Research Article Prevalence and Motives of Social Media Use among the Iranian Population Maryam Chegeni , 1,2 Nouzar Nakhaee , 3 Mahin Eslami Shahrbabaki , 4 Parvin Mangolian Shahrbabaki , 5 Sara Javadi , 6 and AliAkbar Haghdoost 7 1 Department of Basic and Medical Laboratory Sciences, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran 2 Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran 3 Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 4 Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Department of Psychiatry, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 5 Department of Critical Care Nursing, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 6 Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 7 HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to AliAkbar Haghdoost; ahaghdoost@gmail.com Received 17 January 2022; Revised 1 March 2022; Accepted 4 March 2022; Published 1 April 2022 Academic Editor: Marco Dettori Copyright © 2022 Maryam Chegeni et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Around the world, people are using social media (SM) for different purposes following a wide range of patterns. ere is a paucity of studies addressing the issue in the Eastern Mediterranean region. In this population-based study, the frequency and patterns of SM use in Iran were investigated. Materials and Methods. To explore the prevalence and motives of SM use, a sample of 1800 Iranian people aged 10–65 years old (53.5% female) were surveyed. Social media addiction (SMA) was assessed using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. Results. e results revealed that 88.5% (n � 1593) of the participants were SM users, and the average time spent by them in SM was 4.0 ± 3.9 hours. e most common motivations for SM use were communication with others (48.9%), receiving news (40.7%), and surfing the net (40.6%). Besides, burning eyes (31.0%), headache (26.8%), and sleep disturbance (25.1%) were the most common health problems experienced by SM users. e SMA prevalence was 23.1% (95% CI: 21.2, 25.1) (males: 23.8%; females: 22.5%), with a higher rate (26.0%) among adolescents and young people. Conclusion. SM use and SMA appear to be real health challenges in Iran, particularly among youth. Consequently, to decrease the negative impacts of excessive SM use, exploring the motives behind SM use and designing population-based interventions are recommended. 1. Introduction Social media (SM) including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook have been considerably affecting people’s daily lives. Users often tend to develop their virtual social life on a SM platform. According to the latest statistics, an estimated 3.6 billion people were using SM worldwide in 2020, a number that is predicted to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025 [1]. e average time spent in SM by Internet users worldwide in 2019 was estimated to be 144 minutes per day compared to 142 minutes in the previous year [2]. Recent data from Financial Tribune [3] reflected approximately 47 million people (57% of the population) who can be marked as active SM users in Iran, representing an 18% increase in the year before. Unfortunately, excessive use of SM has been a common problem affecting the majority of the total population of users. ey have developed an interest in using SM while working, eating with family members, and even walking in the street [4]. Furthermore, SM and communication Hindawi Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2022, Article ID 1490227, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1490227