THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND MENTAL HEALTH AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Background: Social media is increasingly becoming the inevitable part of life particularly with the students in the university who tend to use digital media as a means of communication, entertainment, and information distribution. The reason is that the high development of social networking sites has significantly increased the time students spend online and this is what has raised the alarm concerning the potential effects it may bring to the academic performance and mental health. The recent study demonstrates that despite the possibilities of developing academic cooperation and accessing information via the social media, excessive use of it may result in a lack of focus, negative academic outcomes, and even psychological issues, including stress, anxiety, and loneliness (Mukhtar et al., 2023; Keles et al., 2020). Therefore, the relationship between the use of social media, academic performance, and mental well-being is an increasingly significant problem to teachers and policymakers. Background: The research is meant to examine the impact of using social media on the academic and mental health of college students. Methods: One of the quantitative research methods that has been proposed is survey-based research. The data will be collected based on the structured questionnaire through offering the questionnaire to the university students to identify their social media usage patterns, indicators of academic performance and their psychological health. The current literature demonstrates that the deteriorating effect of excessive use of social media on the academic focus and emotional state of students, but moderate use may produce positive outcomes in the learning and socialization processes (Rana Al Mosharrafa et al., 2024; Landa-Blanco et al., 2024). Results: The findings of this research lead to the high levels of correlation of high social media usage, reduced academic performance, and increased psychological issues. The paper concludes that moderate and responsible social media use is a precondition of the academic performance and psychological health. The findings impact on important implications to universities to come up with awareness programs and support strategies that will encourage healthy digital practices among students.