SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AND PERCEIVED ATTRACTIVENESS AS CORRELATES OF HEALTHY SOCIAL INTERACTION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The study examined social media addiction and perceived attractiveness as correlates ofhealthy social interaction among university students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University,Awka.The participants comprised 123 students drawn from Nnamdi Azikiwe University,Awka, Anambra State. The participants comprised 66 (53.7%) males, and 57 (46.3%)females. 17 to 27. The mean age was 23.44, and standard deviation was 1.87. samplingtechnique was used to select the participants because the students that participated in thestudy were sampled via availability, accessibility, and willingness. Three instruments wereused: Interaction Rating Scale Advanced- Brief, Social Media Addiction Scale, and PerceivedAttractiveness Scale. The study adopted cross-sectional and correlational design and PearsonProduct Momentappropriate design and statistics. Results indicated that social mediaaddiction dimensions such as conflict at -.17, p>.05 and mood modification at .15, p>.05with healthy social interaction. More so, social media addiction like occupation at .35**p<.05 had positive correlation with healthy social interaction, while relapse dimension at -.31** p<.05, had negative correlation with healthy social interaction. These findingssuggested that psychological intervention is needed among the students since, social mediaaddiction, and perceived attractiveness impacted healthy social interaction