Prevalence of Internet Addiction among College Students

Internet Addiction is a very common issue in present era. It is influencing the life style and behavior of common people especially students. The present study was conducted on undergraduate students. The sample size consists of 60 undergraduate students (30 boys and 30 girls) of Ranchi city. The sample was selected by stratified random sampling and from different stream (arts, science, and commerce) randomly. Objectives: To know the prevalence of Internet Addiction among the sample groups; to know level of Internet addiction among sample and to examine the impacts of gender on Internet Addiction. Hypothesis: The prevalence of Internet Addiction will vary among the sample groups; levels of Internet addiction will be vary and gender will have no impact on Internet Addiction among under-graduate students. Methodology: The sample was selected by stratified random sampling. Young’s Internet Addiction scale was used for collecting data. The data were statistically analyzed using percentage analyses, Means, SD and t-test. Conclusion: According to the analysis, it was observed that prevalence of Internet addiction among under-graduate students was 13.33%.Mean score of boys and girls were 33.7 and 33.5 respectively. It is found in this study that gender does not affect Internet addiction behaviour.