Socio demographic characteristics among addictive use of internet and non-addictive use of internet - comparative study

Addictive use of internet has grown in current population due to technological development. There are so many consequences or impacts we are facing due to over use of internet (For Eg: Marital discord, Exam failure, poor interpersonal relationship etc). It depends on the individual especially based on socio demographic details. So the present study analyzed the relationship between the degree of an individual‘s Addictive use of Internet and Socio demographic characteristics. 175 subjects were approached from the community (College, Workplace etc) for the present study. After obtained informed consent the subjects were asked to complete the socio-demographic data and Kimberly young Internet addiction test (IAT). The results showed that the respondents are males are more addictive than females, majority of mild internet addicted respondents have 2 siblings but non-addictive internet users have one sibling. Majority of the respondent’s age group is 16 – 20 years, using internet through Smartphone / mobile phone. The age of started using internet is 15.46 those who have addicted to internet and the average of hours of using internet is 5.23 hours by addicted respondents. In addition, 3.01 times watching restricted sites (Adult sites) in addictive and 2.69 times in non-addictive users of internet per day and times of accessing social networking sites per day is 5.78 by addictive and 5.64 by non-addictive users of internet. Most of the respondents are mild addicted to internet.
The study aimed at discussing the socio-demographic characteristics. Future studies are advised to design a technological addiction scale or internet addiction scale based on culture setting, to identify the negative effects of technological development on adolescents in the future.