1Student, Department. Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai
2Professor, Department. Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai
3Professor & Head of the Department. Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai
*Corrresponding Author: Dr. S. Gopalakrishnan, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai-600044
Online published on 26 September, 2019.
Social networking sites (SNS's) offer a straight forward way to converse among people and sustain relationships among them. Forthepastdecade, thereisahugechangeinthe field of communication because of the rapid development of socialnet works.
The purpose of the study was to identify the impacts of Social Networking Sites (SNS's) on the medical students and to ascertain the reasons behind using social media.
This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 undergraduate medical students in Sree Balaji Medical and Hospital, Kanchipuram (dist.), Tamil Nadu. A self-administered questionnaire designed for the study was distributed among the students.
Of the 100 students, majority belongs in 20-22years age group (63%) and 38% spend 1-3hours per day mostly to keep in touch with friends and family (85%). Three participants were found to have moderately severe depression whereas 40% were having minimal depression and 31% were having mild depression.
Internet addiction has become a major problem for medical students. Students should be counseled about the merits and demerits of internet addiction. Duration of internet use must be restricted by parents and authorities to avoid the increasing risk of internet addiction which ultimately leads to depression.
Social Media, Internet Addiction, Medical Undergraduates
