doi:10.31674/mjn.2021.v13i01.
001
EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
Rosuzeita Fauzi*, Nor Izzaidah Saaiddin, Nur Shahira Ibrahim, Siti Solehah Abdullah
Centre for Nursing Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Background: In Malaysia, the presence of smartphones and gadgets in any situation leads to addiction in
social media. Lack of self-regulation of smartphones usage for some students will turn out to be the factor that
affects their academic performance the most. Objective: To determine the effect of social media addiction on
academic performance among nursing students. Methods: A descriptive and quantitative cross-sectional
study design using self-administered questionnaires was conducted among 141 diploma and degree nursing
students in Faculty of Health Sciences, UiTM. In the study, the “Social Media Addiction Scale-Student
Form” and the CGPA achievement of the students were used. Results: From this study, it was seen that
students had a high level of addictiveness (M=86.40, SD=13.78). Majority of the students have high CGPA
achievement for each semester. Instagram 44 (31.2%) become the platform that students are more exposed.
There is no significance difference between social media addiction and academic performance as determined
by Kruskal Wallis test, p= 0.830. Conclusion: It can be concluded that, social media did not give a negative
effect on the students' academic performance. This is because some students' performance still remains the
same even though they were addicted with social media platforms. It would be better if more universities were
included in future studies to prove the relation between social media addiction and academic performance
among different nursing students.
Keywords: Effect of Social Media; Addiction; Academic Performance; Nursing Students
INTRODUCTION media poses both pros and cons of usage that can impact
students either positively or negatively. The positive is
The use of social media in society’s lifestyle and
that it allows students access to sharing and publishing
culture has been increasingly taking place recently. Stat
some information at anywhere and anytime (Mukhtar et
Counter Global Stats (2019) reports that, the latest
al., 2018). Excessively use of social media surely has an
statistics updated in March 2019 showed that the most
effect on students’ life either positive or negative
famous social media used in Malaysia is Facebook
especially on their academic performance.
(84.33%). A recent study has approved that in 2016,
there is an evolution of social media by the statistic Nowadays, social media has become essential part
given where in average three million reach Facebook of life especially as a student. In line with that, research
monthly and 500 millions of active users worldwide on findings from Mukhtar et al., (2018) found that between
Twitter. As indicated in the same research, the highest 18 to 29 years of age were among 57% of the social
users of the online social media are among teenagers, media users. They spent at least 30 minutes on an
college and university students (age 18 to 29) as they are average of the time spends by students in social media
constantly linked to the social network sites (Oueder & during the daytime and evening. Previous studies have
Abousaber, 2018). In Malaysia, the presence of reported more than half of the of students were ranked at
smartphones and gadgets in any situation leads to a moderate level of internet addiction (Lamia, Osman &
addiction in social media amongst students. Social Farrag, 2018). It also shows that students mostly like to
THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | 3
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
stay online 24 hours that define students’ addictiveness Study Design
towards social media. The result of social media usage
The quantitative cross-sectional design was used in
has both constructive or adverse impact especially on
this study. Cross sectional studies were used because it
their academic performance. Excessive time spend in
is simple to design and directed at the outcome of the
social networking sites can divert the concentration and
incidence of a problem, attitude or issue of social media
shift focus from the particular task (Siddiqui & Singh,
addiction among nursing students and their academic
2016). On the other hand, it can also lead to failure of the
achievement.
education system where many of the bloggers used
social media to posts the wrong information regarding Study Setting
the education. This somehow can cause students to
The study was conducted at the Centre for Nursing
misuse the information related to their subjects. In
Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences at UiTM Selangor,
addition, social media have broadened the negative
Puncak Alam campus. Nursing student that pursed
outcome which can also effects health as lots of time is
study in diploma and degree in this university became
being wasted on social.
the target population.
Study conducted by Mukhtar et al., (2018) show
Sample
that regular daily users of social media are among
nursing students (84.9%). Nursing students does utilize In this study, a purposive sampling was used during
the various platforms for their benefits either for the selection of the potential students. Respondent has
academic or for personal life. However, nursing been selected based on name list and the subject has
students may lose their ability to engage themselves for been confronted and gave informed consent in the class,
face-to-face communication due to social media those who refused were not included. At the beginning
addiction (Abbas et al., 2019). More or less, social of the research, the researcher had access to the total
media has become one of the triggering factors for number of students enrolled in the diploma and degree
students to abandon their assignment either with or program to identify potential participants. Diploma and
without intention. In the meantime, for them to gain the degree nursing students who are studying at UiTM
information through social media, but the social media Puncak Alam who are willing to participate in this
posting distracts them and they do not stay focus on the research are part of inclusion criteria. Participants must
academic purpose. The studies show the negative be able to understand the written English language and
relation between social media usage and academic must have at least one social media account.
performance as students were easily distracted with Meanwhile, the exclusion criteria are first semester
their smartphones (Giunchiglia et al., 2017). Indeed, the students who do not yet have CGPA and those who do
usage of smartphone has become normal with students’ not have a social media account.
life as they can access their social media easily. Lack of
Sample Calculation
self-regulation of smartphones usage for some students
will turned out to be the one whose affects their Calculation of the sample size of Raosoft has been
academic performance the most. This eventually will used and the required sample size N=222. As reported
result in a bad achievement. The previous studies have by the Raosoft sample size calculator, the error margin
shown there is a correlation regarding social media and is 5 percent, the confidence interval is 95 percent, the
academic performance. As the study have proven the population size is N=222 and the response distributions
existence of social media addiction among nursing are 50 percent. The calculation resulted in a sample size
students in other countries, there will be possibility of of n=141.
the same among nursing students in Malaysia. Thus, Instrument
this study aims to determine the effect of social media
on the academic performance of nursing students. A self-administered questionnaire was completed
by all student nurses who met the selection criteria and
METHODOLOGY
agreed to participate in the study. The self-administered
Approval was received from the Research Ethics questionnaires were used as a tool to determine the
Committee Universiti Teknologi MARA (REC/579/19) relationship between social media addiction and
and compiled with the Declaration of Helsinki. academic performance for nursing students.
4 | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
Questionnaire for Section A was adapted from Social be busy to answer the questionnaire right away.
Media and Academic Performance of Students Researchers’ contact information was mentioned in the
(SMAAPOS) by Osharive (2015). This questionnaire form, if there are any questions regarding the
was used to measure the demographic data and platform questionnaires.
that most exposed by students. Demographic data such
The questionnaire was collected and checked to
as sex, age, semester and level of education was
detect any incomplete answer after 24 hours. The
collected. Respondents are also being asked about their
participants were asked to redo any incomplete
Grade Point Average (GPA) and Cumulative Grade
questionnaire right away to prevent decrease in
Point Average (CGPA). In addition, researchers also
response rate. While the complete questionnaire was
asked respondents which social media they are
double checked to ensure the questionnaire are
members of and which one they used the most. Section
answered accordingly. The respondent followed the
B questionnaire adapted from Social Media Addiction
instructions well and proceed to complete the
Scale- Student Form (SMAS-SF) by Cengiz (2018)
questionnaire. After the respondents finished
were used to determine the relationship between social
answering, then the questionnaire was collected and
media addiction and academic performance. In this
checked for completeness.
part, different states related to the use of social media on
the internet has been evaluated using five-point Likert Data Analysis
Scale (5-strongly agree, 4-agree, 3-neither agree nor
disagree, 2-disagree and 1-strongly disagree). The score IBM SPSS version 25.0 was used to analyse all data
was used to identify the scale of social media addiction collected. This software was used because it is more
among students. It consists of 29 items and four sub- reliable and provides an accurate result for this study.
dimensions. 5 items are sub-dimensional to virtual The descriptive statistics was used to determine the
tolerance, 9 items are sub-dimensional to virtual mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum,
communication, 9 items are sub-dimensional to virtual frequencies and percentages for the variables. The non-
problem and 6 items are sub-dimensional to virtual parametric analysis Kruskal Wallis was used since the
information. All the items in the scale are positive. The data was nonparametric and not normally distributed.
highest point that can be scored on the scale is 145, and Table 1: Standard Methodology
the lowest is 29. The higher scores indicate as a social
media addict. A pilot study was conducted and Data Analysis
distributed among 30 respondents to analyse the
reliability of the tools used in the research. The
Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.80, which was
used in the analysis.
Data Collection
Data were collected over a period of four months. It
is conducted from September 2019 to January 2020.
Firstly, after gaining ethical consideration and approval,
participants that will be selected using purposive RESULTS
sampling were identified and an appointment was made
Demographic Data
to meet with the class representative. Next, a brief
explanation about the study to the class and a written Table 2 shows the complete descriptive analysis of
consent was provided along with the questionnaire to demographic data of this study. For GPA 8 students
respondent to ensure that the respondents have agreed (5.7%) got below 3.0, 75 students (53.2%) got between
or declined participation to take part in the study. 3.00 to 3.49 and 58 students (41.1%) got 3.5 and above.
Participants were given simple and concise explanation For CGPA, 12 students (8.5%) got below 3.0, 95
about the study. They are given 24 hours duration students (67.4%) got between 3.00 to 3.49 and 34
answering the questionnaires as the participants might students (24.1%) got 3.5 and above. Based on UiTM
THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | 5
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
grading, those who achieved between 2.00 to 2.19 is Table 3: Level of Addictiveness to Social Media among
considered as third class, 2.20 to 2.99 is second lower Nursing Students
class, 3.00 to 3.49 is second upper class and 3.50 above
considered as first class. Variables Mean Standard Minimum Maximum
deviation
Table 2: Presentation of Demographic Data Total 86.40 13.78 44 129
Subscales
Variable Frequency Percent
Virtual tolerance 17.35 3.60 8 25
(%)
Virtual communication 25.23 5.18 9 41
Sex
Virtual problem 23.13 5.52 9 41
Male 18 12.8
Virtual information 20.69 3.84 6 29
Female 123 87.2
Age
20 58 41.1 The Platform of Social Media that Nursing
21 41 29.1 Students are More Exposed
22 39 27.7 Table 4 shows that mostly students used Instagram
23 3 2.1 44 (31.2%), Twitter 38 (27.0%), YouTube 26 (18.4%),
Level of Education followed by Facebook 22 (15.6%) and the least was
Diploma 27 19.1 Snapchat 1 (0.7%).
Degree 114 80.9
Table 4: Social Media Platform Most Exposed by
GPA Nursing Students
Third class 0 0
Second lower class 8 5.7 Variable Frequency Percentage
Second upper class 75 53.2 Facebook 22 15.6
First class 58 41.1
Twitter 38 27.0
CGPA
Instagram 44 31.2
Third class 0 0
Second lower class 12 8.5 YouTube 26 18.4
Second upper class 95 67.4 Google 10 7.1
First class 34 24.1 Snapchat 1 0.7
Semester
3 40 28.4
The Relationship between Social Media Addiction
5 63 44.7 and Academic Performance
7 38 27.0
Table 5 shows the result of Kruskal Wallis test to
find the relationship between social media addiction and
Level of Addictiveness to Social Media among academic performance. The median ± IQR for first class,
Nursing Students second upper class and second lower class are 3.00±0.00
Table 3 shows the mean score are collected in 4 respectively. The z statistics for academic performance
subscales. The mean for the subscale of virtual tolerance is 0.373 and p value is 0.830, which is p > 0.05. There is
was 17.35 (SD= 3.60), virtual communication 25.23 no significance difference between social media
(SD= 5.18), virtual problem s 23.13 (SD=5.52) and addiction and academic performance. Thus, there is no
virtual information was 20.69 (SD= 3.84). To sum up, the relationship between social media addiction and
total score mean is 86.40. academic performance.
6 | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
Table 5: The Relationship between Social Media study. Based on the findings, Snapchat recorded as the
Addiction and Academic Performance least exposed social media with only one respondent
Median (IQR) (0.7%) chose that platform. This is supported by Fareez
Variable Z P (2016) study which revealed that the method of adding
Academic Performance statistic value*
friends on Snapchat is quite difficult compared to other
Second upper Second lower
Level of First class
class class application where Snapchat need a pro-active approach
Addictiveness 0.373 0.830
3.00 (0.00) 3.00 (0.00) 3.00 (0.00) from the user to add friends which they need to share
*Kruskal Wallis Test their Snapchat ID’s to others first. However, study by
DISCUSSION Suwayri (2016) showed contrast result to our findings,
where the participants were commonly addicted to
Level of Social Media Addiction among Nursing Snapchat (41.2%). In line with that, findings in the
Students America recorded that 27% of American used Snapchat
in 2018 (Smith & Anderson, 2018). The findings were
From this study, majority of the students were being contradicting due to the location demographics of the
addicted by social media. To place the results in findings. On the other hand, Member (2020) mentioned
perspective, the mean for the social media addiction was that there was lack of research in the usage of Snapchat
mostly related with virtual communication with the in Malaysia. Thus, this may contribute to the reason why
mean score of 25.23 compared to study by Bilgin & Snapchat has become the least exposed social media
Ibrahim Tas (2018), who had 21.46 for social addiction among students in Malaysia.
of virtual communication. However, this result of the
study was still in line with the study by Hawi & Samaha Relationship between Social Media Addiction
(2016) which their mean score was 24.5 that indicate a with Academic Performance of Nursing Students
moderate level of social media addiction where in range Justification on the findings in our current research
from 8 to 50. Most of the previous study regarding social show that excessive use of social media did not give a
media addiction involves the sample of technical negative effect on their academic performance. This is
students (Koc & Gulyagci, 2013), or students from because some students’ performance remains the same
Faculty of Education (Bilgin & Tas, 2018) and even though they were addicted with social media
coursework of mass communication (Al-Menayes, platforms. The finding is consistent with findings of past
2015). Rarely for the researchers to use nursing students studies by Othman, Fariha, & Ngah (2017) that found
as their samples. The occurrence of social media that there was no significant relationship between social
addiction appears to be differed with the study media usage and academic performance as the main
population. factors that contribute to the poor academic performance
was students’ behaviour and poor time management.
Platform That Nursing Students Most Exposed
Another reason was that social media usage does
The findings of the study shown the list of social influence students’ but in a positive way. About 53.2%
media platform that are most exposed by nursing of students agree that the usage of social media does
student. Majority chose Instagram (31.2%) as their helped them to improve their grades and half of the
platform and only 15.6% of respondent chose Facebook. students still can perform well in academics even if they
Another study shown the contrast findings where stop using social media. According to the outcome,
Facebook become the highest platform with 80.2% majority of the respondents clearly indicated that social
while Instagram become the second least platform with media can be used to discuss assignments, group
only 3.16% Malaysian exposed (Stat Counter, 2020). In discussion and also improve interaction between
line with that, 85% of undergraduates used Facebook as lecturers and classmate (Helou & Rahim, 2014).
their social media sites and Instagram also become in the Another study showed the lack of focus by college
sixth place with 79.5% chose it as their platform students itself have negative impact on academic grades
(Olushola, 2018). However, our findings were (Mastrodicasa & Metellus, 2013) which does not relate
supported by the NapoleonCat (2020) statistics with to social media.
30.2% and 22.1% users among the age of 18 to 24-year- CONCLUSION
old who used Instagram and Facebook respectively
which was parallel with nursing students’ age in this This study has examined and measured the
THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | 7
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
fundamental effect of use of social media addiction on university regulations as well as attitude. Besides that,
academic success of students. The findings of this study the correlation with several other variables will play an
showed that there is no significant relationship between important role in evaluating the actual link among social
social media addiction and academic performance. media addiction and academic achievement, further
Undoubtedly, social media can cause addiction as in this research is needed to strongly reveal the fundamental
study result in high level of addiction. At the same time, frameworks in between two factors.
it also increases the productivity and academic
Conflict of Interests
performance of the students if they use it wisely.
Utilizing social networks in a constructive manner will The authors declare that there is no conflict of
enable student and young people to develop information interests.
which will be utilized to improve their academic
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
success. Hence, for upcoming studies it is essential to
investigate the effect of social media use on some other The authors would like to thank the all participating
possible factors including student goal, fulfilment to students, lecturers, and faculty administrators involved.
REFERENCES
Abbas, J., Amman, J., Nurrunabi, M., & Bano, S. (2019). The impact of social media on learning behavior for
sustainable education: Evidence of students from selected universities in Pakistan. Sustainability, 11(6), 1683.
Al-Menayes, J. (2015). Dimensions of social media addiction among university students in Kuwait. Psychology and
Behavioral Sciences, 4(1), 23.
Bilgin, O., & Taş, İ. (2018). Effects of perceived social support and psychological resilience on social media addiction
among university students. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 6(4), 751–758.
Cengiz, Ş. (2018). Social Media Addiction Scale - Student Form: The Reliability and Validity Study. The Turkish
Online Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1),169-182.
Fareez, S. (2016). Marketing Magazine Asia. Retrieved from: https://marketing magazine.com.my/5-insights-on-
malaysian-snapchat-users.
Giunchiglia, F., Zeni, M., Gobbi, E., Bignotti, E., & Bison, I. (2018). Mobile social media usage and academic
performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 82, 177–185.
Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2017). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in
university students, Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576–586.
Helou, A. M., & Rahim, N. Z. A. (2014). The influence of social networking sites on students’ academic performance in
Malaysia. International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, 5(2), 247-254.
Koc, M., & Gulyagci, S. (2013). Facebook addiction among Turkish college students: the role of psychological health,
demographic, and usage characteristics. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 16(4), 279–284.
Lamia A. A., Osman, Z.H.H., & Farrag, E.A. (2018). Internet Addiction and Related Risk Factors Among Faculty of
Nursing Student At El Fayuom And Dammam University. The Malaysian Journal of Nursing (MJN), 9(4), 95-105.
Mastrodicasa, J., & Metellus, P. (2013). The impact of social media on college students. Journal of College and
Character, 14(1), 21–30.
Member, S. (2020). Snapchat use among Malaysian Undergraduates in Public and Private Universities. Retrieved
from: https://www.monash.edu.my/mdp/ga21/research/projects/snapchat-use-among-malaysian-undergraduates-
in-public-and-private-universities.
Mukhtar, S., Ali, A., Muqeet, A., Hussain, M., Afzal, M., & Gilani, S.A. (2018). Influence of Social Media on Nursing
8 | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS
Student's Academic Performance. Independent Journal of Allied Health Sciences, 3(1), 183-189.
NapoleonCat. (2020). Social Media Users in Malaysia. Retrieved from: https://napoleoncat.com/stats/social-media-
users-in-malaysia .
Olushola, I. (2018). Social Media Usage and Impact on the Academic Learning and Performance of Undergraduate
Students. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/ 41646257/social_media_usage_and_impact_
on_the_academic_learning_and_performance_of_undergratuate_students
Osharive, P. (2015). Social Media and academic performance in. Unpublished.
Othman, W. R., Fariha, Z., & Ngah, N. H. (2017). Impact of Social Media Usage on Students Academic Performance in
Terengganu, Malaysia. Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences, 7(5), 142-143.
Oueder, M., & Abousaber, I. (2018). A Study on the Impact of social Media Usage on Student Academic Performance,”
University of Tabuk an Example. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences
(ASRJETS), 40(1), 77-88.
Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of
Computer Applications Technology And Research, 5(2), 71–75.
Smith, A., & Anderson, M. (2018). Social Media use 2018: Demographics and Statistics. Retrieved from:
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/
StatCounter. (2019). Social Media Stats Malaysia. Retrieved from: https://gs.statcounter.com/social-media-
stats/all/malaysia
Suwayri, S. M. (2016). The impact of social media volume and addiction on medical student sleep quality and academic
performance: A cross-sectional observational study. Imam Journal of Applied Science, 1(2), 4103.
THE MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING | VOL. 13 (1) July 2021 | 9
