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Social networking trends among female health college students in King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia
Ibrahim Al-Shahrani1, Rafi Ahmed Togoo2, Shreyas Tikare3, Amal Saeed Shiban Al-Shahrani4, Noura Abdulaziz Abu-Melha4, Zainab Ali Al-Qahtani4
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2 Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Chairman, Department of Dental Education, King Khalid University College of Dentistry, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
3 Assistant Professor, Division of Community Dentistry, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
4 Intern, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Correspondence Address:
MDS Shreyas Tikare
College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/1658-743X.291595
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Objective: The present research was to study the social networking trends among female health college students in KKU Abha, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A pretested questionnaire was developed consisting of 11 items concerning with individual’s usage of social media. All female students of colleges in King Khalid University were considered for the study. Results: A total of 466 female students participated in the research. 96% of the students had registered themselves at some social networking site. Whatsapp was found to be the most popular application (17.4%) followed by Twitter (16.2%), YouTube (15.2%), Google-plus (13%), Facebook (13%), Skype (10.7%) and others. Majority of students (64%) accessed Google for their academic assignments and information gathering.76% of students had practice of accessing to SNS on a daily basis. Majority (43%) of students’ accessed social networking sites late night before sleep or after college hours (32%).The most common reason for SNS usage was for Entertainment (45%). The Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between the frequency of SNS usage and student’s average academic grades (r = 0.064, p = 0.174). Conclusions: The female students at the university are very active on SNS. The social media platforms are mainly used for social interactions or entertainment. There was no statistically significant correlation between social media usage and academic outcomes. Social media platforms should be considered as an effective and informal media in engaging students for academic purposes.
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