Investigation of social media usage and affecting factors among dentistry students

Aim: This study investigates the purposes of social media usage of undergraduate students studying at the faculty of dentistry according to age, daily internet, social media usage, number, and type of social media used. Methods: The study was conducted with 380 undergraduate dental students studying at a university. Data were collected using the questionnaire method. The questionnaire has three parts. The first part has questions to understand people's social and demographic backgrounds, and the second part has questions to evaluate why people use social media. The third section uses the 'Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS)' to assess social media addiction. The "Social Media Usage Purposes Scale" was used to collect the data. Percentages and frequencies of the scores obtained from the scales regarding various variables were calculated, and t-test and one-way ANOVA tests were performed for variance analyses. Results: The findings indicated no significant correlation between social media addiction and age. However, there was a variation in addiction levels based on the number of social media platforms used and daily internet usage duration. Conclusion: Students using social media for 3-5 hours per day exhibited higher addiction levels than those who used it for shorter or longer durations. How to cite: Görüş Z, Yay Kuşçu HY. Investigation of social media usage and affecting factors among dentistry students. Health Sci Mon 2024;2:e240391. https://doi.org/10.5577/hesmon.e240391