Dewan Muhammad Nur-A Yazdani1, Tanvir Abir2, Yang Qing3, Jamee Ahmad4, Abdullah Al Mamun5, Noor Raihani Zainol6, Kaniz Kakon7, Kingsley Emwinyore Agho8,9, Shasha Wang10. 1. MONASH Pathway at Universal College Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 2. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business & Entrepreneurship (FBE), Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 3. UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 4. College of Business Administration-CBA, International University of Business, Agriculture and Technology-IUBAT, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 5. UKM-Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. 6. Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Kota Bharu, Malaysia. 7. Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences-CAAS, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology-IUBAT, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 8. School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia. 9. African Vision Research Institute, Discipline of Optometry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. 10. Marketing and Public Relations at the QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Social media addiction, a recently emerged term in medical science, has attracted the attention of researchers because of its significant physical and psychological effects on its users. The issue has attracted more attention during the COVID era because negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and fear) generated from the COVID pandemic may have increased social media addiction. Therefore, the present study investigates the role of negative emotions and social media addiction (SMA) on health problems during and after the COVID lockdown. METHODS: A survey was conducted with 2926 participants aged between 25 and 45 years from all eight divisions of Bangladesh. The data collection period was between 2nd September- 13th October, 2020. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted for data analysis by controlling the respondents' working time, leisure time, gender, education, and age. RESULTS: Our study showed that social media addiction and time spent on social media impact health. Interestingly, while anxiety about COVID increased social media addition, fear about COIVD reduced social media addition. Among all considered factors, long working hours contributed most to people's health issues, and its impact on social media addiction and hours was much higher than negative emotions. Furthermore, females were less addicted to social media and faced less health challenges than males. CONCLUSION: The impacts of negative emotions generated by the COVID disaster on social media addiction and health issues should be reconsidered. Government and employers control people's working time, and stress should be a priority to solve people's social media addiction-related issues.
BACKGROUND: Social media addiction, a recently emerged term in medical science, has attracted the attention of researchers because of its significant physical and psychological effects on its users. The issue has attracted more attention during the COVID era because negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and fear) generated from the COVID pandemic may have increased social media addiction. Therefore, the present study investigates the role of negative emotions and social media addiction (SMA) on health problems during and after the COVID lockdown. METHODS: A survey was conducted with 2926 participants aged between 25 and 45 years from all eight divisions of Bangladesh. The data collection period was between 2nd September- 13th October, 2020. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted for data analysis by controlling the respondents' working time, leisure time, gender, education, and age. RESULTS: Our study showed that social media addiction and time spent on social media impact health. Interestingly, while anxiety about COVID increased social media addition, fear about COIVD reduced social media addition. Among all considered factors, long working hours contributed most to people's health issues, and its impact on social media addiction and hours was much higher than negative emotions. Furthermore, females were less addicted to social media and faced less health challenges than males. CONCLUSION: The impacts of negative emotions generated by the COVID disaster on social media addiction and health issues should be reconsidered. Government and employers control people's working time, and stress should be a priority to solve people's social media addiction-related issues.
Authors: Børge Sivertsen; Øystein Vedaa; Allison G Harvey; Nick Glozier; Ståle Pallesen; Leif E Aarø; Kari J Lønning; Mari Hysing Journal: J Sleep Res Date: 2018-12-04 Impact factor: 3.981