ATTITUDE OF ADOLESCENTS TOWARDS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Bindu Kaipparettu Abraham Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Science, University of Hafar Al Batin, Saudi Arabia. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 10 December 2019 Final Accepted: 12 January 2020 Published: February 2020

Social media has turned into a portion of our daily life. As each coin has two sides, social media also has favored standpoint and hindrance. Social media can boon or bane depends upon our exploitation the way we use it. Today, social media use is nearly universal among Adolescents. They are the most enthusiastic users of social networking and social media. Aim: Purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of adolescents toward social media. Specifically, the study has been designed to investigate whether social media boon or bane to the society and to the adolescents. It is a study of descriptive character with a qualitative approach. The participants of the research were students of the College of Applied Medical Science, Hafar Al-Batin, and Saudi Arabia. The sample was comprised by students of the nursing department, who agreed to participate in the research, there were deleted from the research the ones who did not fill the questionnaire. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire that characterized the student's sociodemographic, besides guiding the questions regarding the attitude of adolescents towards social media. Data analysis was done with SPSS statistical package version 20. The data collected displayed that adolescents recognized that social media has an influence on their social life and relationship, lifestyle, health, academic performance, and privacy and security. The boon or the bane of social media on adolescents originates in based on how they use it. If they use it positively, it can give unbelievable returns to them. On the other hand, a lot of adolescents waste a big portion of their time on social media. With social media, the information of a lot of adolescents has now become digital which may cause their confidentiality at risk. This help the hackers shot and acquire data for their use on a daily basis now a day.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
Social media can spring the life of the people with a click of the mouse. The definition of "social media" is broad and it refers to Internet-based tools that allow individuals to communicate; , to share evidence, thoughts, personal messages, pictures, and other content; and, in some cases, to cooperate with each other users in genuine time. Social media comes in many forms, including blogs, forums, business networks, photo-sharing platforms, social gaming, microblogs, chat apps, and last but not least social networks. The influence of social media is such that the number of worldwide users is anticipated to stretch some 3.02 billion monthly active social media users by 2021, around a third of Earth's entire population. 2018 Social Spending Report showing that 77 percent of U.S. Americans had a Social media use in the Middle East has reached its peak in 2018. Saudi Arabia recorded the highest year-over-year growth in the number of social media users at a rate of 32%. All these indicators and more reflect the vital role of social media in the Arabic world. The whole of Saudi society is moving towards the digital world. Social media statistics 2018 reveals that the number of internet users in Saudi Arabia rose swiftly to touch 30 million people by the beginning of 2018. Social media is opening to create an important role in the breaths of Saudi Arabians and its practice has stretched swiftly. From just being the networking platform, social media has morphed into a potent force for social change in Saudi society. (Social media statistics, 2018).
Today, social media use is nearly universal among Adolescents. They are the most enthusiastic users of social networking and social media. Social media has provided adolescents with the ability to form and maintain virtual communities online. Digital technology has become an integral aspect of their culture, their education, and more broadly, their lives. Pew Internet survey (2018) from the United States discovered that 97% of 13-to 17-year-olds use at least one of seven major online platforms. 45% of U.S. teens say they use the internet "almost constantly" either on a computer or a cellphone, while 55% use the internet several times a day or less often (Pew Internet survey, 2018). The amplified binding of social media applications has delivered more openings for early and late adolescents to connect, interconnect, and interrelate with each other.
Of course, social media connects people globally and has become a part of so many people's lives, but it has its own drawbacks Many studies showing that social media distracting for everyone and especially the younger generation. They are always glued to their mobiles, computers, and tablets which is wastage of time and leads to less interaction with family and friends. As everything has its pros and cons, social media has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
The positive effects of social media on adolescents today include making them update on the situation happening around the world and also permits the network and stay joined with their relatives and friends without physical meetings. It bridges the gap between friends. It helps to strengthen relationships among classmates and who moved to different locations around the world. Additionally, adolescents can create pages and groups in the social media platforms based on their professions and this leads to more connections being built and more opportunities being opened for their respective disciplines.
Even though social media sites seem to connect more people and make them stay up to date, it leads to social isolation. It reduces the number of face-to-face interactions amongst adolescents because they normally spend most of their time on these online social platforms. Studies done by various scientists show that social media can cause social isolation which leads to physical, emotional, mental and psychological issues in adolescents. This can make depression, anxiety, and many other health problems. It also leads to the misspelling of words and the misapplication of words and tenses through the use of short methods and abbreviations. This has a high negative impact on the academic performance of students because it affects their language capabilities directly.

Significance of the study:
The power of social media is extremely influential to adolescents. Many studies are conducted related to the impacts of social media on adolescents. On the contrary, there are very few studies that have been conducted related to the attitudes of adolescents toward social media. Therefore, it is significant to understand the positive and negative attitude of the adolescents toward social media. This study will provide information to the social media users about, the positive and negative effects of overutilization of social media on their social life and relationship, academic performance, personal lifestyle, health, and privacy and security. Also, it makes them aware about the control of the utilization of the social media

Aim:
The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of adolescents toward social media. Specifically, the study has been designed to investigate whether social media boon or bane to the society and to the adolescents.

Methodology:-
The target population for the study was female adolescents in the College of Applied Medical Science, Hafar Al Batin, Saudi Arabia. Undergraduate nursing students (n =150) who are studying for a Nursing degree participated in the present study. They were selected using a purposive non-probability sampling method.
This study used a questionnaire to elicit Nursing students' attitude towards social media. These questions were structured in five-point Likert-like scale consisting of 28 items distributed among 10 item subscales that measure the attitude of social media on social life and relationship, 8 items for lifestyle and health, 5 items for academic performance and privacy and security of social media. In response to the statements, the subjects were requested to indicate which of five responses, on a rating scale of 1-5, (5 = strongly agree; 4 = agree; 3=Neutral, 2 = disagree; and 1 = strongly disagree). Before the adaptation of the questionnaire, it was reviewed and validated by the researcher to obtain experts opinion. The questionnaire included items about demographic variables, age, and time spent on social media and the purpose of using social media.
The questionnaire was pretested to determine the effectiveness of the tool and these and they were not included as study respondents during the main study. The feedback from the pre-test led to the modification and clarification of some of the questions. Data collected during the month of January 2017. The questionnaire was self-administered to the nursing students attending in College of Applied Medical Science in Hafar Al Batin, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was administered and collected by the researcher. The entire third year and fourth year nursing students participated in the study, giving a response rate of 100%.

Data Analysis:
The data were checked for completeness. Inconsistencies were identified and addressed. Data were captured and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package version 20. Descriptive analyses (frequencies, mean, median mode and Standard Deviation) were used to analyze all items on the questionnaire. Responses on the attitudinal statement were re-coded at a 5-point Likert scale and the coding style as follows:, 5 = strongly agree; 4 = agree; 3=Neutral, 2 = disagree; and 1 = strongly disagree.

Result:-
As per the collected information71% of the adolescents were in the age group of below 20 years, and 29% were above 20 years. It is interesting to notice that all of them pointed out that the purpose of utilization of social media for site surfing (100%) 93% used social media for download movies and music and 87% adolescents have reported social networking as their main purpose of usage of social media. 83% of adolescents were utilizing social media for chatting purpose and 67% of them have reported that they utilize social media for checking e-mails. Only 53% of adolescents were found to be engaged in blogging with social networking sites. Almost all the selected adolescents are utilizing social media for various purposes. It is noticed that 76% of the adolescents are using social media more than 3 hours a day and 14% adolescents are using social media for 1 to 3 hours and only 10% of the selected adolescents spend less than an hour on social media (

Overall attitude towards Social Media:
Based on the responses, the students recognized that the social media has influence on their social life and relationship, life style, health, academic performance and privacy and security. Finding showed that 57% of the adolescents are agreed or strongly agreed that social media has influence on their social life and relationship, lifestyle and health. In other hand, 40% of them disagree in these areas. 53% of the adolescents agreed that social media has influence on their academic performance. It is also noticed that adolescents are concerned about the privacy and security of the social media (53%) (Figure1)

Figure 1:-Overall attitude towards Social Media
Attitude towards Social life & Relationship 57% of students agreed or strongly agreed that social media has influence on their social life and social relationship and 3% has no opinion about this and 47% has disagree with this opinion.74% agree that young generations are becoming more addicted to the social media. At the same time 71% agree that social media gives platform to share their views, opinions, thought and funs. 64% of students strongly agree or agree to the statement that social media helps to maintain, strengthen and update better relationship with friends and also increase friendship circle with whom they are unable to meet.More than fifty percent of the students are agreed that Social media helps in social activities and also helps in share cultural and religious activities. They also agreed that social media helps to create awareness about tragedies and accidents.59% of the students disagree to the statement that social media takes you far away from the person sitting next to you. 59% disagree the statement that social media enhances the communication skill. Half of the students disagree social media make weak and thinning interaction with family members.(Table1 2) Attitude towards Lifestyle & Health 57 % of students agree/ strongly agree that social media influence their lifestyle and health whereas 41% disagree with that and 2% did not show any opinion about that. 71% of the students are agreeing that use of social media can lead to strain or problems to their eyes, hands and physical structure. 67% of students agree that social media is the source of recreation and relaxation like sports, music and movies and 60% agree that social media helps to know about new trends and fashions and it also helps to know about what is going on around them related to fashions and lifestyle.57% of students are agree that social media provides the platform to share the happiness and sorrow as well . in the same time they feel that use of social media wasting a lot of hours in their life and it leads to laziness and less interest in physical work or outdoor activities.When 52% of students disagree that use of social media has 447 negative effect like depression, anxiety and behavioural problems , 45% are agree or strongly agree with that.50% of the students disagree that use of social media affect their routines like time of sleep, food and other daily activities. Almost near to that (45%) agree or strongly agree to that statement. (Table 3) SA -Strongly Agree. A-Agree, N-Neutral, DA-Disagree SA SD-Strongly Disagree. Attitude towards Academic Performance: 53% of students agree that use of social media affect their academic performance whereas 45% disagree with that.67% students agree or strongly agree that the time they are taking for social media is replacing the time of study and it may affect their academic performance. 56% of students agree that social media helps in develop future careers. Almost 50% agree that social media helps to collaborate with fellow students and teachers for study and also helps in learn to develop skills by using different educational apps. 61% of students disagree that social media affect the skill of writing and reading books. (Table 4)

Attitude towards Social Security & Privacy
54% of students agree that social media affect the social privacy and security. 67% agree that there is no reliable measure to check the credibility of the news and videos present in the social media. 60% of them strongly agree or agree that adolescents have tendency to abuse social media for their popularity. More than 50 % of the adolescents agreed that cybercrime are very common in social media and many of the adolescents are victim of cyber bullying. 61% of the students disagree or strongly disagree with the statement that social media is the platform for chatting with unknown person without the parent's permission (Table 5) 53% of the adolescents agreed that social media has influence on their academic performance. It is also noticed that adolescents are concerned about the privacy and security of the social media (53%). This congruent with Al Sharq (2015) that Social media is becoming part of our society, changing social life and relationship.

Attitude towards Social life & Relationship
57% of students agreed or strongly agreed that social media has influence on their social life and social relationship. Berezan (2017), perceived that adolescents use social media as a tool to express themselves and construct their own identity. This can generate newer generations to be partially conditional upon their social media accounts to find their social status offline.
It is obvious from the result that social media addiction is very relevant among adolescents. 74% of participants agreed that young generations are becoming more addicted to the social media. Alobaid, et al (2018) reinforced this that the highest level of internet addiction was found among the adolescents due to their greater level of independence, their free time and social activities are less controlled by their parents Block, (2018) also investigated that, social media addiction is more prevalent in adolescents due to the presence of a large computer based gaming community The survey has revealed that 71% agreed social media gives platform to share their views, opinions, thought and funs. A social networking site is a website that provides a venue for people to share their activities with family, friends, and colleagues or to share their interest in a particular topic (Grosvenor, 2016) 64% of students strongly agree or agree to the statement that social media helps to maintain, strengthen and update better relationship and also increase friendship circle with whom we are unable to meet. Zhou, Zhang,Yang, & Wang, (2017) also found that social media can be used to strengthen relationships among distant friends and relatives and can be a wealth of information, as it gives individuals increased access to information.
Many researchers believed that Social Media makes one more worried and concerned with the virtual world rather than the world in front of our face. Social Media has both brought us together and pushed us further distant (Berezan, 2017). In present study, 59% of the students disagree with the statement that social media takes you far away from the person sitting next to you.
Almost Half of the participants disagree with the statement social media make weak and thinning interaction with family members. It is agreed by Zhou, Zhang, Yang, & Wang, (2017) that social medias has been used by separated families and friends to stay connected when they are apart from each other. This inspires healthy relationships between family members and allows adolescents to stay connected with their friends. Without Social Media it wouldn't be easy for us to communicate with each other with a press of a button. According to Le Moignan (2017), Social networking sites provide an excellent way to bridge the geographic distance .
More than fifty percent of the students are agreed that Social media helps in social activities and also helps in share cultural and religious activities. They also agreed that social media helps to create awareness about tragedies and accidents. Social media can be used to communicate with individuals who have terminal illnesses, mental conditions, and or mobility issues. Mahat (2014), revealed that Social Networking Sites are providing platform for giving suggestions on various social issues. Adolescents are getting more aware about social issues through social media.
Social media enhances communication but not the communication skill of adolescents. 59% disagree the statement that social media enhances the communication skill. Block, (2018) has found that word-of-mouth exchanges and indepth conversations are still most influential to the communication skill of the adolescents than social media communication

Attitude towards lifestyle and Health:
Attitude of adolescents towards lifestyle and health showed that 57 % of adolescents agree or strongly agree that social media influence their lifestyle and health. Social media has woven itself into the fabric of many adolescent's lives. Now a days social media is part of our life . The social media is affecting everyday life by pay for us the vital commodity called information (Jammes Mageto, 2017) 450 67% of students agree that social media is the source of recreation and relaxation like sports, music and movies. Social media websites are also used as a tool of evaluating the free time because of the characteristics that they have. The Pew Research Center survey results showed that many females who use Twitter, email and mobile photo sharing actually reported being less stressed than those who did not use these technologies.
Most of the adolescents (60%) found the updated fashion related information on social media. They agreed that social media helps to know about new trends and fashions and it also helps to know about what is going on around them related to fashions and lifestyle. Shiresha Manyam(2018) in her study on impact of social media on current fashion, found that the majority of the students are getting information related to fashion from the fashion blogs and they will buy fashion garments through social networking sites.
57% of students are agree that social media provides the platform to share the happiness and sorrow as well . Jain Regarding effect of social media on health problems, 71% of the students are agreeing that use of social media can lead to strain or problems to their eyes, hands and physical structure. . Monica Munjial  showed that negative health consequences related to excessive use of social media included eye strain, reduction in energy levels, and reduction in frequency and duration of exercise, and back and wrist pain and constant headache. In the present study 50% of the students disagree that use of social media affect their routines like time of sleep, food and other daily activities. Yelda (2017) found a positive relationship between social media and unhealthy habits including skipping meals, delaying urination, and late night and interrupted sleep. When 52% of students disagree that use of social media has negative effect like depression, anxiety and behavioural problems , 45% are agree or strongly agree with the negative effect of social media. Study conducted by Straten(2011) observed that social media use has positive relationship with depression. It has been observed that adults with major depression spent more time online. However, some findings suggested that there is no association between social media use and depression. (Jelenchick, 2013) . A study conducted by Pantic (2012) on association between online social networking and depression in high school students and found that high school students who spent more time on social media has a greater risk for depression. Wang(2017) noted that aside from the increasing isolation from real human interaction, social media is making students less social and more aggressive Attitude towards Academic performance: More than half of the participants (53%) agree that use of social media affect their academic performance. Same study conducted by Teng (2012) found that only 58% of the students think social media would be favorable to use in the classroom. The researcher showed that social media websites can be used to help students brainstorm, respond to one another, and to be exposed to feedback on their own writing. Bka(2017). Effective application of new social media technology may offer distinct advantages for teaching in the modern era.. In contrary, Maria(2017) examined the relationship between Social media usage and academic performance, and found there was no relationship between social media usage and grades.
67% students agree or strongly agree that the time they are taking for social media is replacing the time of study and it may affect their academic performance. Sharma (2016) found that Facebook users reported a lower mean GPA than non-users; additionally, Facebook users reported studying fewer hours per week than non-users . Social media has a negative influence on student's communications, educational achievements, and their daily activities such as homework. Maria Sagrario R. Simbulan(2017), revealed that social media is positive towards the students as they feel they can manage both the personal life and academic equally Almost 50% agree that social media helps to collaborate with fellow students and teachers for study and also helps in learn to develop skills by using different educational apps. Graphing mathematical equations, creating and sharing notes, electronic publishing, and employing location-aware technologies are among the few educational uses for mobile devices that can provide numerous potential opportunities for the academic world. Yelda (2017).

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Researchers also found the student who cannot be able participate in a face-to-face class due to interpersonal reasons is more likely to participate through social media 61% of students disagree that social media affect the skill of writing and reading books. The popularity of social media and using social media for communication and social interaction has led many people to decrease other social and communication activities such as sending letters, talking on the phone, sending email, and face-to-face meetings. (Quinn , 2016).
Regarding attitude of social media on future development, 56% of students agree that social media helps in develop future careers. Social media helps in future career from availability of research tools, competitive analysis, insight mapping and perception from feedback and reviews. Maria, (2017) concluded that social Networking Sites are an avenue for searching information; educational networks and also they look for career opportunities.
Attitude towards Privacy &Security: 54% of students agree that social media affect the social privacy and security. Ruohan Lia (2015) noted lack of concern for the privacy on social media. 67% agree that there is no reliable measure to check the credibility of the news and videos present in the social media. The researcher pointed out that information on social media has lack of professional gatekeepers to monitor content. How to evaluate the information trustworthiness on social media platform has become an important issue for today information consumers.
60% of them strongly agree or agree that adolescents have tendency to abuse social media for their popularity. Singh, et al., (2017) noted that the adolescent's feeling of social acceptance and attention, and the need to impress their online peer audience can result in risky or unhealthy behavior in the offline world. One of the most common methods of deception on social media is the use of fake profiles, where malicious users create profiles to impersonate fictitious or real persons, such as celebrities or other people in the public interest More than 50 % of the adolescents agreed that cybercrime are very common in social media and many of the adolescents are victim of cyber bullying. According to Singh, et al.,(2017) cyberbullying is often levied more harshly against young females than males .This situation may influence the use of social media by users who are looking for trusted and reliable information..

Conclusion:-
There are numerous boons and banes of social media. The boon or the bane of social media on adolescents originates in based on how they use it. If they use it positively, it can give unbelievable returns to them. Adolescents are receiving the digital update from social media sites rather than turning on news channel or reading newspaper. Previously, the only way we had to keep in touch with others was by letter or land phones. But now social media permitted for adolescents to stay in touch with family, discover old friends that they have lost touch with over the years. On the other hand, a lot of adolescents waste a big portion of their time on social media. With social media, the information of a lot of adolescents has now become digital which may cause their confidentiality at risk. This helps the hackers shot and acquire data for their use on a daily basis now a day.
The researchers are suggesting that using social media is not immoral but the way it is being used is important. Adolescents must be given direction on what should be the accurate approach. Also, adolescents must be cultured on the overall age-related activities instead of getting attached to social media and spending precious time in unusable chatting. Adolescents must take initiative to find out how best such sites can be used. Hence Adolescents must wake up and use technology and social media as a boon and not a bane.