Temporal Experience as a Correlate of Problematic Internet Use

The present study aimed to study the hypothesis that whether temporal factors associated with the years of experience in internet use and years of experience in research make any differences in problematic internet use (PIU). Descriptive survey research design was followed in this study to examine the hypothesis. The sample of this study comprised of 673 research students pursuing Ph.D. degrees in technical institutions and arts and science universities in Tamilnadu.  The Online Cognition Scale measuring problematic internet use and Personal Information Blank were administered on the sample. One-way ANOVA was applied to find out the significant personal as well as temporal variations in problematic internet use. The results suggested that temporal factors were found to make significant differences in the social comfort, lonely/depressed, impulsive and distraction dimensions of problematic internet use.