Abstract:
In the modern era, social media have a potential impact on the student community,
and it is essential that every student uses the social media responsibly as future health
professionals. Lack of social media literacy can result in unethical behaviors in their
professionalism. The study aimed to assess attitude, practice and socio-demographic
factors influencing on responsible use of social media. An institution-based descriptive
cross-sectional study was conducted among Allied Health Sciences students at the
University of Jaffna. A sample of 426 participants were randomly selected and the data
were collected via a validated self- administered questionnaire through google forms.
Collected data were analszed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 23.
The responses were received from 411students. (response rate=96.47%). The majority
of participants, (n=281, 68.4%) were in the age group of 23 – 25 years. The mean age
was 24.00 (SD= 1.43). Participants were categorized into positive attitude (65.2%) and
negative attitude (34.8%) by using a 50% pre-determined cut-off value. Age, study
programme, and academic year were statistically significant (p < 0.05) on the level of
attitude. A positive attitude of 73.7% and 72.5% were observed among the participants
of age group 23 to 25 and 26 to 28 respectively, which was relatively higher compared to
age group 20 to 22. The study revealed that, more than half of the total study participants
had a positive attitude towards using social media responsibly (65.2%). In certain
categories, more percentage of participants exhibited negative attitudes regarding the use
of social media responsibly. Those categories were participants from the first academic
year (47.7%), male students (38.1%), and age group 20-22 (82.0%). According to these
findings, attention has to be given to further improving their attitude of them towards
responsible use of social media.
