Significant | |
| Year of study | Unlimited Facebook access negatively affects academics | 10.3 | 0.001 | Significant |
| Academic discussions on Twitter improve performance | 4.8 | 0.028 | Significant |
Table 3: Chi-square test results for the association between demographics and survey items
Discussion
The study contributes to the understanding of demographic factors and related social media trends about nursing students and gives understanding of different aspects. For example, gender, age, marital status, and year of study, that may affect their academic behaviors and interaction with social media. The gender distribution in the study shows a preponderance of males (87%), while this is in tandem with an increase in the population of female candidates by most universities or colleges enrolling nursing students. Such a skewed gender distribution in the sample may be due to geographical or institutional differences, and these differences might consist of other factors, such as cultural and educational backgrounds, program availability, etc.[16]
The study revealed that the majority of the respondents (76%) are within the ages of 18-22 years, which is typical of the university student population.[17] On the other hand, the results showed that social media platforms have different usage concerning knowledge sharing, with older students using academic-oriented SM more frequently.[18,19] The lower percentage (22%) of 23-27-year-olds represents a younger group; it means that the participants’ attitudes toward social media, as well as students’ perception of such platforms, might be different. The young generation, which prefers the use of WhatsApp and Twitter, makes it clear that they see social media as relevant in classroom work and in other activities.[20]
Another demographic factor tested in this study was marital status, with 83% of the participants unmarried. This finding is in line with other research that shows that students who are in their junior classes, single, and young, spend more time using social media and are more likely to interact with scholarly content online. On the other hand, the level of academic-related use of social media is relatively low among married students because of their domestic responsibilities and a definite timetable.[21,22] The results from the study may indicate that unmarried nursing students who encompass the largest percentage may have a more permissive attitude towards the use of SNS for academic and social-related purposes. This trend also conforms with awareness that social media is useful in promoting peer-to-peer and academic connections, especially in distance learning systems.[23]
As revealed by the Chi-Square analysis of the results, there is significance based on the level of study, showing that a year of study plays an important role in involving students in social media-related activities. According to the study, in terms of year of study, 35% of participants were in the 2nd and 4th year, while the remainder 30% were in the 1st and 3rd years.[24] Such a distribution enables an essential comprehension of the multifaceted role of social media in the lives of students at various levels of learning. It has been found that second-year students use social media more for academic content, like group projects and sharing knowledge, in contrast to first-year students, because the latter have had some exposure to the academic system. On the other hand, students in their first and third years, as identified in this study, may not yet have developed sophisticated use of social media in academic activities due to their inexperience or, at most, advantages rudimentary appreciation of the advantages of the tool as found in students in their second, fourth, and postgraduate levels.[25]
According to the results of this study, the participants agreed that social media addiction interferes with academics, 94% of them strongly agreed. This is in consonance with other studies that conclude that excessive social media usage contributed to poor performance in class by wasting time.[26] That links excessive social media used to lower academic performance due to the time spent online and the distraction it causes.[27] Whereas social media is used in enhancing the academic sector, this research evidence indicates that a greater percentage of respondents (80%) agreed that the language on social media-related sites, such as Facebook, affects academic performance. This tallies with the arguments made before that while social media may help in the sharing of knowledge and work, they act as a double-edged weapon whenever learners cannot manage them well. It may be inferred from the finding that more scheduled motivational programs for students and time-use planning approaches may be required to neutralize the impact of social media dependency on academic achievement.[28]
Altogether, the results of the study reveal the relationships between demographic variables, including gender, age, marital status, and the year of study, on the one hand, and nursing students’ use of social media and course-related behaviors, on the other hand. The extent of association of these parameters of social media use with these demographic variables correlates with other studies, which identified age and marital status to be factors affecting social media use, while gender differences are noticeable in the use of social media for purposes other than academic. At the same time, this research reveals specific tendencies in this sample, where greater asymmetry between males and females and the younger age of respondents are prominent. These differences should be studied in more detail to understand the general effects of social media use on nursing education and to develop effective interventions that would enhance the impact of social media use on academic performance.[29]
Recommendations: Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:
- Develop social media management programs: It’s also important that educational institutions organize programs or workshops that would enable students to understand how to go about their social media use. These programs should cover such issues as time management in relation to the students’ tasks and how one should avoid social networking sites and concentrate on class work.
- Encourage the academic use of social media: Even if social media itself presents a certain number of sources of distraction, it also presents a large amount of educational opportunity. Schools should engage the student on the use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp and in academic dialogues, learning, and group projects. Students might use social media in the course of their studies by having their faculty incorporate social tools into the curriculum in a bid to expand knowledge and increase learning achievements.
- Provide support for male and younger students: Since male students and the youngest people (18-22) actively use social media more actively, institutions should facilitate these audiences and provide applicable support and recommendations. This support may include intervening in abuse, such as the use of social media, and making students aware of the danger of adversely affecting academic work.
- Monitor the impact of social media on academic performance: It is recommended that education sectors follow up on the results of the use of social networking sites on the outcomes of learning institutions. Discussing exactly the results of similar surveys or studies, such as those presented in this paper, it is possible to find out that regular carrying out of such surveys or studies can be useful in the investigation of the dynamics of the development of these processes and in the identification of directions for their improvement.
- Promote peer support networks: In addition to that, to increase the academic advantage of the usage of social media, new groups such as student support groups or study groups, forums, etc., can be formed on social networks. Such networks can be useful to create a context in which students can post academic questions and participate in a discussion, sharing documents and asking for assistance from other learners.
- Tailor strategies for different demographics: Because marital status, age, and year of study affected the use of social media, recommendations should be made for these categories. For example, while students in their senior years and those in later years of study may require caution about general guidelines for using social media for academic purposes, other students, and especially the young and the unmarried, may require particular caution, especially regarding balancing their academic coursework and time on social media.
- Promote awareness of the risks of social media addiction: Students should be informed about the dangers of socially networked site dependency, as it is essential for personal and virtual worlds’ general well-being. Universities and colleges should come up with awareness creation programs-warning compounding students of the likely dangers of being on social media most of the time, such as reduced study time, poor scores, and possible negative health effects.
Conclusion
This study provides comprehensive insight into the demographic characteristics of nursing students and trends in their social media use, while examining how such factors, particularly social media engagement, affect academic performance. The findings indicate that social media has a significant influence on students’ academic activities. Most participants acknowledged that, although social media offers advantages that can enhance academic performance, it also poses risks that may negatively affect learning outcomes. Platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter are considered valuable tools for knowledge sharing and academic discussions; however, there is clear recognition that excessive or improper use can hinder academic performance.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Dr. Shah Hussain, Principal/Associate Professor, Janbar, College of Nursing, Swat, for his invaluable supervision, guidance, and support throughout the course of this study.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors
Author Information
Corresponding Author:
Nida Rahman
Department of Nursing
Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat, Pakistan
Email: [email protected]
Co-Authors:
Shah Hussain
Department of Nursing
Janbar College of Nursing, Swat, Pakistan
Nasar Mian, Shakir Ullah
Department of Nursing
National College of Nursing, Swat, Pakistan
Tayyib Ullah Khan, Robi Gul, Asyia Bibi
Department of Nursing
Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat, Pakistan
Authors Contributions
Nida Rahman and Tayyib Ullah Khan contributed to data collection and data analysis. Robi Gul, Asyia Bibi, and Shakir Ullah were responsible for the literature review. Nasar Mian and Dr. Shah Hussain contributed to data analysis and interpretations.
Ethical Approval
Ethical Approval was obtained from the National College of Nursing, Swat, Ref No NCN/IRB/2025/22.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Guarantor
Nida Rahman is the guarantor of this study and takes full responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
DOI
Cite this Article
Hussain S, Rahman N, Mian N, et al. Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media Addiction and Academic Performance of Nursing Students. medtigo J Neurol Psychiatr. 2026;3(2):e3084322. doi:10.63096/medtigo3084322 Crossref
