Background

Social networking sites are widely used by university students. This study investigated the purposes for which social networking sites are used and their effects on learning, social interaction, and sleep duration.

Material and methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300, 17–29-year-old female students at Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz University. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Chi-squared (Fisher’s exact test) test was used to analyze the data.

Results

The results showed that 97% of the students used social media applications. Only 1% of them used social media for academic purposes. Whereas 35% of them used these platforms to chat with others, 43% of them browsed these sites to pass time. Moreover, 57% of them were addicted to social media. Additionally, 52% of them reported that social media use had affected their learning activities, 66% of them felt more drawn toward social media than toward academic activities, and 74% of them spent their free time on social media platforms. The most popular applications (i.e., based on usage) were Snapchat (45%), Instagram (22%), Twitter (18%), and WhatsApp (7%). Further, 46% and 39% of them reported going to bed between 11 pm and 12 am and between 1 am and 2 am, respectively. Finally, 68% of them attributed their delayed bedtime to social media use, and 59% of them reported that social media had affected their social interactions.

Conclusions

A majority of the participants reported prolonged use of social networking sites for nonacademic purposes. These habitual behaviors can distract students from their academic work, adversely affect their academic performance, social interactions, and sleep duration, and lead to a sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity, which in turn can render them vulnerable to non-communicable diseases and mental health problems.

中文翻译：

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社交媒体使用对大学生学习、社交互动和睡眠时间的影响

背景

社交网站被大学生广泛使用。本研究调查了使用社交网站的目的及其对学习、社交互动和睡眠时间的影响。

材料与方法

在萨塔姆·本·阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹王子大学的 300 名 17-29 岁的女学生中进行了一项横断面研究。问卷用于收集数据。卡方（Fisher 精确检验）检验用于分析数据。

结果

结果显示，97% 的学生使用社交媒体应用程序。他们中只有 1% 的人将社交媒体用于学术目的。35% 的人使用这些平台与他人聊天，而 43% 的人浏览这些网站是为了打发时间。此外，其中 57% 的人沉迷于社交媒体。此外，其中 52% 的人表示社交媒体的使用影响了他们的学习活动，其中 66% 的人认为社交媒体比学术活动更吸引人，其中 74% 的人将空闲时间花在社交媒体平台上。最受欢迎的应用程序（即，基于使用情况）是 Snapchat（45%）、Instagram（22%）、Twitter（18%）和 WhatsApp（7%）。此外，分别有 46% 和 39% 的人报告在晚上 11 点至凌晨 12 点之间以及凌晨 1 点至凌晨 2 点之间睡觉。最后，68% 的人将延迟就寝时间归因于社交媒体的使用，

结论

大多数参与者报告说，出于非学术目的长期使用社交网站。这些习惯性行为会分散学生的学习注意力，对他们的学业成绩、社交互动和睡眠时间产生不利影响，并导致久坐不动的生活方式和缺乏身体活动，进而使他们容易患上非传染性疾病和心理健康问题.