Prevalence of Internet Addiction Among College Students

INTRODUCTION

Internet addiction is a mental condition characterized by extreme use of the internet. Addiction is generally understood to be a mental disorder involving compulsive behavior. It causes the psychological, social, educational, or occupational problems for the people. When someone is constantly online, they may be described as addicted to it. Internet addiction is a mental condition characterized by extreme use of the internet. Addiction is generally understood to be a mental disorder involving compulsive behavior² .

Excessive use of computer or Computer addiction is the excessive or compulsive use of computers that interferes with daily life. This disorder effects the social interaction, mood, personality, work ethic, relationships, thought process and sleep of an individuals. Computer addictives find the virtual realities on computer screens more attractive than everyday reality. They feel unhappy when they are away from the computer. They spend more time and money on computers and neglect their families and work³ .

In India use of internet is extreme especially in the youngsters. Therefore, it was found necessary to study the way of internet usage among youngsters and adults in India and it is also necessary to study² the relationship with their physical and mental health⁴ .

Internet addiction causes a number of symptoms including insomnia, tension, headache, dry eyes and carpal tunnel syndrome. Secondary physical symptoms such as vision problems, weight gain, neck ache, back aches and circulation problems.

The certain sign that shows your internet usage has become problematic such as isolating yourself from family in favor of the internet, loss of interest at work and occupation, staying on the internet longer than you had intended, feeling angry or irritable if your internet time is interrupted⁶ .

Internet addiction results in personal family, financial and occupational problems that are characteristics of other addictions. Individual suffering from Internet Addiction spend more time in solitary seclusion, spend less time with real people in their lives are often viewed as socially awkward.

METHODOLOGY

In view of the nature of the problem selected for the present study and the objectives to be accomplished a descriptive approach was considered appropriate for the present study. The non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select the samples. The study was conducted on th college students studying at KAHER Institute of Nursing Sciences Belagavi, Karnataka.

To collect the data according to the objectives the tools were divided in to two parts where in the first part there were 06 items on baseline information of the subject’s i.e age, gender, religion, type of family, family income and source of internet use were considered. To assess the level of internet addiction among the college students a 20 items internet addiction test a standardized tool was used. The permission was obtained from the principal KAHER INS to conduct the study and verbal consent as taken from the participants and they were assured for the confidentiality of the data collected.

The tool consisted of 20 items which were asked to score from 0 to 5 and by adding the scores the higher the score the greater the level of addiction is. The tool helped to assess the level of addiction which measures mild , moderate, and severe level of internet addiction. The scores were classified as the cutoff points mentioned in the tool i.e Mild – 20 to 49, Moderate – 50 to 79 and the severe was considered if the scores were between 80 to 100.

RESULTS

Analysis and interpretation of the data was based on the following objectives and hypothesis framed for the study.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To assess the level of internet addiction among the college students.

2. To find out the association between internets addiction score with selected demographic variables.

PRESENTATION OF THE DATA:

The data is presented under the following sections:

TABLE 1: The data presented in table 1 indicates that, The majority of the students participated in the study belonged to the age group of 18-20 years i.e. 68% and the minimum i.e. 02(4%) belonged to the age group above 22 years. The majority of respondents were female i.e. 43(86%) among which 29(58%) respondents were from christia religion. The majority of the respondent’s family income was above 60000/month and majority of them were from joint family i.e. 43(86%). The respondents were asked regarding the source of internet use where majority f the students reported use of mobile data i.e. 27(54%) where remaining 23(46%) reported use of Wi-Fi as soure of internet.

SECTION II: Findings related to level of internet addiction among college students. 

DISCUSSION

The present study has been undertaken to assess the level of internet addiction among college students at selected college of Belagavi.

The major findings of the study are organized under the following headings:

• Findings related to the socio demographic variables of college students.

• Findings related to level of internet addiction among college students.

• Findings related to the association between the internet addiction scores of college students and demographic variables.

I. Findings related to the socio demographic variables of college students.

The majority of the students participated in the study belonged to the age group of 18-20 years i.e. 68% and the minimum i.e. 02(4%) belonged to the age group above 22 years. The majority of respondents were female i.e. 43(86%) among which 29(58%) respondents were from christian religion. The majority of the respondent’s family income was above 60000/month and majority of them were from joint family i.e. 43(86%).

II. Findings related to the level of internet addiction scores among college students.

The percentage of internet addiction among was calculated by referring the scoring pattern of tool used. The findings revealed that 34 students i.e. 74% were under mild internet addiction category, 12 students i.e. 24% were moderately addicted and 1 student i.e. 2% were severely addicted to the internet use.

III. Findings related to the association between the internet addiction scores of college students with demographic variables.

Fisher Exact was computed to find out the association between the internet addiction scores and demographic variables of college students. Fisher Exact value =0.552 for age, for gender the Fisher Exact value was 0.1317, for religion of college students the value was 0.157, for type of family the value was 0.0576, for family income the value was 0.5308 and for the source of internet use the Fisher Exact value was 0.8690. The computed values were not significant at 0.05 level of significance. (If P >0.05 level of significance is significant and if P < 0.05 level of significance is not significant). Hence there was no statistically significant association between internet addiction scores and demographic variables.

Interpretation and conclusion

Based on the analysis of the findings, the following inference was drawn. There was evident addiction of internet among college students hich has been categorized in to Mild, Moderate and severe addiction. The findings also revealed that there was no association between internet addiction scores and selected demographical variables. The recent studies have shown that the internet addiction will leads to mental health problem among the college students hence there is a need of assessment of level of internet addiction among college students and the attention should be devoted to adolescents with Internet use for the design of preventive strategies.