Extent of Instagram Addiction among College Students in Mysuru City: Influence of Select Demographic Factors

Recently the utilization of social networking applications is on the rise among college students. The present study attempts to find out the prevalence of Instagram addiction among college students studying in Mysuru city. The sample consisted of a total of 1342 college students of which 672 were male students and 670 were female students studying in Arts, Commerce/management and science courses in various colleges of Mysuru city. The students completed Test for Instagram addiction (TIA) developed by D’Souza, Samyukta and Bivera (2018) in one session. Test for Instagram addiction measured addiction in 6 factors– Lack of control, Disengagement, Escapism, Health and interpersonal troubles, Excessive use and Obsession. The data were analysed using Independent samples tests to find out the extent of usage of Instagram by male and female students and chi-square tests were done to find out the association between levels of Instagram addiction and select demographic factors. Results revealed that on an average the number of hours spent on Instagram during weekdays and weekends were 3.40 and 3.13 hours respectively, female students spent more time Instagram. It was found that an alarming 58.6% of the sample selected was addict prone to Instagram, and 3.9% of the sample studied was definitely addicts. Female students had higher addiction towards Instagram than male students. Students from rural and urban area were more addicted to Instagram than students from semi-urban areas. Students pursuing arts course were more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing science or commerce/management

estimate by 'Internet word stats' revealed that internet penetration rate today is 55.1% in the world and the growth is estimated at whopping 1066%. (www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm). Addiction towards internet is an impulse control disorder which does not include intoxication (Young, 1998). The usage of intelligent screen media is widespread and for a few individuals leads to neurotic side effects that are phenomenological which are indications of addictive issue. Different symptoms include anger, strain and nervousness (Goldberg, 1995); and also increased social maladjustment (Chandrashekara & D'Souza, 2013). Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is quickly turning into a prevalent psychological wellbeing concern all over the world.
Today the world is driven by advanced digital technology. There are several applications in internet which attract the college students rapidly. Instagram, is one of the such applications that has taken over many other such social networking applications. Instagram provides a platform for sharing photographs videos and messages in private and public way. This app is launched in the year 2010, has more than one billion monthly active users worldwide as of June 2018. It has high levels of user engagement and one of the fastest growing social networking sites at present. Sheldon and Bryant, (2016), found out that there is a positive relationship between using Instagram to be cool and for surveillance. Today, Instagram application has taken over many other such social networking applications. One study found that people often posted images with the has htag# funeral, which often communicated a person's emotional circumstances and also the shifts in commemorative and memorialization practices (Gibbs, Meese, Arnold & Carter, 2015). This shows the new way of expression or feelings that the people have taken up in the recent times. Another study, done on college students revealed that the main reasons for Instagram use are "Surveillance/Knowledge about others," "Documentation," "Coolness," and "Creativity." They also found out that there is a positive relationship between using Instagram to be cool and for surveillance (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). Kircaburun and Griffith (2018) in their study on university students found that 26.5% of the selected sample was mildly addicted, 6.1% were moderately addicted, 0.9% was severely addicted to Instagram and overall, 33.5% of the participants were risky Instagram users.
In the present study an attempt is made to find out the prevalence of Instagram addiction among college students studying in various courses-Arts, Commerce/management and science. There are not many studies conducted on Instagram addiction in India, as this social networking application has attracted the college students for its specific features and cheaper or free access. Though there are many advantages of using Instagram, there are disadvantages too. It is hypothesized that there will be high prevalence of this application and few demographic factors do influence Instagram addiction.

Sample
1342 Students (670 male and 672 female) pursuing their courses in Arts, Commerce/management and science were randomly selected from various colleges of the city of Mysuru. Of the 1342 students, 411 were pursuing Arts, 621 science and remaining 307were pursuing their course in commerce and management. They were selected randomly from several colleges of Mysuru city.

Tools employed Test for Instagram Addiction (TIA): D'Souza, Samyukta and Bivera (2018)
To measure extent of Instagram addiction, TIA, developed by D'Souza, Samyukta and Bivera in the year 2018 was employed, consisting of 26 statements. TIA measures Instagram addiction of the individual in 6 components, which included components like Lack of control, Disengagement, Escapism, Health and interpersonal troubles, Excessive useand Obsession. TIA has to be answered in 5 point Likert scale, like all the time to rarely/never. The scores range from 5 to 1, assigned like -All the time (5), most of the time (4), sometime (3), once in a while (OW), and rarely/never (1). To find out the reliability, the Cronbach's reliability test was done and the alpha value obtained for the total inventory was 0.931 and for various components varied from 0.680 to 0.863. Further, when item to total scores correlations were performed; all the correlation coefficients obtained through Pearson's product moment correlation techniques were found to be highly significant, indicating that the TIA has high reliability and validity. Even the correlation coefficients obtained between components were found to be highly significant. High scores on the TIA indicate higher addiction to Instagram.

Procedure
The author along with student volunteers personally visited various colleges in Mysuru and administered Test for Instagram addiction (TIA) to almost 1400 students. The students were assured the confidentiality and were asked to answer all the questions honestly. The respondents were given proper instructions and explained the questions in case of doubts. Only 1342 completely filled questionnaires were collected by the students. Once the data were collected, they were scored and fed to the computer. The data were analyzed using Chi square test and 't' test. Table 1 provides the Mean Instagram usage by male and female students during weekdays and weekends and results of Independent samples 't' tests. Table  gives the results of the distribution of levels of addiction by various demographic factors and results of test statistics.  Overall Instagram addiction: On the whole we find that a majority of 58.6% of the college students were addict prone to Instagram, followed by 30.4% of them were average users, 6.6% of them were mild users, 3.9% of them were definitely addicts and only 0.5% of them were never used or rarely used. Chi-square test revealed a significant difference between frequencies of various levels of addiction (X 2 = 1619.48; p=.001), confirming that majority of the sample were addict prone to Instagram.

Table 2, Distribution of the respondents on levels of Instagram addiction by various demographic factors and results of test statistics
Gender and Instagram addiction: A significant association was observed between gender and Instagram addiction (X 2 = 18.91; p=.002), revealing that female students had higher levels addiction towards Instagram compared to male students.

Domicile and Instagram addiction:
When the Instagram addiction levels were verified against domicile, a significant association was observed between age groups and Instagram addiction (X 2 = 16.75; p=.001), revealing that students from rural and urban area were more addicted to Instagram than students from semi-urban areas.

Stay and Instagram addiction:
A non-significant association was observed between stay and Instagram addiction (X 2 = 19.41; p=.079), revealing that pattern of Instagram addiction was same among students staying at home, hostel, paying guest facility and other accommodations.
Course and Instagram addiction: Course pursued had a significant influence over Instagram addiction (X 2 = 41.83; p=.001), where we find that students pursuing arts course were more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing science or commerce/management.

Major findings of the study •
On an average the number of hours spent on Instagram during weekdays and weekends were 3.40 and 3.13 hours, female students spent more time Instagram. • It was found that an alarming 58.6% of the sample selected was addict prone to Instagram, and 3.9% of the sample studied was definitely addicts. • Gender had significant influence over Instagram addiction; female students had higher addiction towards Instagram than male students • Students from rural and urban area were more addicted to Instagram than students from semi-urban areas.

•
Students pursuing arts course were more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing science or commerce/management In the present study it was observed that 58.6% of the sample selected was addict prone to Instagram, and 3.9% of the sample studied was definitely addicts. When compared to other courses, the prevalence of Instagram addiction seems to be quite high among students pursuing arts course compared to students studying other professional courses. In a study on dental students, 3.1% of were definitely addicts and 5.2% of them were 'addict prone' to Instagram (D'Souza & Meenakshi, 2018). Among medical students, it was found that 5.7% of the students were definitely addicted towards Instagram and 13.0% of them were prone to addiction (D'Souza, Rekha & Sowmya, 2018). Students who were studying paramedical courses (speech and hearing) had a prevalence of 0.9% of definite addicts and 14.5% addict prone (D'Souza, 2018). A study by times.com, clearly revealed that Instagram is the worst social media network for mental health and wellbeing, based on a research on almost 1500 individuals aged between 14 to 24 years (time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mentalhealth/2018). Further, it was found that Instagram addiction is associated with high levels of depression, anxiety, bullying and fear of missing out phenomenon (FOMO).
Female students were found to be more addicted to Instagram than male students. It was also found that they spend more time on Instagram than male students. A study by PEW (2015) research group clearly revealed that social media applications like pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram have a larger female user base, while online forums like Reddit, Digg, or Slashdot attract a greater male user base. They infer that picture sharing sites are more preferred by women, whereas discussion forum sites are more preferred by men. It was also found that students pursuing Arts courses were more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing commerce/management and science courses. One of the reasons could be that students pursuing science and commerce/management courses may be more involved in the academic activities like seminars, syllabi load, subject difficulty and other related issues, which may