Internet addiction among the undergraduate students

Abstract

Background: Internet addiction is an alarming issue which has significant impact on the lifestyle of people. Younger generation need to use internet judiciously and productively to prevent the underlying risks ahead. Aim: To assess the degree of internet addiction among undergraduate students. Methods: Using a non-experimental descriptive cross sectional research design, internet addiction was assessed among 200 undergraduate students studying at selected colleges in Bangalore city using Internet Addiction Scale. Results: Forty nine percent (98) of the undergraduate students had mild addiction, 28.5% (57) were moderately addicted, and 0.5% (1) was severely addicted. No addiction was identified in 22% (44).Degree of internet addiction was significantly associated with gender, course of study, level of education, religion, educational status of parents, total number of children in the family and internet use of significant others. Conclusion: Though the intensity of addiction varies, majority of the undergraduate students studied were addicted to internet. Awareness about this addictive behaviour and timely intervention can protect this productive group of the society from the harmful effect of this internet addiction.

Social Media Addiction and Healthy Lifestyle among Post Graduate Students: A Social Work Perspective

“…The science and arts stream didn't show any difference between social media addiction and healthy lifestyle practice, and the course of study did not decide the social media addiction and a healthy lifestyle. This result contrasts with previous research, which shows a difference in social media addiction concerning the course of study (Rajeswari et al, 2017).…”

“…A medium level of addiction to social media platforms is shared among participants. This agrees with the study by Rajeswari et al, (2017), which shows that undergraduate students' attitudes about the internet are mild to moderate. Moderate addiction youth risk falling under the addiction category if they continue to overuse social media.…”

“…In particular, a few studies (Rajeswari et al, 2017;Sharma et al, 2017;Skwes et al, 2016) have found that family types impact on technology addiction. Compared to youth in a joint family, those living in single-parent or nuclear households were more addicted to technology (Rajeswari et al, 2017).…”

“…In particular, a few studies (Rajeswari et al, 2017;Sharma et al, 2017;Skwes et al, 2016) have found that family types impact on technology addiction. Compared to youth in a joint family, those living in single-parent or nuclear households were more addicted to technology (Rajeswari et al, 2017). Individuals living in a joint family have many members in the family, so they have people to talk with, but in a nuclear family, both parents tend to be working, so they won't have time to interact with family members, so the youth prefer social media as a companion (Sharma et al, 2017).…”