Abstract

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING INTERNET USAGE AND ITS ADDICTION LEVEL AMONG STUDENTS STUDYING IN SELECTED COLLEGES OF AMBALA, HARYANA

S. Karthika*, Amanpreet Kaur, Annu Saini, Bawandeep Kaur, Bharti, Damini, Gunjan

ABSTRACT

Background: There has been an explosive growth of internet use not in India but also worldwide in the last decade. Internet addiction is characterized by excessive or poor controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviours regarding computer use & internet access that lead to impairment or distress. Objective: 1) To assess the knowledge & attitude internet usage among students. 2) To assess the level of internet addiction among students. Methods: A descriptive study was undertaken in different college covering 300 students from various department of engineering, arts, commerce & others in Ambala, Haryana. Using pencil technique every student had been given time of 15-20 mins. Result: The study revealed that 59.66% of students often switch to excessive computer use & internet access. It also shows that 72% of females residing in hostel (48.55%) ue internet in android (75%) with main purpose to update knowledge (43.33%) using 4G data (34.33%). About 58% of students had average knowledge regarding internet usage, 66.33% majority of students had average attitude, 31% of adults had below average attitude. Further the study reveals that majority 59% of students had faced problems due to occasional usage, 1.33% of students had no problems regarding internet addiction. Conclusion: Internet addiction is growing problem among students of professional courses which have psychological, physical and social impact in their life. Hence awareness should be created and strategies should be developed to bring out positive outcome rather than negative which leads to destruction of human nature.

Keywords: Internet, addiction, knowledge, attitude, computer, students.