Social media addiction and emotional intelligence in nursing students at a public university in Guayaquil.

INTRODUCTION: Social media has become an essential pillar for interaction and assertive communication between people.However, its excessive and incorrect use could have negative consequences for health.OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between social media addiction and emotional intelligence in nursing students at a public university in Guayaquil.METHODOLOGY: An observational, descriptive, correlational study was conducted during 2024.The universe consisted of 932 students aged 18 to 25, from which a sample of 272 students was obtained using a simple random probability sampling method.The survey technique was used, along with instruments such as the Social Network Use Questionnaire (ARS) and the Bar-On Emotional Inventory.The variables were processed using the statistical package SPSS version 19.0 and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.RESULTS: The average age was 19 years, with a predominance of women (80.15%), single marital status (92.28%), who mainly used the WhatsApp platform (60.29%), with a connection time of more than 120 minutes (40.81%).The students had a medium level of addiction (54.41%) and an average level of emotional intelligence (37.1%); there is a statistically significant association between social media addiction and emotional intelligence with a value of p=0.001 and Rho= -0.537.CONCLUSION: It is concluded that there is a relationship between social media addiction and emotional intelligence in nursing students during their academic training.