Nearly 70% of UAE students use social media for five hours or more daily

Around 69.7 percent of UAE students use social media for five hours or more on a daily basis, according to a study by Canadian University Dubai.

The study is aimed at raising awareness over the impact of social media on the mental health of the region’s youth, reported state news agency WAM.

The research answered the question: “Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders in the Youth: to What Extent is Social Media to Blame?”

Media student Fatma Ali said while the research was “an eye-opener”, it should be conducted over longer periods of time, and “social media has not matured enough to directly link it to mental health disorders”.

The study was supervised by Professor, Ode Amaize, Faculty of Communication, Arts and Sciences, who said: “While it is important for communication and media students to be aware of prominent theories of the effects of the media, including computer-mediated ones, these theories are better understood and internalised through pedagogic praxes.

“Interestingly, as noted in some of the opposing arguments, we learn of developmental, socio-economic contexts, and cultural factors, besides the use of social media, that explain the prevalence of mental health disorders among the youth.”

In a separate paper, Assistant Professor Dr. Pablo Medina proposed that hospitals engage healthcare professionals as social media brand ambassadors in a bid to implement social media as a corporate communication tool, tend to the new demands of patients online, and build greater competition between hospitals.

“Hospitals that want to build a reputed brand must take economic and management measures, implement communication plans, and promote collaboration between health professionals and corporate communication experts,” Dr. Medina said.

The paper, titled ‘Hospital Brand Promotion Through Interpersonal Communication Maintained by Health Professionals on Social Media’, was recently published in the Scopus indexed journal, Trípodos.

He said hospitals must define their targets, key messages and brand positioning before using social media platforms, and that they must invest in training health professionals to become social media experts then ambassadors.

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