Profile of adolescent social media user in rural area

Abstract

Background: With the widespread accessibility of internet in India over last decade, use of social media has become more popular especially in teenage children. Social media can be used for variety of reasons. It can be useful or may have adverse effects. In urban area use of social media is expected to be more however data regarding use of social media by adolescent children in this area is lacking. This study is conducted to know various aspects of social media use by adolescent children in rural part of Kolhapur district. Method: 650 students, with equal sex distributionin the age group of 15-18 years studying in 11 th & 12 th class from two rural areas of Kolhapur district were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by validated questionnaire. Data was analyzed by SPSS 23.0 version. Result: 87.86% rural adolescent children were found to use social media. Most of them were using it for entertainment and communication than for educational purpose. 30% children expressed negative feelings and more than half reported social media affecting their life style adversely. Conclusion: Accessibility to electronic gadgets, internet and social media is rapidly increasing to rural area. Along with good aspects of social media, negative aspects are also affecting rural adolescent children significantly. This highlight need for timely interventional strategies.