An analysis of the Internet Addiction towards the academic performance among undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

An analysis of the Internet Addiction towards the academic performance among undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

Background of the Study

Now a day’s Information Technology plays an important role in the society.  Information technology has a considerable contribution to every day to day activity. Mainly the internet has a huge impact on the human life. The Internet has become an essential component of people’s everyday life throughout the world. This ranges from its support in improving the way people seek information, conduct research, perform business transactions, and communicate with others and various other features (Chou 2001). For an example online banking, online learning, online shopping, social networks & etc. However the use of internet in human’s life has both negative and positive impacts. This study further elaborates how the use of internet has an impact on the academic performance of the undergraduates’ students.  Now a day’s students are using the internet as a primary source of seeking new knowledge, completing assignments and etc. As a result they might have to spend number of hours for surf the internet. This could be result in addicting students to the use of internet other than for the educational purposes. Due to long term stay online, young people have problems in learning, work and family’s duties, online stay above 5 hours a day maybe followed by increased risk of addiction (Kwiatkowska et. al, 2007).  The changes of the Grade Average Point (GPA) may be able to easily reflect how the internet addiction affects the academic performances of the undergraduate students.

Objectives of the Study

The Objectives of this study is to,

1.      To find out the level of internet addiction  among the Undergraduate Students in Sri Lanka

2.      To find out relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performance of the Undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

Scope of the Study

As the title of the study indicates the study is about the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. The study is carried out using the response of the Undergraduate students in the University of Sri Jayewardhanapura.  The researcher will generalize the findings according to the findings of the sample

Chapter 02

Literature Review

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has experienced unprecedented growth in both its size and number of users around the world (Rotsztein, 2003) As explained earlier the purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the Internet Addiction and Academic performance of the undergraduate students. Because the Internet has become the most widely accepted channel for information exchange and networking, a danger exists that it could lead to pathological usage or Internet addiction. In the rapidly expanding universe of social media, many themes of Internet addiction are played out in the everyday life experience of the typical college student, with the prevailing emphasis on the cause, effects, restraints and consequences of their actions.(Mishra et al. 2014)

A medium or technology forces society and the individual to adapt to it, rather than the individual adapting the technology to the current world. Each technological development fundamentally changes the way the world works. Certainly, the development of the Internet and World Wide Web paved the way for the social media explosion in communications and interpersonal behavior. Use of the Internet on college and university campuses parallels the strong advances of the society at large. While the primary focus of the Internet was initially faculty research, it has migrated to the student community, reached the stage of overwhelming acceptance, and is now poised to become a psychological addiction. (Mishra et al, 2014)

Internet Addiction can be explained by many forms. Such as addiction to Social Media, Online Gambling, Online Affairs, Online Shopping, Pornography & etc. Technology and the Internet use particularly by college students have been associated with more frequent communication with friends and family members (Clark, Frith, & Demi, 2004; Howard, Rainie, & Jones, 2001).

According to the findings undergraduate students are more interested in the enjoying in the social media such as Facebook, Viber and Etc.

Several studies have reported gender differences in internet usage. Weiser (2000) reported significant gender difference in internet usage. He reported that males tend to be more familiar with the computers and internet as compared to females. Same gender differences were stated in the literature concerning internet addiction. Scherer (1997) suggested that dependent internet users included a large proportion of men as compared to women. Similar results were reported by Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) that males were more likely to be pathological internet users than females. Keeping these findings in view, it was hypothesized that male students would be associated with addicted internet usage as compared to females.  (Noreen Akhter,2013)

In Pakistan, the Internet was first introduced in 1995. During recent years, a dramatic growth in the use of Internet has been observed in Pakistan. Few researches have been conducted in the field of cyber world and its impact on adolescent‟s behavior. Suhail and Bargees (2006) investigated the effects of excessive internet use in undergraduates of Pakistan. However, the current study would be a step ahead in the same line to investigate the phenomena of internet addiction in depth which would ultimately add to the existing body of knowledge. (Noreen Akhter,2013)

The current work was undertaken to determine the relationship between internet addiction and academic performance of undergraduates. This research specifically focused on Internet usage (not of just computer) as studies have revealed that it is mostly the Internet that makes people addictive of computers. It was decided to study only undergraduate students for this purpose as they were found to be the heavier consumers of the Internet compared to postgraduate students. (Noreen Akhter,2013)

  

Research Methods

Data Collection Methods

Data was collected using a questionnaire, developed by the researcher in order to measure and identify the relationship between the internet addiction and academic performance of the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. The questionnaire was developed with the multiple choice questions and likert scale questions in way that researcher can obtain the data on the undergraduate students’ perception and level of addiction on the Internet and the impact of the academic performances. The questionnaire was distributed among the undergraduate students who were selected randomly. This is the primary source of data collection and published research articles can be used as the secondary source of data.  

Population

As the researcher is going to assess the relationship between the internet addiction and the academic performances of the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka, the population of the Study would represent the All the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka.

Sample

Due to the limitations of the accessing to the whole population a convenient sample is selected to collect the data and to conclude on the research findings. Any way the sample should be able to generalize the findings to the whole population. Therefore for this study the sample would represent the undergraduate students from the University of Sri Jayewradhanapura.  The data was collected from 50 respondents from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce. 

Variables

Title of this study is the relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performances of the Undergraduate Students in Sri Lanka. The Variables of the study clearly define the types of the Internet Addiction of the undergraduate students. There are three variables was used. They are Addiction to the Face Book, Addiction to the Online Shopping and Addiction to the Online Cinema. As described in the early part now day’s internet has become an essential part of  everyone’s life therefore  above three variables represent the how far the internet has an impact of a student’s life.

Data Analysis Methods

The data was analyzed using the Stoical Packages for Social Sciences (version 16).  Regression analysis was used in order to conclude on whether to accept or reject the null hypothesis. Further the descriptive statistics were used in order to identify the characteristics of the responders’ internet usage profile.

List of Hypothesis

As the three variables are used to measure the level of internet addiction hypothesis can be built as follows.

1)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Face book and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Face book and Academic Performance

2)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Online Shopping and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Online Shopping and Academic Performance

3)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Online Film watching and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Online Film watching and Academic Performance