I Am Online: What Adolescents Think About Internet And Internet Use

Abstract

There remains a dearth of research on what youth are doing when they are online and what they think about internet. We contacted 450 adolescents from public high schools and applied a questionnaire to assess their Internet use as well as their opinions about internet. Results showed that boys are more into internet use. According to the self reports, boys feel more addicted to internet than girls as they feel uncomfortable when they are not online. Similarly, more boys than girls skip their homework due to long log-ins. According to the girls internet is mostly a waste of time and causes addiction, and therefore not always helpful. The changes in the computer use purposes of children should be taken seriously. Getting more into online chatting and free surfing with increased amounts of daily internet use might cause social isolation as well as internet addiction. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance.