Background: An inability to resist the need to use or log on to social media, together with excessive time and effort spent on the platform at the expense of other crucial aspects of life, are the hallmarks of social media addiction. Objectives: To determine the determinants of social media addiction among nursing students at the University of Tabuk (UT) in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used to assess the determinants of social media addiction among nursing students at the University of Tabuk (UT) in Saudi Arabia, between February and March 2024. Results: The present study included 202 participants which represents a response rate of 46.4%. The majority of respondents were female (61.4%), aged between 2223 years (34.2%), and fourth year of education (37.1%). Most of the participants have a GPA of more than 4.5 (45%), TikTok has the highest prevalence of addiction (25.8%), while Telegram has a relatively lower addiction rate (12.3%). Most of the participants use social media for education and learning (78.7%), there is a significant positive correlation between social media addiction and anxiety symptoms among the nursing students, as indicated by the ρ of 0.289 with a p-value of 0.000. On the other hand, there is a weaker and non-significant correlation between social media addiction and depressive symptoms, with a ρ of -0.102 and a p-value of 0.150. There is a significant but negative correlation between social media addiction among nursing students at the University of Tabuk (UT) and their academic performance. The Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.190 indicates that as levels of social media addiction increase, academic performance tends to decrease slightly among the nursing students. Conclusion: The University of Tabuk (UT) nursing students' social media addiction factors provide insight into the complex nature of this phenomenon in the context of higher education. Our research highlighted the intricate connection between psychological variables, especially anxiety symptoms, and social media addiction. Additionally, we found a negative relationship between academic performance and addiction. These findings highlight the necessity of focused treatments to manage addiction, support nursing students' mental health, and encourage better digital behaviors.
Faisal Ahmed Saleh Alharbi (Fri,) studied this question.