Gain or Loss? The Internet Use among Generation Z and its Impact on Their Academic Achievement

Abstract

Generation Z as digital natives are distinguished by their intense engagement in online activity. This article is an analysis of the impact of the internet use on academic performance in Gen Z based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CEPS) 2020. Research findings show that there exist divides in the internet use among members of Gen Z with distinct family origins and that the impact of the internet use on students’ academic achievement varied according to their educational phases and prior academic rankings. The multi-categorical ordinal logistic regression model was adopted in the analysis.