EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONGDIPLOMA LEVEL HEALTH SCIENCE STUDENTS IN LALITPUR, NEPAL

Introduction: Social media is the most common activity among todays young people. Any websites that allow social interaction is considered as social media site that include Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc. The influence of social media had benefited to shape their education, career, social interaction, innovation and many more. However, its use has negatively impacted on young people by distracted them.

Method: A descriptive cross- sectional study was used to assess the social and behavior effects among 357 diploma level health science students in Lalitpur, Nepal. Data was collected by adopting self-administered structured questionnaire with anenumerative sampling technique. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results:Findings indicate that 77.9% students use smart phones and 23.8% spends time in social media for more than 30 minutes, 38.9% takes social media as the best communication channel and 33.6% spent most of their time in it. The high level of social effect on respondents is 44.3% which is comparably low than the behavior effect of 37.8%.The occupational status of respondents father(χ2=12.41 p=0.03) and leisure time of the day of the respondents (χ2=9.80 p=0.04) were significantly associated with behavior effect of social media.

Conclusion: Social media has a profound effect on the social and behavioral patterns of students where social effects on the life of them are comparatively low than the behavior effect. The demographic variables have caused changes in behavior and social effect so proper awareness should be given to students.

引言：社交媒体（Social Media）是当下年轻人最普遍的日常活动之一。任何支持社交互动的网站均可视为社交媒体平台，涵盖Facebook、YouTube、TikTok、Instagram等。社交媒体的影响对年轻人的教育、职业发展、社交互动、创新等诸多领域均有积极塑造作用；但与此同时，其过度使用也会对年轻人造成负面影响，分散其注意力。

研究方法：本研究采用描述性横断面研究设计，对尼泊尔拉利特普尔的357名健康科学专科层次专业学生的社交媒体社交与行为影响展开评估。数据收集采用自行填写的结构化问卷，并结合枚举抽样法。数据分析采用描述性统计与推断性统计方法。

研究结果：结果显示，77.9%的学生使用智能手机，其中23.8%的学生每日使用社交媒体时长超过30分钟；38.9%的学生将社交媒体视为最优沟通渠道，33.6%的学生将多数闲暇时间投入其中。受访者中社交影响程度较高者占比44.3%，显著低于行为影响程度较高的37.8%。受访者父亲的职业状况（χ²=12.41，P=0.03）以及受访者当日的闲暇时长（χ²=9.80，P=0.04）均与社交媒体的行为影响存在显著关联。

研究结论：社交媒体对学生的社交与行为模式具有深远影响，其中对学生生活的社交影响程度相对低于行为影响。人口统计学变量会对学生的社交与行为影响产生显著改变，因此需针对学生开展针对性的认知教育。