TOPIC:

ASSESSMENT OF REHMAN MEDICAL

COLLEGE STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARDS
SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE.

Abstract:
Background: Social media is a form of electronic communication intended to create
online communities where the user share information, ideas, personal messages and other
content. Use of social media among students enables them to communicate and share
thoughts, uncertainty also remains regarding potential negative consequences. Whether
social media is favourable or unfavourable many medical students utilize different social
media sites on daily basis and the purpose of our research is to evaluate and assess what
social media platforms they are using and more importantly their attitude towards social
media through following 5 factors

OBJECTIVES:
1. To assess the use of social media among students
2.To assess the attitude of medical students toward social media use

MATERIALS and METHODS: The sample size for our research is100
Rehman medical college students who were randomly selected and were suppose to answer
the structured questionnaire of our research. The data was analyzed by IBM SPSS Statics 25.

Results:
Out of the students who took part in survey 55% were male students and 45% were female
students who were using social media sites. Among these 37% were using less than 4 social
media sites and 63% were using 4 and more than 4 social media sites. In which whatsapp
were used most that is 37% and others were 18%,25% and 20% (Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube respectively)

Conclusions: The usage of social network sites is not just one dimensional issue.
Despite the benefits that student can harness from social media networks, there is to some
extent addiction and distraction of attention caused by the use of social media which could
have serious consequences on the academic life of students. Therefore social media
guidelines should be developed.

Keyword: Social media, medical students, attitude

INTRODUCTION:
We define social media as websites and applications that enable users to create
and share content or to participate in social networking. It enables users to share ideas,
knowledge, and other educational content within their created communities, hence acting as a
great source of teaching and learning.[11] The advent of new media technologies such as the
Internet and social media provide exciting opportunities to facilitate and enhance worldwide
communication, doubt also remains regarding potential negative consequences. Every now
and then medical students are spending substantial amount of time immersed in social media,
such as Facebook,Whatsapp,Instagaram,etc. Social media may seem like a waste of time,
however it also helps students to access latest information and create social skills, and be
active members of the medical community by keeping up with the new and up to date
information[1].
There are pros and cons to using any social media platform. There have been studies done to
find out any association between students’ academic performance and social media use.
Some researchers investigated the end result of social networking usage among College
students with their academic performance. They found poor effect when the media is used in
a way that doesn’t academically improve performance [3, 4, 5, 2 and 6] a research study
concluded that every hour of electronic media exposure reported by students on average,
GPA was reduced between 0.05 and 0.07 points. Contrary to prior research, chatting is not
significantly associated with GPA[12]. Also other researchers did similar research but they
found no significant relationship between using social networking and student academic
performance,[7,8] From pioneer researches study assessed social media usage in medicine by
medical students in Turkey. We found that 93.4% of students used social media and 89.3%
used social media for professional purposes. We also found that 95.3% used Facebook; the
observed usage rates of Facebook, a social networking site whose use has been investigated
in many studies, ranged from 13% to 47% among physicians and from 64% to 96% among
students [9].
At present, whether social media is favorable or unfavorable, many students utilize different
social media forms on a daily basis and the very purpose of our research is to evaluate and
assess exactly what social media platforms students are using ,their frequency and extent of
their usage time and most importantly their attitude towards social media through the
following 5 factors 1.professional usefulness,2.popularity,3.barrier,4.personal innovativeness,
and 5.academic performance by distributing a standard questionnaire and using a cross-
sectional study.

RATIONALE: We assess the impact of Rehman medical students attitude towards

social media usage by assess the five factors i.e. professional usefulness, popularity, barrier,
personal innovativeness and academic performance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS :

STUDY DESIGN : In a cross sectional study we assessed 100 medial students of Rehman
medical college using a structured questionnaire . Questionnaire was composed of two
session.

STUDY POPULATION :
Population of Rehman medical college students.

SAMPLE SIZE:
100 participants were assessed

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE :
Simple random sampling

DATA COLLECTION TOOL:

A structured questionnaire was designed based on objectives taking help from studies
available on topic added with specific questions. The questionnaire deals with the sections
which determine the social media sites frequently used by the students and their attitude
towards social media usage. The data was analyzed by SPSS statics software.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS :
IBM SPSS statics 25 was used for organizing the collected data obtained by the students.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION:
The responses were assured that their response will be kept confidential.

RESULTS:

We assessed 100 students of Rehman medical college in which 48% students were of
preclinical session i.e of (1st year,2nd year and 3rd year) and 52% students were of clinical
session i.e of (4th and 5th year) in which 55% were male students and 45% were female
students who were using social media sites as shown in figure 1 below.

45% male
55% female

Figure 1 : Gender distribution

Among these 37% were using less than 4 social media sites and 63% were using 4 and more
than 4 social media sites. In which whatsapp were used most that is 37% and others were
18%,25% and 20% (facebook, Instagram and youtube respectively) as shown in figure 2
below.

37.0

25.0

20.0
18.0

FACEBOOK WHATSAPP INSAGRAM YOUTUE

Figure 2: Social media platform used by them

In which 78% thought that social media usage is necessary in medicine and 8% disagree and
12% were unsure about the use of social media(as shown in table 1 below) .

Table 1: Social media as a necessity tool.

Frequenc Cumulative
y Percent Week Percent
Valid strongly disagree 3 3.0 3.0 3.0
disagree 5 5.0 5.0 8.0
neither agree nor disagree 12 12.0 12.0 20.0
agree 54 54.0 54.0 74.0
strongly agree 24 24.0 24.0 98.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0
 Among them 77% thought that social media easy way of knowledge acquisition 9% were
disagree and 14% were not sure as shown in figure 3 below.

54

23

14
9

disagree neither agree nor agree strongly agree

disagree
Valid

Figure 3: Social media for knowledge acquisition

66% thought that social media usage is helpful in career development of a doctor and 13%
disagree. 70% think that popularity among social media can reflect the attention and interest
of user 13% disagree and 17% were not sure (as shown in table 2 below)

Table 2: Social media as career development

Frequenc Valid Cumulative

y Percent Percent Percent
Valid strongly disagree 2 2.0 2.0 2.0
disagree 11 11.0 11.0 13.0
neither agree nor disagree 19 19.0 19.0 32.0
agree 48 48.0 48.0 80.0
strongly agree 18 18.0 18.0 98.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0
In which 56% concerned that social media will take a lot of time and 30% were disagree and
14% were not sure as shown in table 3 below .

Table 3: Social media consume lot of time

Frequenc Valid Cumulative

y Percent Percent Percent
Valid strongly disagree 6 6.0 6.0 6.0
disagree 24 24.0 24.0 30.0
neiher agree nor disagree 14 14.0 14.0 44.0
agree 33 33.0 33.0 77.0
strongly agree 23 23.0 23.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

61% thought that social media use improves their creativity and productivity 12% disagree
and 27% not sure about that. 52% find out about new social media application 19% disagree
and 29% were not sure. Among them 52% have negative effect on academic performance due
to involving in social media 18% disagree and 30% were not sure as shown in figure 4 below.
 strongly disagree
disagree
1%8%
neither agree nor disagree
15% agree
50% strongly agree

17% Total

9%

Figure 4 : Negative effect on academic performance

DISSCUSION:
This study assessed usage of social media in medicine by medical students in Rehman medical
college Peshawar. The result of our study shows that nearly 100% of students used social media
comparatively according to survey in Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine in Turkey which
had 93.4% user.[16]We also found out that 37% of the students used WhatsApp most frequently ;
the usage rates of WhatsApp observed in a survey conducted by Aaron smith was 22% which is quite
marginal.[13]
The results of our survey implied that students utilised social media to have several benefits as
followed : inspiring creativity, aiding professional growth, communication with their colleagues,
gaining knowledge , and improving care quality.[14] According to our study it implied out of total
number 77% thought that social media is easy way of knowledge acquisition 9%disagreed and 14%
were not sure, comparatively according to a study by Mc Gowan BS the results were 279 of 485
respondents (57.5%) perceived social media to be beneficial, engaging, and a good way to get
current, high-quality information.[14] In our study it showed that 77% of responder thought that
social media easy way of knowledge acquisition while on other hand in a study conducted by Rajeev
Manhas in 5 different medical college of India where it showed 65.4%.[18]
Furthermore, our study’s result showed that about 37% of student were using less than 4 social
media sites and 63% were using 4 and more than 4 social media sites. On the other as per study
conducted by Ishfaq Ahmad ,respondents were asked to mention the total number of SNSs they
were using, 38.8% respondents were found to be active users of 1 SNS, 38% were of 2 SNSs, 10.3%
were visiting 3 SNSs and 12.9% users are those who have signed up for at least 4 social networking
sites.[6] According to a survey conducted at liberal art college of Wisconsin ,the largest percentage
of respondents used Facebook (95.4%), followed by YouTube (90.7%), reading blogs (27.6%),Twitter|
(17.6%),LinkedIn (7.2%) and MySpace (3.9%) compared to ours results in which WhatsApp usage is
37% and others were 18%,25% and 20% (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube respectively).[15]

Another aspect about wastage of time was reflected in our study showing that 56% were concerned
that social media will take a lot of time and 30% disagreed while 14% were not sure on other hand in
a survey conducted by Shilpi Rani Saha in Bangladesh universities about 30.8% agreed on the
wastage while 37.6% disagreed meanwhile 31.2% weren’t sure .[17] In a nutshell our survey results
reflected that students who had innovative features were highly likely to be social media users.
Today’s students, whether medical or not, think and process information fundamentally differently
from their predecessors. Thus. they represent the first generation to grow up with this new digital
technology. The use of social media by students is also limited by the concern that it will have
negative impact on their study as shown by our study.

CONCLUSION:
From the above mentioned facts and figures we concluded that social media can be use for
beneficial purposes and it's addiction can lead to time waste and distraction from studies.
Students spends many hours on social media which are laying hurdles in their life and
studies are well affected and disturbed. The awareness is needed in medical students to use
social media as a tool to acquire knowledge, sharing knowledge , search useful materials and
to be connected with each other for positive approach. Social media effects students when
ever the the usage is stretched beyond the limits and time is being wasted on useless things.
On the other hand social media can be used positively which can helps students alot in their
studies and they can excel well. All we need to be take a balance OK n between studies and
entertainment. So as social media has become vital part of the society students should learn
how to get benefit and how to use it for career building.
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