investigating the relationship between the use of social media, educational decline, and student mental health

Objective: the widespread presence of students in telegram virtual social networks (vsns) has provided a unique opportunity to track the effects of using this medium on their academic failure and mental health. accordingly, this study explores whether the use of social media has a relationship with educational decline and student mental health. methods: this correlation study was conducted in high schools in khaf city, iran, in the 2018-2019 academic year and included 1250 students (550 girls and 700 boys) who were selected via simple stratified random sampling. the data collection tools comprised a researcher-made questionnaire on the use of telegram vsns and the keyes (2005) model of mental health. the data were analyzed using the spss software, version 22, and related tests. results: we found a significant relationship between the use of the telegram network and educational decline. there is also a significant relationship between the use of the telegram network and mental health. as the use of telegram vsns increases, there is an increase in fatigue in class and a reduction in study hours. hence, this affects students’ educational decline directly and mental health adversely. conclusion: we recommend that information about the positive and negative effects of telegram vsns should be provided to users, and measures should be taken in schools to introduce and create a culture and useful and scientific use of telegram vsns.