Internet and Social Media Habits Among Basrah University Students

• Saba Adnan Abdul Wahab

  Department of Basic Science, College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Zinah Abdulsttar Abdullah

  Department of Basic Science, College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Ghofran Khaled Shraida

  Department of Basic Science, College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Luay Abdulwahid Shihab

  Department of Basic Science, College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Abdulkareem Salman Khudhiar

  Department of Nursing Fundamentals, College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Zamzam Awwad

  College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Eman Saeed Hameed

  College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

• Zahraa Abdul Hussein

  College of Nursing, University of Basrah, Basrah

Background: Social media is an internet communication medium that has become essential to our daily lives.  It makes it possible for individuals to create web content, communicate, and share data.  The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how social media affects a sample of Iraqi university students' academic achievement, social interactions, and mental health. Patients and methods: A questionnaire was used to gather data from 430 Iraqi students from various colleges who participated in the study. Results: The cell phone was the most popular device (95.9%) for social media viewing, and the majority of the sample (98.4%) reported using social media currently.  According to the study, social media can affect academic achievement and social interaction in both positive and negative ways.  The majority of participants (60.7%) and (21.6%) agreed and strongly agreed that social media use is enhancing interpersonal connections and information sharing.  Nonetheless, 30.9% of respondents strongly agreed that social media might cause them to spend less time with friends and family.  In terms of academic performance, the majority of the sample (44.5%) strongly agreed that using social media could cause them to waste time that could be spent studying, and 26.8% strongly agreed that it diverted their attention. Among those pupils, over half (53.4%) agreed and strongly agreed that social media negatively impacts their overall academic performance. Conclusion: The study found that university students' academic performance, social interactions, and mental health are all significantly impacted by social media, and that raising awareness among them is crucial to reducing excessive and harmful usage of the platform.

Highlights:

1. Academic Distraction: 53.4% say social media hurts their studies.
2. Mixed Social Impact: Boosts communication but cuts family time.
3. Need for Awareness: Students must manage usage to protect well-being.

Keywords: University Students, Academic Performance, Mental Health, Social Relationships , Social Media

[1] M. Akyildiz and M. Argan, "Using Online Social Networking: Students' Purposes of Facebook Usage at the University of Turkey," Journal of Technology Research, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 34–65, 2010.

[2] M. Effedi and E. Matore, "Facebook: The Phenomenon of Bringing Addiction?" Journal of Communication and Computer, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 925–930, 2011.

[3] S. B. Dawood, Z. A. Abdullah, N. J. A. Alqudhayeb, and L. A. Shihab, "Effects of Social Media on Basra College Students and Their Treatment," unpublished, 2021.

[4] J. E. Chukwuere and P. C. Chukwuere, "The Impact of Social Media on Social Lifestyle: A Case Study of University Female Students," Gender and Behaviour, vol. 15, pp. 9966–9981, 2017.

[5] A. T. Alahmar, "The Impact of Social Media on the Academic Performance of Second-Year Medical Students at the College of Medicine, University of Babylon, Iraq," Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 77–83, 2016, doi: 10.5455/jmas.236927.

[6] S. A. M. A. Khatwa and A. N. Anis, "Social Networking and Its Effects on Intellectual Security Among University Students in the Kingdom of Bahrain," Bahrain Educational Journal, vol. 15, 2014.

[7] F. A. Loan, "Media Preferences of the Net Generation College Students for Social Media Sites and Impact on Traditional Media Usage," International Journal of Library and Information Science, vol. 3, no. 7, 2014.

[8] E. Frison and S. Eggermont, "Exploring the Relationships Between Different Types of Facebook Use, Perceived Online Social Support, and Adolescents’ Depressed Mood," Social Science Computer Review, vol. 34, pp. 153–171, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0894439314567449.

[9] J. Abbott, "Introduction: Assessing the Social and Political Impact of the Internet and New Social Media in Asia," Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 43, pp. 579–590, 2017, doi: 10.1080/00472336.2013.785698.

[10] J. E. Chukwuere and P. C. Chukwuere, "The Impact of Social Media on Social Lifestyle: A Case Study of University Female Students," Gender and Behaviour, vol. 15, pp. 9966–9981, 2017.

[11] A. J. Ndaku, "Impact of Social Media on the Students’ Academic Performance in Ghana," Networking Journal, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 275–285, 2013.

[12] A. M. Kaplan and M. Haenlein, "Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 59–68, 2010.

[13] N. Lin, W. Ensel, and J. Vaughn, "Social Resources and Strength of Ties," American Sociological Review, vol. 46, pp. 393–405, 1981.

[14] A. B. Amry, "The Impact of WhatsApp Mobile Social Learning on the Achievement and Attitudes of Female Students Compared with Face-to-Face Learning in the Classroom," European Scientific Journal, vol. 10, no. 22, 2014.

[15] D. Bouhnik and M. Deshen, "WhatsApp Goes to School: Mobile Instant Messaging Between Teachers and Students," Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, vol. 13, pp. 217–231, 2014.

[16] P. O’Connor, A. Haynes, and C. Kane, "Relational Discourses: Social Ties with Family and Friends," Childhood, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 361–382, 2004.

[17] A. O’Carroll, "Busy Ireland," in Belongings: Shaping Identity in Modern Ireland, vol. 6, Irish Sociological Chronicles, M. P. Corcoran and P. Share, Eds. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 2008, pp. 245–256.

[18] T. O’Reilly, "What Is Web 2.0," O’Reilly Media, 2005. [Online]. Available: https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

[19] R. Pahl and L. Spencer, "Personal Communities: Not Simply Families of 'Fate' or 'Choice'," Current Sociology, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 199–221, 2004.

[20] L. Plowman, J. McPake, and C. Stephen, "The Technologisation of Childhood? Young Children and Technology in the Home," Children & Society, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 63–74, 2010.

[21] C. F. Scott, R. A. Fabes, and P. M. Wilson, "Family Television Viewing: Implications for Family Life Education," Family Relations, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 354–357, 1989.

[22] P. Turtiainen, S. Karvonen, and O. Rahkonen, "All in the Family? The Structure and Meaning of Family Life Among Young People," Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 477–493, 2007.

[23] A. Venkatesh and N. Vitalari, "Households and Technology: The Case of Home Computers—Some Conceptual and Theoretical Issues," in Marketing to the Changing Household, 1985.

[24] B. Wellman, A. Quan-Haase, J. Witte, and K. Hampton, "Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?" American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 436–455, 2001.

[25] A. H. Abbas, S. S. Hammoud, and S. K. Abed, "The Effects of Social Media on the Undergraduate Medical Students," Karbala Journal of Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 2161–2166, 2015.

[26] S. Mehmood and T. Taswir, "The Effects of Social Networking Sites on the Academic Performance of Students in College of Applied Sciences, Nizwa, Oman," International Journal of Arts and Commerce, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 111–125, 2013.

[27] A. T. Mohammed, "Patterns and Motives of the Use of Iraqi University Students to Social Networks," Al-Mustansiriya Journal of Arts, no. 68, pp. 1–40, 2015.

[28] R. Junco, "Student Class Standing, Facebook Use, and Academic Performance," Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, vol. 36, pp. 18–29, 2015.

[29] A. Munkaila and A. Iddrisu, "The Impact of Social Network Sites on the Academic Performance of Students in the Polytechnics of Ghana," International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management (United Kingdom), no. 11, pp. 1021–1035, 2015.

[30] F. M. Hassan and L. A. Shihab, "Negative Effects of Internet on Indexes of the Mental Health of Nursing Students," International Archives of Pharmaceutical Sciences (IAJPS), vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 2360–2367, 2018, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1218231.