Youth Attitudes Towards the Effects of Social Media Addiction: A Study on College Students in the United Arab Emirates

Social media platforms have become an integral part of the daily lives of youth worldwide. While these platforms offer numerous benefits, concerns have arisen about the potential negative consequences of excessive social media use on adolescents' health and physical activity, including addiction. This study aimed to understand youth attitudes toward the effects of social media usage and its risk factors. By investigating the perceptions and behaviors of young individuals, this research seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the impact of social media addiction on the well-being, quality of life, and mental health of individuals actively using social media networks. This study will investigate the effect of social media addiction on sleep problems in college students and the chain mediating effects in the relationship of fear of missing out and nocturnal social media use. We conducted a survey of 327 college students using the Social Media Addiction Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, the Nocturnal Social Media Use Scale, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Index Scale. Results showed that social media addiction significantly and positively predicted poor sleep quality and that the fear of missing out and nocturnal social media use had a chain mediating effect in this relationship. Reducing social media addiction and nocturnal social media use and developing education-guided measures aimed at reducing the fear of missing out will be beneficial for improving the sleep quality of college students.