A Comparative Study of Internet Addiction Between Rural and Urban School-going Adolescents of West Bengal

Background – Life without the internet is unimaginable, particularly for Generation Z and Generation Alpha.  In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), almost every aspect of our lives depends on the internet, whether it is academics, entertainment, shopping, banking, or traveling.  School-going adolescents are silently becoming addicted to the internet before their guardians even realize it, until its ill effects become predominant. It has been established that excessive use of the internet increases physical comorbidities like obesity as well as psychological disorders, along with mental and social issues. Problematic Internet Use (PIU) has now been included as a mental health problem by DSM-IV. Objectives – The purpose of the present research was to estimate and compare the internet addiction patterns of school-going adolescents in rural and urban West Bengal and compare the two. Methods– A cross-sectional study was conducted in June and July 2025 among school-going adolescents aged 14 to 18 years, using cluster sampling. Data were collected using a pretested and standardized Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT) questionnaire and were analysed using SPSS. Results –The total number of students was 207, out of which 108 were from rural schools of Purba Bardhaman district and 99 were from urban schools of Kolkata district of West Bengal. Overall, 44.4% of the school-going adolescents are addicted to the internet. Out of 108 rural adolescents, 28.7% are addicted to the internet, and out of 99 urban adolescents, 61.6% are addicted to the internet. Urban adolescents have a higher mean internet addiction score (35.41±16.11) than the rural (20.73±1.66) adolescents and the difference is statistically significant (F= 1.855, p= .000). Majority of the rural students, (75% (82/108)) belong to low socio-economic status, while majority of the urban population belongs to middle socio-economic status, 88 % (88/99). Average internet use in rural adolescents was within 1 to 3 hrs in 78 % (84/107) cases, while average internet use in urban adolescents was 3 to 6 hrs in 39% (39/99), in comparison to 15 % (17/107) rural adolescents using it for the same duration. In both rural and urban areas, the device used for internet access was a mobile phone (96/107 in rural and 89/99 in urban). Overall, the majority of the adolescents (44.5%) used the internet for online gaming, followed by academics (15.9%) and social networks (12.1%). The lower socioeconomic classes have lower internet addiction scores than the higher classes, and it is statistically significant (Chi-square value 23.314, p=.025). Conclusion– The prevalence of Internet Addiction among school-going adolescents is increasing day by day, both in rural and urban West Bengal, irrespective of socioeconomic status. Easy accessibility to a mobile phone could be the main reason. Efforts to raise awareness, involve the different stakeholders, and educate the school-going adolescents about media literacy are the need of the hour.