Abstract
Background: Social media anxiety has been on the rise globally. There is sparse literature on the association between social media and anxiety. Most of the available data originate from high-income countries. This is the first attempt to assess social media anxiety among undergraduate students in an African country. Materials and Methods: We employed a cross-sectional and descriptive method for this study. The Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users was the data collection tool used to assess the levels of social media anxiety among undergraduate students of the University of Nigeria. Data were analyzed with SPSS Version 20.0. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used. Results: A total of 228 out of the 380 questionnaires distributed were filled and returned (60% response rate). Social media usage was highest for WhatsApp (4.4 +/- 0.902). The mean social media anxiety score was 68.75 +/- 12.35. The prevalence was higher in females (69.00 +/- 12.59) than males (68.42 +/- 12.06), but the difference had no statistical significance (t = -0.356, P = 0.864). There was a negative nonsignificant association between social media usage and social media anxiety (r = -0.051, P = 0.4450). Conclusion: There was no significant association between social media usage and social media anxiety among the students surveyed. Longitudinal studies are necessary to investigate whether social media use is a causal risk factor for anxiety symptoms and anxiety-related disorders.