Impact of social media on the health and academic performance of a nursing college students

Introduction: The digitalization era is transforming communication, and social media has now become an integral part of life, especially among young adults pursuing tertiary education. Nursing students, balancing academic responsibilities and clinical practice, are increasingly employing social media for professional networking and personal development. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 323 Kumudini Nursing College nursing students. Purposive sampling was used, and data were gathered through face-to-face interviews between November 2024 and December 2024. Demographics, social media usage patterns, and their impacts on physical and mental well-being and academic performance were collected. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were conducted to assess the associations between social media usage and its impacts. Result: The majority of the respondents were aged between 19-22 years, predominantly female (98.14%), and predominantly from low-income backgrounds. The most used social media platforms were WhatsApp (37.2%) and Facebook (30.3%). Over 59% of the respondents confirmed that social media had an influence on their mental health, and the most common of this impact was depression (42.1%). The majority of individuals (75.2%) experienced negative physical health impacts like eye strain and sleep interference. Moreover, 78% of the students also reported that overuse of social media negatively affected their performance. Regression analysis also recognized that a strong correlation existed between increased social media use and poor health and school performance, particularly in those utilizing more than 4 hours of time per day on social media. Conclusion: This study shows the dual function of social media for nursing students, where while it is useful as a means of communication and studying, overuse has severe negative impacts on both physical and psychological health and academic performance. The findings emphasize establishing awareness and intervention to help nursing students manage the use of social media in a healthy way so that they will be well and perform well academically. , Sleep interference, Eye strain, Health interventions,