Connectivity After Fire in Khartoum: Social Media Addiction, Anxiety, and Academic Performance Among Medical Students at the University of Khartoum, Sudan During Armed Conflict, 2026.

In the modern world, the smartphone has become a constant companion, a window to the wider world that fits in a pocket. For many, this connection is a lifeline, a way to learn, work, and stay in touch. Yet, for some, the line between using a tool and being controlled by it begins to blur. This phenomenon, often called social media addiction, is not just about spending a lot of time online; it is a behavioral pattern where the urge to check a screen becomes difficult to resist, potentially disrupting sleep, mood, and daily responsibilities. When this happens to medical students, a group already under immense pressure to master complex subjects and care for others, the stakes are particularly high. Their academic success and mental well-being are critical, not just for their own futures, but for the health of the communities they will one day serve.

In the midst of a protracted armed conflict that has upended life across Sudan, researchers turned their attention to this specific group. They wanted to understand how the constant pull of social media interacts with the intense anxiety of studying medicine during a war. The question was not merely about how many hours students spent scrolling, but whether that time was linked to their mental state and their ability to learn. By looking at students at the University of Khartoum, the team sought to uncover whether the digital world was acting as a coping mechanism, a source of distraction, or perhaps both, in a setting where the physical world had become unstable.

The study, conducted in the spring of 2026, gathered information from 403 medical students at the University of Khartoum. The researchers used a straightforward approach, asking students to fill out an anonymous questionnaire on their phones. This survey asked about their daily habits, such as how many hours they spent studying and sleeping, and which social media platforms they used most often. Crucially, it also included two standard tools used by mental health professionals: one to measure the severity of social media addiction and another to gauge the level of anxiety. The goal was to see if these two factors moved together, and if they were connected to how well the students were performing in their classes.

The results painted a clear picture of a student body under significant strain. Nearly one in five students, or 19.1 percent, met the criteria for social media addiction. This meant they experienced symptoms like a strong urge to use social media, feeling restless when unable to do so, or using it to escape negative feelings. At the same time, anxiety was widespread. Only about a quarter of the students reported having no anxiety symptoms at all. The majority were dealing with some level of worry, ranging from mild unease to severe distress, with nearly 40 percent falling into the moderate to severe categories. The most popular platform was WhatsApp, used by almost everyone, but the platforms that demanded the most time per user were Instagram and TikTok, where students spent an average of two hours a day.

When the researchers looked at the connections between these habits and feelings, a pattern emerged. Students who reported higher levels of anxiety were also more likely to show signs of social media addiction. The two issues seemed to feed into one another. Furthermore, the more time a student spent on social media each day, the higher their addiction score tended to be. This excessive screen time appeared to come at a cost to their academic life. There was a noticeable trade-off: as time spent on social media increased, the time available for studying decreased. This was true both during regular study periods and even as exams approached, suggesting that the digital pull was strong enough to compete with the urgent need to prepare for tests.

Sleep also played a vital role in this equation. The data showed that students who managed to get more sleep each night were less likely to be addicted to social media. Conversely, those who slept less were more prone to addiction. This suggests that a lack of rest might make students more vulnerable to the compulsive urge to scroll, or that the addiction itself is stealing hours from their sleep. Interestingly, the study found that the students' background did not matter as much as their daily habits. Whether a student had been displaced by the conflict, moved from their home, or come from a wealthy or poor family did not independently predict whether they would be addicted to social media. Once the researchers accounted for anxiety, sleep, and study time, these demographic factors faded into the background. The drivers of addiction were the immediate psychological and behavioral patterns, not the students' social status or displacement history.

The researchers also examined how these factors influenced academic performance. While the study could not prove that social media addiction directly caused lower grades, it did find that students who spent more time on social media tended to spend less time studying. This reduction in study time was linked to lower academic performance. The findings suggest that the time spent on screens is time taken away from learning, a simple but powerful displacement of effort. The study did not find a direct link between the severity of addiction and a student's year of study or their specific grades once other factors were considered, reinforcing the idea that the behavior is driven by the immediate interplay of anxiety, time management, and sleep rather than by academic stage alone.

This research highlights a complex reality for medical students in Sudan. They are navigating a dual crisis: the psychological toll of a nation at war and the behavioral challenge of managing a digital life that can easily spiral out of control. The study suggests that social media addiction in this group is less about who they are as people and more about how they are coping. It appears to be a symptom of underlying anxiety and a disruption of healthy routines like sleep and focused study. The findings indicate that simply telling students to use their phones less is unlikely to work if the root causes, such as high anxiety and poor sleep, are not addressed.

The authors of the study emphasize that their work is a snapshot in time, capturing a moment during an ongoing conflict. Because the data was collected all at once, they cannot say for certain whether anxiety leads to addiction, or if addiction leads to anxiety, or if they simply happen together. However, the strong links they found provide a clear direction for support. They suggest that universities and health services should look beyond demographic labels and focus on the daily habits of students. Helping students manage their anxiety, improve their sleep, and find healthy ways to use technology could be more effective than trying to profile which types of students are at risk.

In a world where the boundaries between the digital and physical are increasingly blurred, this study offers a grounded look at how young professionals are faring under pressure. It shows that for medical students in Khartoum, the struggle is not just with the curriculum or the war, but with the very tools they use to navigate both. The path forward, according to the researchers, lies in integrating mental health support with practical guidance on digital habits, ensuring that the devices meant to connect them do not become the source of their greatest distraction.