Investigating the relationship between "social network use" and "depression" among students of Mashhad School of Paramedical Sciences.

Internet and smartphones have undeniable positive effects on people's life in society, but sometimes, inappropriate use of them can threaten users' mental health and consequently, their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between smartphones & social networks use and depression among students of Mashhad Paramedical School.

 A questionnaire about smartphone & social networks use and Young's Internet Addiction Questionnaires and Beck Depression Inventory, was completed by 225 students of the Paramedical school..

 The results of Young's Internet Addiction Test showed that 2.99% of participants were in the severe Internet addiction group, and 17.91% of them were in the moderate Internet addiction group. Based on the scores of the Beck Depression Test, 58.33% of students were in the normal group for depression and 3.7% were in the severe depression group. The results of the Pearson correlation test showed a moderately significant positive correlation between the scores of the Young Internet Addiction Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory (r = 0.518, p-value <0.01).

Considering the significant relationship between internet addiction and depression among the participant students in this study, strategies need to be adopted to enhance students' awareness about the dangers of the Internet and cell phone overuse. As well as, students should be forced to attend psychology and education workshops.