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Original Article
Witold Wojdan1, Krystian WdoWiaK1, aleKsandra Witas1,
Justyna Drogoń1, Wojciech BraKoWiecKi2
The impact of social media on the lifestyle of young people
Abstract
Introduction. Young people are particularly vulnerable to new trends in internet use. Schoolchildren often lose themselves in
the virtual world, forgetting about the real world. This leads to difculties in contact with family or peers, a decline in academic
performance, and even to road accidents. Some young people try to gain popularity on the Internet at all costs, thinking that only
this will make them better people. In some youth circles, people who are less popular in the Internet are excluded – social media
are therefore another reason for dividing young people.
Aim. The aim of the study is to determine the habits related to the use of social media by young people in order to analyze the
obtained data in terms of: assessing an addiction of the studied group, impact on private life, education and selecting the neces-
sary educational programs.
Material and method. The study used an anonymous questionnaire conducted in electronic form on a group of students at-
tending high schools and technical schools all over Poland. The study was conducted using a proprietary questionnaire (Google
form) completed online. The questionnaire mainly consisted of closed-ended questions verifying habits related to using social
media and a certicate (age, gender, voivodship, size of the place of residence, type of school). The following computer programs
were used for statistical analysis of data: Statistica and Microsoft Excel.
Results. The research proved that the most popular social media among young people are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram
and Snapchat. Most of the respondents spend 3-4 hours a day on social media. Most of the respondents neglect sleep and house-
hold chores because of them.
Conclusions. Young people spend too much time during the day using social media. Social media have a negative impact on school
education and the length of sleep of young people. A large proportion of young people is unaware of the dangers that await them online,
and that social media have a negative impact on interpersonal contacts in the real world, therefore it is necessary to increase the knowl-
edge of young people about the dangers lurking on the Internet and introduce educational programs to solve this problem.
Keywords: youth, social media, internet, behavioral addictions, public health, habits.
often lose themselves in the virtual world, forgetting about the
real world. This leads to difculties in contact with family or
peers, a decline in academic performance, and even to road
accidents. Social media introduced into the life of young peo-
ple the need for publicity, to be noticed. Some young people
are particularly susceptible to this trend, and they try to gain
popularity at all costs, because they believe that only popu-
larity will make them better people on the Internet. In some
youth circles, people who are less popular in the Internet are
excluded by creating a group of only “popular” people – so-
cial media are therefore another reason for dividing young
people. Young people who become popular easily have a ten-
dency to be constantly in social media – the desire to maintain
their position leads to addiction. For some people, the loss of
popularity can lead to serious health consequences, includ-
ing depression. When discussing the dangers of social media,
the possibility of extorting condential data from a young per-
son is also worth mentioning.
INTRODUCTION
The beginning of the 21st century is so-called the era of new
addictions. Researchers of the subject more and more often
describe not only addictions to psychoactive substances (al-
cohol, nicotine, drugs, drugs and legal highs), but also other,
which we call behavioral addictions or activity addictions.
These include: playing computer games, “being online” (so-
called network addiction), workaholism, shopaholism, sex
addiction, obsessive overeating, participation in gambling
leading to pathological gambling. These are addictive behav-
iors that a person is not able to control, despite the fact that
they disturb many areas of his functioning [1]. Young people
are particularly vulnerable to new trends in internet use. It is
a tool that brings with it many good solutions, such as the pos-
sibility of maintaining contact between people living far apart,
or easy access to information, as well as bad ones – including
the threat of sexual abuse and discrimination. Schoolchildren
DOI: 10.2478/pjph-2020-0003
1 Studenckie Koło naukowe przy Katedrze i Zakładzie Zdrowia Publicznego – Uniwersytet Medyczny w Lublinie, Poland
2 Chair and Department of Public Health, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
9Pol J Public Health, Vol. 130 (2020)
AIM
Determining the habits of using social media in young people
in order to analyze the obtained data in terms of: the impact of this
activity on interpersonal contacts, the assessment of the addiction
of the group and the selection of necessary educational programs.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
An anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted in an elec-
tronic form on a group of 330 students (288 women and 42 men)
aged from 15 to 21, attending high schools (316 people) and techni-
cal schools (14 people) all over Poland. Information on the age of the
respondents is presented in Table 1, the distribution of the provinces
in which the respondents live is presented in Table 2, while the size
of the place of residence of the respondents is presented in Figure 1.
TABLE 2. Distribution of the provinces in which the respondents live.
Province Number Percent
Lower Silesia 23 7%
Kuyavian-Pomeranian 14 4%
Lublin 22 7%
Lubusz 8 2%
Łódź 23 7%
Lesser Poland 22 7%
Masovia 35 11%
Opole 3 1%
Subcarpathian 30 9%
Podlaskie 10 3%
Pomerania 15 5%
Silesian 29 9%
Świętokrzyskie 45 14%
Warmian-Masurian 11 3%
Greater Poland 32 10%
West Pomerania 8 2%
The study was conducted using a proprietary questionnaire
(Google form) completed via the Internet. The questionnaire
consisted mainly of closed questions, verifying habits related
to using social media, and a record (age, gender, voivodship,
size of the place of residence, type of school). The following
computer programs were used for statistical analysis of the
data: Microsoft Excel (graphs) and Statistica (statistical ana-
lyzes). The following were used for statistical analyzes: Pear-
son’s Chi square test (if p<0.05 it was considered that there is
a relationship between the data), V. Cramer’s test (to determine
the strength of the dependency) and the contingency coef-
cient (when the V. Cramer test was unavailable).
RESU LT S
The highest percentage of secondary school students sur-
veyed use portals consisting in sharing photos (Instagram, Snap-
chat). Also, a large number of respondents use portals enabling
contact with friends and sharing opinions on various topics, the
most popular among them is Facebook, which is 84% more
popular than Twitter. A similar dependence occurs in the case
of websites that allow you to watch Internet videos that are very
popular, however, a much larger part of the respondents uses
YouTube. Services gathering users with similar interests (Pin-
terest and Tumblr) are visited by about half of the respondents.
The least popular among high school students are social net-
works whose target group are adults – (LinkedIn, Tinder).
TABLE 1. Age of respondents.
Median 18
Fashion 18
Fashion multiplicity 120
Lower quartile 18
Top quartile 19
131
98
32 33
17 19
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Village City up to 50
thousand
50 - 100
thousand
100 - 250
thousand
250 - 500
thousand
More than 500
thousand
FIGURE 1. Size of the respondents’ place of residence.
99% 99%
88%
15%
1% 1%
12%
85%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Facebook YouTube Instagram Twitter
Yes No
FIGURE 2. Social media used by the respondents (1).
70%
1%
8%
2%
30%
99%
92%
98%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Snapchat Ask.fm Tumblr LinkedIn
Yes No
FIGURE 3. Social media used by the respondents (2).
10 Pol J Public Health, Vol. 130 (2020)
Ask.fm currently is not a popular website among young
people – 99% of respondents do not use it at all. More than
half of the students (52%) check Snapchat notications every
day. A denite minority rarely visit this platform (5%) or do
not use it at all (28%). As many as 83% of respondents do not
admit to using Twitter (Fig. 6).
school students surveyed use portals consisting in shar-
ing photos (Instagram, Snapchat). Also, a large number of
respondents use portals enabling contact with friends and
sharing opinions on various topics, the most popular among
them is Facebook, which is 84% more popular than Twitter. A
similar dependence occurs in the case of websites that allow
you to watch Internet videos that are very popular – however,
a much larger part of the respondents use YouTube. Services
gathering users with similar interests (Pinterest and Tumblr)
are visited by about half of the respondents. The least popular
among high school students are social networks whose target
group are adults – (LinkedIn, Tinder).
8%
43%
29%
24%
92%
57%
71%
76%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Tinder Pinterest WhatsApp TikTok
Yes No
FIGURE 4. Social media used by the respondents (3).
1%
10%
2%
3%
4%
4%
6%
4%
8%
29%
12%
86%
62%
70%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
everyday a few times a week once a week less often than once a week never
FIGURE 5. The frequency of using the Instagram, YouTube and Facebook
platforms among the respondents.
Young people most often use Facebook – 86% of respond-
ents log in to their account on this portal every day, and 8%
several times a week. The results show that almost all respond-
ents use YouTube. Most of the students (62%) visit this web-
site every day, 29% several times a week. Instagram is also
frequently visited by young people – 70% of respondents do it
every day. When it comes to 12% of respondents, they use this
application several times a week (Fig. 5).
1%
0%
10%
2%
3%
4%
4%
6%
4%
8%
29%
12%
86%
62%
70%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
everyday a few times a week once a week less often than once a week never
FIGURE 6. The frequency of using the Ask.fm, Snapchat and Twitter
platforms among the respondents.
91%
99%
91%
5%
1%
5%
2%
2%
1%
2%
1%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Tumblr
LinkedIn
Tinder
everyday a few times a week once a week less often than once a week never
FIGURE 7. The frequency of using the Tinder, LinkedIn and Tumblr
platforms among the respondents.
Dating apps are not often used by high school students:
91% of respondents do not use Tinder, and only 5% use it less
than once a week. LinkedIn is not also very popular – 99% of
respondents do not use it. The Tumblr microblogging platform
is also not used often by high school students – 91% of re-
spondents do not use it (Fig. 7).
55%
70%
74%
17%
12%
3%
11%
7%
5%
14%
6%
7%
3%
5%
11%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Pinterest
WhatsApp
TikTok
everyday a few times a week once a week less often than once a week never
FIGURE 8. The frequency of using the TikTok, WhatsApp and Pinterest
platforms among the respondents.
11Pol J Public Health, Vol. 130 (2020)
Every tenth respondent uses the TikTok application every
day. The vast majority of respondents do not use this portal
at all (74%). More than 2/3 of the respondents do not use
WhatsApp messenger at all. A small percentage of respondents
(3%) logs into the Pinterest social network every day. When it
comes to 17% of students, they visit Pinterest less than once
a week, and 55% do not do it at all (Figure 8).
Most of the teenagers surveyed (39%) admitted that they
could easily go through the whole day without using social
media. One in twentieth respondents would denitely not be
able to cope with such a challenge, and one in ten claims that
he/she would rather not be able to cope (Fig. 11).
2%
36%
42%
20%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
less than an hour 2-3 hours 3-4 hours more than 5 hours
FIGURE 9. Amount of daily time devoted to social media among respondents.
Only 2% of respondents use social media for less than
an hour a day. The vast majority of respondents spend much
more time on social networking sites – 36% of respondents
use them 2-3 hours, 42% – 3-4 hours, and every fth respond-
ent admits that he/she spends more than 5 hours a day on the
Internet (Figure 9).
55%
7%
29%
1%
7%
1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
contact with
friends
science entertainment desire to meet
someone new
no other
occupation
earning money
FIGURE 10. The main reason why the respondents use social media.
The main reason for using social media indicated by the sur-
veyed youth (55%) is the desire to keep in touch with friends, which
is possible thanks to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp.
Entertainment is also an important aspect of social media for the
respondents, as 29% of people indicated this answer. Entertainment
can be understood as the use of websites such as Youtube, Insta-
gram or TikTok. A small number of respondents (7%) use social
networking sites for learning, which is made possible by the au-
thors of, for example, high school graduation guides published on
Facebook or YouTube [2,3]. The same number of respondents (7%)
admit that they use social networking sites because they have no
other, more interesting job. Every hundredth respondent indicated
that he uses social media to meet someone new, which is possible
thanks to applications such as Tinder, Badoo or eDarling. The mini-
mum number of surveyed youth (1%) uses social media for prot,
e.g. promoting brands on Instagram (Fig. 10).
5%
10%
16%
30%
39%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
definitely not probably not I do not know rather yes definitely yes
FIGURE 11. Possibility of not using social media by respondents for one day.
50%
59%
43%
9%
43%
25%
36%
50%
41%
57%
91%
57%
75%
64%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
neglect household chores
neglect sleep
not pay attention during the lessons
not be careful when crossing the road
not focus on the conversation with other person
provide personal information about yourself
quarrel with a close person
No Yes
FIGURE 12. “Do you ever ... due to social media?
Among the surveyed high school students, the largest num-
ber neglect sleep due to the use of social media (59%). Every
second respondent admitted to neglecting household duties
as a result of excessive use of social networking sites (50%),
while almost half of the respondents, due to using social me-
dia, have a problem with maintaining concentration during
a conversation with another person (43%) and during lessons
(43%). Some of the respondents had an argument with a loved
one as a result of using social media (36%), and every fourth
respondent admitted that he/she had shared personal informa-
tion about themselves on social networks. The smallest num-
ber of respondents happened not to be careful when crossing
the road as a result of using social media (9%) (Fig. 12).
Most respondents (40%) admit that they check social media
every several minutes, a similar number of respondents (36%)
do it every hour/two. Almost every tenth respondent checks
social media continuously (Fig. 13).
12 Pol J Public Health, Vol. 130 (2020)
DISCUSSION
“What social media do you use?”
Compared to the 2016 research, the percentage of high
school students using Facebook and LinkedIn has not changed.
There was a signicant difference in the number of Instagram
users which increased by 63%, as did the number of Snapchat
users which increased by 50%. In the case of both of these
social networking sites, there was an increase in the number
of young people using these websites, but in 2017 both of
these websites signicantly increased in popularity in Poland.
There is also a slight increase in YouTube users, from 86% to
99%. The popularity of Ask.fm changed negatively, which de-
creased from 20% to 1% compared to the 2016 research. The
increase in the number of users is also noticeable in the case
of the Twitter, which changed by 5% compared to 2016, which
is probably due to the inux of middle school students to up-
per secondary schools, among which, according to the same
research from 2016, the number of users was 20% [4] (Fig.
2,3,4). Almost every tenth high school student who took part
in the presented study has an account on the Tinder dating por-
tal (Fig. 4). Nowadays, a large number of young people look
for sympathy on the Internet, while few of them are interested
in using applications prepared for this purpose [5,6]. Accord-
ing to research carried out in 2019 at the request of NASK’s
academy, the WhatsApp application was listed among the
most frequently used by 11.9% of students of upper secondary
schools [7] (Fig. 4).
Pearson’s Chi square test showed a relationship between
gender and the use of Instagram (p=0.002), Pinterest, and Tik-
Tok (p=0.046). The contingency coefcient showed that this
relationship is rather weak when using Pinterest, in other cases
it is weak.
Pearson’s Chi square test showed a relationship between
the size of the place of residence and the use of TikTok.
V. Cramer’s test showed that this dependence is weak.
“How often do you use the given social media?”
The number of 5% of respondents admit to using What-
sApp, while 6% of respondents does it several times a week,
which can be concluded that the popularity of this applica-
tion remains at a similar level (Fig. 4). In a survey conducted
by CBOS in 2018 a very small percentage of young people
in high school age mentioned having an account on the Tik-
Tok platform, which, when confronted with the results of the
8%
40%
36%
16%
practically all the time every several minut es every hour / two less often
FIGURE 13. The frequency with which the respondents check if there was
something new in social media.
own research, leads to the conclusion that more and more stu-
dents show interest in this application (Fig. 4) [5]. A similar
situation took place in connection with the Pinterest portal, to
which almost half of the respondents in the own study logged
in (Fig. 8). The EU NET ADB research made it possible to
show that social networks are one of the most frequently un-
dertaken forms of Internet activity by young people living in
Europe. The social networking site is visited daily by 65.8%
of EU NET ADB respondents [8]. These studies did not dis-
tinguish individual portals – comparing these data with the
results obtained during the own study, it can be concluded
that the number of users using social networking sites every
day has increased signicantly. Only the Facebook platform
itself is logged in by 86% of respondents every day, and the
percentage of users using Instagram with the same frequency
also exceeded the results obtained during the above-mentioned
study (Fig. 5).
Pearson’s Chi square test showed a relationship between
gender and the frequency of using Instagram (p=0.017), Twitter
(p=0.026), LinkedIn (p=0.00094), and Pinterest (p=0.00008).
V. Cramer’s test showed that this dependence is rather weak
when using LinkedIn and Pinterest, in other cases it is weak.
Pearson’s Chi square test showed no correlation between the
size of the place of residence and the answer to this question.
“How much time do you spend on social media a day?”
The study shows that as many as 20% of respondents spend
more than 5 hours a day on social media, which is an alarming-
ly high number, considering that young people attend school
during the week, where they spend most of the day. Therefore,
some young people spend practically all their free time on so-
cial media (Fig. 9) [4]. Pearson’s Chi square test showed no
correlation between gender and size of the place of residence
and the answer to this question.
“What’s the main reason why you use social media?”
The study shows that young people use social media mainly
for contact with friends and for entertainment purposes. Much
fewer respondents use social media for educational purposes
(Fig. 10). Social media offers great educational opportuni-
ties and young people should pay attention to this applica-
tion. Pearson’s Chi square test showed a relationship between
gender and the answer to this question. The V. Cramer’s test
showed that this relationship is rather weak.
Pearson’s Chi square test showed no correlation between
the size of the place of residence and the answer to this ques-
tion.
“Would you be able not to use any social media around the
clock?”
The survey shows that most adolescents believe they would
be able not to use social media overnight. The scary thing is
that almost 1/6 of the youth would not be able to survive a day
without social media (Fig. 11). This is especially dangerous as
it may indicate an existing fear of exclusion that often leads
to a potential addiction to social media. Considering the fact
that young people often do not pay attention to the discussed
problem, it is necessary to familiarize young people with the
consequences of Internet addiction [9].
Pearson’s Chi square test showed no correlation between
gender and size of the place of residence and the answer to
this question.
13Pol J Public Health, Vol. 130 (2020)
“Do you ever ... due to social media?”
Due to the use of social media, 59% of the surveyed high
school students sleep less (Fig. 12), this is a disturbing statis-
tic considering that, according to the research, teenagers who
use social networking sites excessively before falling asleep
are at risk of sleep disorders [10]. On the other hand, 43% of
respondents admitted not paying attention to lessons due to the
use of social media (Figure 12), and considering the fact that,
according to research from 2014, 78% of respondents agreed
that the use of social media negatively affects the learning of
young people [11], it may indicate a negative impact on the
development of the young person. In addition, according to
research from 2018, 14% of respondents consider causing dis-
traction to be the most negative effect of using social media
[12], and our research shows that almost half of the respond-
ents have lost their focus as a result of using social network-
ing sites (Fig. 12). Among the respondents, 36% admitted
that they had a conict with a loved one as a result of using
social media (Fig. 12), and the negative impact on interper-
sonal relationships is, according to 17% of respondents from
the research conducted in 2018, as the most negative result
using social media [12]. According to research, every fourth
respondent shared personal information about himself on so-
cial networking sites (Fig. 12), however, according to research
conducted on Silesian youth in 2016, 41% shared their photo
on the Facebook [13], which may indicate that a large propor-
tion of high school students do not consider sharing photos pri-
vate information about themselves. Pearson’s Chi square test
showed a relationship between gender and the answer “neglect
sleep” (p=0.0086). V. Cramer’s test showed that this depend-
ence is weak. Pearson’s Chi square test showed no correlation
between the size of the place of residence and the answer to
this question.
“How often do you check, for example on your phone,
if there is something new in social media?”
Worrying is the fact that every tenth surveyed teenager uses
social media practically all the time, many young people admit
that Facebook stays on 24/7, and the teenager feels a constant
need to check up-to-date information that appears every now
and then (Fig. 13).
Pearson’s Chi square test showed no correlation between
gender and size of the place of residence and the answer to
this question.
CONCLUSIONS
1. The most popular social media among young people are:
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.
2. Dating sites are not popular among teenagers.
3. Young people spend too much time during the day using
social media.
4. Few of the young people use social media for research pur-
poses.
5. Most of the youth believe they can break away from social
media daily.
6. Social media has a negative impact on school education and
adolescent sleep length.
7. A large proportion of young people are unaware of the dan-
gers they face online. Educational programs should be in-
troduced to address this problem.
8. A small proportion of young people admit that they cannot
tear themselves away from social media.
9. Social media has a negative impact on people-to-people
contacts in the real world.
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Corresponding author
Dr Wojciech Brakowiecki
Chair and Department of Public Health, Medical University of Lublin,
1 Chodźki St., 20-093 Lublin
E-mail: witoldww20@gmail.com
tel: 692235417