Comparison of Turkish problematic and non-problematic internet users

Abstract

The current study aims to determine the difference between university students who are identified as problematic and non-problematic internet users in terms of gender, grades, program type attended, academic achievement level and internet activities such as personal e-mail, searching general information, file transfer, news, shopping, online gaming and chat room. Data was collected from 1058 university students by utilizing the Problematic Internet Usage Scale and a questionnaire. The results of the analyses indicated that problematic internet users experienced more negative consequences of internet, used internet to get more social benefit/comfort and used internet more excessively than non-problematic internet users. In addition, the results revealed that more male students than females were determined as problematic internet users, more students who attended the programs in the field of science than the ones who attended the programs in the field of social sciences were found as problematic internet users. There were no significant differences according to grades and academic achievement level. Based on the internet activities, the results pointed out that the problematic internet users preferred the internet activities such as e-mail, file transfer, news, shopping, online gaming and chat rooms more than non-problematic internet users did, and also the problematic internet users spent more time for these activities, except for searching general information activities.