Hubungan antara ketagihan media sosial dengan kemurungan, kebimbangan dan prestasi akademik pelajar siswazah

Abstract

Statistical data released by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has reported that the number of internet users in Malaysia are 88.7%, where 43.4% of the total are students aged between 19 to 25 years old. Based on the same report, 74.3% of students use the internet to search for information, and 29.7% from this number use the internet for learning purposes. This increase in internet usage has encouraged numerous activities through social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram and more. One concerning matter, however, is that this excessive use of social media has led to psychological issues and affects students’ academic achievements. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the levels of social media addiction, depression, anxiety and academic achievement of students as well as to examine the correlation between the use of social media with the independent variables. A total of 377 bachelor’s degree students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, participated in this study. The respondents were chosen using stratified random sampling according to ratio. Data was collected using an online questionnaire. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation) using the SPSS software. The results of the study show that the levels of social media addiction, depression and academic achievement of the students were at a medium level. In contrast, the anxiety level among the students were low. The findings also uncovered that there was a significant positive relation between social media addiction with depression and anxiety, but there was no significant relation between social media addiction and students’ academic achievement. This study’s findings have important implications to many parties, specifically university students, parents, higher education institutions, and public health agencies to be aware of the levels of social media addiction, depression, and anxiety that is currently affecting university students.