Investigating internet addiction: a citizen survey

Abstract

Introduction: Addiction is a condition in which a person acquires a habit which affects the behavior and psyche and makes it difficult to confront with. When we talk about internet addiction, we are referring to problematic internet use that is associated with significant social, psychological and occupational dysfunction. Purpose: To identify whether the citizens of Patras, in the current period, are addicted to the internet. Materials-method: Young’s questionnaire which containing 20 questions was used. The sample (n=527) were citizens from Patras. The statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 25. Results: Participants had a score from 10-73 (mean, 31.52) which considered “average online user” who has control over use. More precisely, 30.4% of the sample answered that it often happens to them to stay online longer than intended while 53.1% of the sample prefers fun with friends instead of the excitement to internet. Also, 52.6% answered that they have not tried to hide their time spent online and 33% believed that they do not create new relationships through Internet. It is important to mention that 62.8% of the participants state that most people feel depressed, moody or nervous when they are offline and they do not overcome these feeling even if they are online. Furthermore, participants who lived in an urban area had a higher score (r = .087, p<0.05) than those who lived in rural and island areas. Finally, participants with the highest level of education (University degree) had a higher score (r = -.088, p<0.05) than the participants with middle school and high school education. Conclusions: Internet addiction seems to have appeared in our country as well, but participants have control over usage. The state needs to ensure that sufficient and correct information needs to be delivered to citizens so that the phenomenon of internet addiction can be treated in time and further negative consequences for the population can be avoided.