Cross sectional Study on Academic and health impact of Social media usage in Medical students of Hyderabad Telangana

Social media is a way of electronic communication through which people share their ideas, knowledge and information. Social media users are increasing worldwide. Medical students are also extensively using various social media platforms for academic and non academic purposes. A cross sectional study on impact of social media in academics of medical students of Hyderabad, Telangana was conducted in a medical college of Hyderabad. 200 Medical students participated in the study. Socio demographic and academic details including their usage of social media was collected in the form a pre structured questionnaire, the information obtained from each participant was taken in to MS excel sheet and the data was analyzed with SPSS software. Study results reveal majority of students are using social media for fun and entertainment and academic usage is very minimal. Students are spending more hours at late night causing ill effects to their physical and mental health. We also found social media hampering their effective study hours. Students arefrequently absent to classes, distraction in the class room and poor performance in their academics was observed among extensive users in the study group. Males are predominant among extensive users and academic impact also observed more in male participants. Students from highly educated and financially sound families are extensive users of social media. Similar results were found in other studies.