Perceived Impact of Social Media among School Students

Abstract

Teenagers' lives have undergone significant change as a result of the widespread use of social media, which has both expanded their social networks and presented them with new difficulties. The purpose of this study was to give a descriptive account of how schoolchildren in Rewari, India, saw the effects of social media on important facets of their lives. The study used a convenience sampling technique and a descriptive research design to survey 100 schoolchildren using the "Perceived Impact of Social Media Scale (PISMSS)," a self-administered questionnaire. Self-reported social media use and perceived effects on academic attention, sleep habits, in-person interactions, perceptions of one's body, and leisure activities were assessed by the PISMSS. A considerable majority of students (51%) spent more than three hours a day on social media, according to data analysis done with descriptive statistics and Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient. The correlation analysis revealed persistent weak to strong positive associations between increased social media usage and perceived negative impacts, despite the fact that students' self-reported views of impact were generally neutral across the categories. In particular, there was a weak to moderate correlation between increased social media use and experiencing distraction from academic tasks (ρ≈0.31), staying up late (ρ≈0.35), missing out on real-life moments (ρ≈0.30), feeling less satisfied with one's natural appearance (ρ≈0.28), and interfering with physical activities (ρ≈0.33). The apparent relationship hypothesis of the investigation was not disproved. To support teenage well-being in a hyperconnected environment, the findings highlight the need for focused interventions to foster healthy digital behaviors, such as media literacy instruction, "digital detox" periods, and the promotion of non-screen-based activities.