Social Media Usage and Academic Performance Among Medical Students in Medina, Saudi Arabia

Figures & data

Figure 1 The percentage distribution of usage of social media during class (N=842).

Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Study Participants (N=842)

Variable	Frequency	Percentage %
Gender
Male	361	42.9%
Female	481	57.1%
Age
18–20 years	178	21.14%
21–25 years	657	78.03%
26 years and above	7	0.83%
University/college
Taibah university	546	64.8%
Alrayan colleges	296	35.2%
Year of Study
2nd year	177	21.0%
3rd year	163	19.4%
4th year	163	19.4%
5th year	209	24.8%
6th year	130	15.4%
GPA
Less than 2	2	0.2%
2–2.9	19	2.3%
3–3.9	125	14.8%
4–4.4	220	26.1%
4.5–5	476	56.5%

Figure 2 The percentage distribution of time spent on social media (N=842).

Figure 3 The GPA and time spent on social media (N=842).

Table 2 Responses of the Medical Students to Items of Social Media and Academic Performance of Students’ Questionnaire (N=842)

Experience Items	Strongly Agree		Agree		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Students’ addictiveness to social network and academic performance
Addiction to online social networks is a problematic issue that affects my academic life	263	31.2%	371	44.1%	182	21.6%	26	3.1%
Online social networks distract me from my studies	192	22.8%	474	56.3%	153	18.2%	23	2.7%
Hours spent online can never be compared to the number of hours I spend studying	210	24.9%	365	43.3%	213	25.3%	54	6.45%
There is no improvement in my grades since I became engaged into social networking sites	143	17.0%	336	39.9%	279	33.1%	84	10.0%
Exposure of students to social media network and their academic performance
I usually have unlimited access to social media and this has affected my academic performance negatively	156	18.5%	381	45.2%	260	30.9%	45	5.3%
I engage in academic discussions on social media and this has improved my academic performance	137	16.3%	402	47.7%	251	29.8%	52	6.2%
I make use of social media to disseminate knowledge to my classmate	148	17.6%	447	53.1%	209	24.8%	38	4.5%
I solely rely on information obtained from social media to do my assignments without consulting other sources	120	14.3%	338	40.1%	271	32.2%	113	13.4%
Use of social media and students’ academic performance
The usage of social media has helped improve my grades	170	20.2%	407	48.3%	233	27.7%	32	3.8%
Engaging in academic forums reduces my rate of understanding	116	13.8%	338	40.1%	340	40.4%	48	5.7%
I use materials obtained from blogging sites to complement what I have been taught in class	147	17.5%	465	55.2%	196	23.3%	34	4.0%
I will not perform well in my academics even if I stop using social media	123	14.6%	337	40.0%	267	31.7%	115	13.7%
Gender usage of social media
Male and female students use social media networks differently in different frequencies	165	19.6%	384	45.6%	241	28.6%	52	6.2%
Gender determines the level of social media network usage	106	12.6%	308	36.6%	328	39.0%	100	11.9%
Age usage of social media
Age has impact on the use of social media	229	27.2%	495	58.8%	107	12.7%	11	1.3%
Social media become boring as I grow older	183	21.7%	410	48.7%	212	25.2%	37	4.4%
Social media is not relevant to people of older generation	141	16.7%	362	43.0%	283	33.6%	56	6.7%
The younger generation are the most active users of social media	319	37.9%	399	47.4%	102	12.1%	22	2.6%

Table 3 Association Between Addiction to Online Social Networks and Demographic Variables (N=842)

Factors		Addiction to Online Social Network		P-value
		Not Addicted	Addicted
Gender	Male	139 (38.5%)	222 (61.5%)	<0.001^a
	Female	256 (53.2%)	225 (46.8%)
University/college	Taibah university	248 (62.8%)	298 (66.7%)	0.248
	Alrayan colleges	147 (37.2%)	149 (33.3%)
Age	18–20 years	93 (23.5%)	85 (19%)	0.274^b
	21–25 years	299 (45.5%)	358 (80.1%)
	26 years and above	3 (0.8%)	4 (0.9%)
GPA	Less than 2	1 (50%)	1 (50%)	<0.001^a
	2–2.9	5 (26.3%)	14 (73.7%)
	3–3.9	42 (33.6%)	83 (66.4%)
	4–4.4	86 (39.1%)	134 (60.9%)
	4.5–5	261 (54.8%)	215 (45.2%)
Year of study	2nd year	94 (23.8%)	83 (18.6%)	0.080
	3rd year	71 (18%)	92 (20.6%)
	4th year	80 (20.3%)	83 (53.1%)
	5th year	84 (21.3%)	125 (28%)
	6th year	66 (16.7%)	64 (15.4%)

Notes: ^aP-value is statistically significant, ^bFisher’s Exact Test.

Table 4 Association Between Exposure to Social Media and Academic Performance and Demographic Variables (N=842)

Factors		Exposure of Students to Social Media Network and Their Academic Performance		P-value
		Not Impact	High Impact
Gender	Male	157 (41.9%)	204 (43.7%)	0.597
	Female	218 (58.1%)	263 (56.3%)
University/college	Taibah university	248 (66.1%)	298 (63.8%)	0.483
	Alrayan colleges	127 (33.9%)	169 (36.2%)
Age	18–20 years	63 (16.8%)	115 (24.6%)	0.016^ab
	21–25 years	309 (82.4%)	348 (74.5%)
	26 years and above	3 (0.8%)	4 (0.9%)
GPA	Less than 2	0 (0.0%)	2 (0.2%)	0.253^b
	2–2.9	5 (1.3%)	14 (3%)
	3–3.9	51 (13.6%)	74 (15.8%)
	4–4.4	98 (26.1%)	122 (26.1%)
	4.5–5	221 (58.9%)	255 (54.6%)
Year of study	2nd year	68 (18.1%)	109 (23.3%)	0.016^a
	3rd year	63 (16.8%)	100 (21.4%)
	4th year	79 (21.1%)	84 (18%)
	5th year	93 (24.8%)	116 (24.8%)
	6th year	72 (19.2%)	58 (12.4%)

Notes: ^aP-value is statistically significant, ^bFisher’s Exact Test.

Table 5 Association Between the Use of Social Media and Students’ Academic Performance and Demographic Variables (N=842)

Factors		Use of Social Media and Students’ Academic Performance		P-value
		Not Help My Grade	Help My Grade
Gender	Male	160 (42.2%)	201 (43.4%)	0.727
	Female	219 (57.8%)	262 (56.5%)
University/college	Taibah university	258 (68.1%)	288 (62.2%)	0.076
	Alrayan colleges	121 (31.9%)	175 (37.8%)
Age	18–20 years	83 (21.9%)	95 (20.5%)	0.264^a
	21–25 years	295 (77.8%)	362 (78.2%)
	26 years and above	1 (0.3%)	6 (1.3%)
GPA	Less than 2	0 (0%)	2 (0.4%)	0.004^a,b
	2–2.9	9 (2.4%)	10 (2.2%)
	3–3.9	39 (10.3%)	86 (18.6%)
	4–4.4	97 (25.6%)	123 (26.6%)
	4.5–5	234 (61.7%)	242 (52.3%)
Year of Study	2nd year	73 (19.3%)	104 (22.5%)	0.069
	3rd year	72 (19%)	91 (19.7%)
	4th year	86 (22.7%)	77 (16.6%)
	5th year	83 (21.9%)	126 (27.2%)
	6th year	65 (17.2%)	65 (14%)
Addiction to online social network	Not addicted	237 (62.5%)	158 (34.1%)	<0.001^b
	Addicted	142 (37.5%)	305 (65.9%)

Notes: ^aFisher’s Exact Test, ^bP-value is statistically significant.