Social media fatigue among nursing students. A nationwide cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Social media fatigue is a concept used to refer to exhaustion due to the overuse of social media. Websites and social media profiles for nursing professionals are an important aspect of promoting the nursing profession and modern nursing practice. Aim of the study: To assess the level of social media fatigue among undergraduate nursing students in Poland. Material and methods: All undergraduate (3-year bachelor's program) Polish nursing students were eligible for the study. Out of 679 study participants, first-year students (n = 397, 58.73%) and women (n = 589, 87.13%) were the largest groups. The Social Media Fatigue Scale (SMFS) was used as a research tool. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant in all analyses. Results: The analysis showed that the surveyed nursing students showed an average level of social media fatigue (M = 51.81, SD = 15.59). The majority of the study participants felt overwhelmed by the amount of information available on social media (n = 137, 20.3%). The respondents admitted to feelings of anger when they realized that using social media took too much of their time (n = 163, 24.1%). Conclusions: This original study showed that social media fatigue is a noticeable phenomenon among nursing students. In view of the risk of an increase in the level of perceived fatigue, it is advisable to provide adequate health education to improve the informational awareness of nursing students.