Structural analysis of impact of social media among dental Students

Introduction : Social Media has become a popular method for students to share information and knowledge and to express emotions. They enable students to exchange video files, text messages, pictures and knowledge sharing. Facebook and other social media are attractive to those in the field of medical education. This study aimed to describe the pattern of social media use among the dental students and to assess its effect on behaviour, social interactions and academic performance. Materials and methods: This is a cross sectional study targeted at undergraduate dental students. A self administered questionnaire was distributed online to all target students. Data was statistically analysed using a statistical package for the social sciences SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics was done for the assessment of distribution of all the variables. Association analysis was performed to compare the gender with frequency of using the phone. Results : In the present study , there were 150 participants present in the study with a mean age of 19.53 +/- 3.82. There were 38% males and 62% females present in the study. According to the age wise distribution , 70% and 30% were present in 18-25 and more than 25 age groups respectively. Social media was used most commonly for communication (35.33%), followed by fun (30%), to make new friends (28%) and for knowledge and education (6.6%). Chi square test was done, p value: 0.000 (<0.05), hence statistically significant. Conclusion: Although having some positive impact, use of social media also has a negative impact on the students social interaction, behaviour, health, study and academic performance as perceived by dental students.