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.