Impact of Internet Addiction on Social Skills

Impact of meshing Addiction on Social SkillsThe world continues to win all the time with the rapid development of new technologies. Inventions man days telephone, television, information processing systems, and lucre being one ofthe most recent in a series of proficient developments bewilder proven that people are nolonger limited by geographical boundaries. Almost everyone impart agree that Internet isthe largest and most limber source of info in the world today. It is widely commitdby the business world for conducting their daily work or research and by individuals forcommunication, entertainment, attainment and relaxing. However, apart from theadvantages at that place are some disadvantages of the lush use. Internet has beenresponsible for decreased family time, relationship problems, lower productivity inemployment, continuation of false information and the increasing of psychologicalproblems (Beard, 2005). The development of Internet is increasing worldwide and the excessive use leads to Internet addiction that became a common problem nowadays.The nature of the verge addiction is difficult to define. Addiction has been referredas an uncontrollable compulsive behavior that despite of the negative consequences it is arepeated behavior. This behavior includes using more of the substances than in endurehaving unsuccessful attempts to stop, and experiencing problems in their loving and workenvironment (Kring, Johnson, Davison, Neale, 2010).Internet addiction disorder was first seen in the U.S press in 1995, in an articlethat was publish in New York Times with the title The Lure and Addiction of Life Online. The former of the article, O Neill, stated that health professionals related excessiveInternet use to obsessive shopping, exercise, and gambling (Chack Leung, 2004).Goldberg (1996) presented the first interpretation for Internet addiction, describing it as abehavioral addiction that took the criteria from substance dependence from the DSM -IV.Griffiths (2000) expanded the definition by stating that technological addictions are asubset of behavioral addictions that include six components (salience, moodmodification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse). Also Internet addiction mightbe caused by many aspects of internet use like distant communication, the fact that thereis no face to face contact, and other online activities like chat rooms (Griffiths, 2000). Asecond definition that was called Problematic Internet Use (PIU) took criteria from DSM-IV and was associated with pathological gambling (Young, 1996). The author stated thatin order for a person to be addict he/she has to meet five of the eight criteria. Some ofthese criteria are, obsession with internet, environmental problems, withdrawal whenreducing internet etc. Also according to Young, Problematic Internet Use could be morerelated to impulse control disorder that substance dependence. The problem that arises knocked come out of the closet(p) of th ese two definitions is that they neither exclude co-morbidity as an meaning(a)factor nor determine whether the time spent on the internet is related to their normal workor to a pathological addiction. Both defitions support a pathological etiology that has notheoretical base (Hall Parsons, 2001).By extending the definition of Young, Davis (2001) suggests that problematicinternet can be regarded as Specific Pathological Internet Use and GeneralizedPathological Internet Use. The first is using the internet to increase an addiction that hasoccurred before (gambling), while the second is about the general use of internet(searching, chatting). Another definition that was presented for internet addiction wasnamed Internet Behavior Dependence. This definition suggests that excessive Internet usecan cause problems to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional mathematical process in a generallyhealthy person. The dependence that a person has on internet can been seen by thefollowing deficient in comfort with all areas in his life, like school, work or home,use of internet with less pleasure, feels worry when not using, failure in controlling theuse unheeding of all the physical, psychological and loving problems. No matter how individual call it, Internet- related disorders are arising as a serious problem for whichpeople affect understanding, help and change.The internet because of its rapid spread is reachable nowadays by almosteveryone and especially college students. They tend to be more vulnerable than othersbecause of the developmental stressors, like sociable relationships, and because internet canbe easily accessed. many a(prenominal) students use it nowadays for many purposes, like preparingcourse works, search information, communicate, and entertain those selves (Ceyhan,2008). Also online relationships disagree from real relationships. Through internetanonymity is provided and anxiety is reduced because there are no face to faceinteractions. The self- pr esentation of a person in an online activity may prevent him frombeing judged for his appearance or personality style (Kandell, 1998). Therefore studentsare more likely to develop problems with internet than others. Many studies throw off beenconducted using DSM- based criteria and showed higher rates in internet use amongcollege students than in general population (Morahan- Martin Schumacher, 1999Yang, 2001). In the literature there is a great number of studies showing that Internetaddiction has been related to many variables apart from sociable skills such as gender andinternet expertise (Morahan-Martin Schumacher, 1997), age and grade level(Johansson, 2004), online experiences and the amount of time spent online (Morahan-Martin, 1999), depression, with increased levels of depression being associates withinternet addiction (Young, Rogers, 1998), and impulse control disorder (Shapira, 2003).Social skills are a fundamental factor in the development of the relationships.They inclu de all the behaviours that a person should have in his/her interactions andcommunication with other people (Teodoro, 2005). Caplan (2002) substantial a theoryimploring deficient social skills. The author claimed that people who are depressive andlonely tend to have a negative view towards their social skills. Another explanation canbe that people who tend to be low in social skills are attracted by some special features ofonline communication. These features drop by the wayside the person to adopt another self-presentationthat cannot be developed through face to face interaction. Through this, a person mayexaggerate and present himself dissimilar than he is in real life (Caplan, 2002). Thus, forsome people Internet is a place much easier and safe because of its anonymity andbecause it requires less interpersonal communication. It is a place less stressful wherethey can control their social skills better than having a face to face interaction (Shaw Black, 2008).There have not been conducted a lot of studies until now that notice internetaddiction and social skills in college students. Most of the studies focused on excessiveinternet use and how it affects the development of social skills in children andadolescents (Harman, Hansen, Cochran, Lindsey, 2005). The research that has beenconducted focused in some proper(postnominal) aspects of social skills like shyness, retirement, socialadjustment. There is a contradiction in the literature referring to these specific aspects ofsocial skills and internet addiction. Engelberg (2004) in his exact about internet use,social skills and social adjustment found out that individuals who use excessively internettend to be lonelier and have problems in their social adjustment in work and in their sparetime. On the other hand, another research found out that by talking online in chat rooms,loneliness is reduced and social support is increased (Waestlund, Norlander, Archer,2001). Also another study conducted by Morahan -Martin (2003) found out that lonelypeople tend to use internet for emotional support and that their social behaviour isincreased by making online friends. In a study it was shown that shyness and locus ofcontrol were associated with internet addiction. It was found that persons scored higherlevels of internet addiction tend to be shier and indicating more difficulties in their sociallife. (Chack Leung, 2004). Most of the studies that have been conducted measuredsome specific aspects of social skills that are most of them loneliness, shyness and socialadjustment and social comfort. There is a contradiction in the studies referring toloneliness and social comfort, with studies indicating different results (Engelberg, 2004Waestlund et al., 2001). Due to this contradiction further research should be conducted tomeasure whether these aspects of social skills are related in a negative or in a positiveway with the use of internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations hip amongst compulsive internet use and four dimensions of social skills that are loneliness/depression, impulse control, social comfort and distraction.MethodsParticipantsAn approximately number of 70 undergraduate college students is going toparticipate in the current study. Their age will range from 18 to 35 yearsold. The study will be conducted in an English University in northern Greece andstudents will be recruited from different departments, the psychology, computer and business department. The measuring tools will be given in English since they know andunderstand the language. Also participants will not be from the same ethnicity moreover fromdifferent countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Serbia and Fyrom.MeasuresOnline Cognition Scale (Davis, Flett, Besser, 2002). The OCS is amultidimensional questionnaire that was de concentrateed to measure Problematic Internet Use. Itis consisted of 36-items that cover four subscales, six items measure loneliness/depressi on, ten items measure diminished impulse control, distraction is measured byseven items and social comfort by thirteen items. Respondents will rate in a seven-pointLikert scale with answers ranging from 1- strongly disagree, 4- neither agree/ nordisagree to -7 strongly agree. Students will reply to statements such as I feel safestwhen I am on the internet I use the Internet more than I ought to I am less lonelywhen I am online and I a great deal use the Internet to avoid doing unpleasant things. Inorder to avoid order effects the items of the online cognition scale were presented in arandom order. The author in order to establish the validity of the Online Cognition Scaleinvestigated the association between various cognitive and behavioural variables and theOCS dimensions of problematic internet use. Item-total correlations were highlysignificant, ranging from 0.47- 0.77 for social comfort, 0.49- 0.81 for loneliness/depression, 0.50-0.76 for diminished impulse control, and 0.55-0. 80 for distraction.Compulsive Internet Use Scale (Meerkerk, Eijnden, Vermulst, Garretsen,2009). The CIUS was designed to assess the severity of compulsive Internet use. Itincludes 14 items and participants will respond in a five-point scale 0, never 1, seldom2, sometimes 3, often 4, very often. The questions included in the scale are like Howoften do you think about the Internet, even not online How often do you go on theInternet when you are feeling down. The author in order to run the validity of the testused another test the online cognition scale. Pearson correlations were high andsignificant between CIUS and OCS with pProcedureThe sample will be obtained by college students randomly during class or break.Participants are going to fill in the three questionnaires individually with all the usefulinstructions provided. They will have the run into to fill them right away or hand themover later to secretary. Also with the questionnaires they will receive a consent form thathave t o sign in order to show that they agree to participate in the study. Participants willbe encouraged to answer as honest as they can, but someone can be never sure about theanswers and if someone will feel offended or upset by a question. Participants will havethe right to withdraw anytime they do not want to continue for any reason, withoutreceiving any penalty. Confidentiality and anonymity were provided and explained thatthe study is only for research. Also, the instructor will be there ready to answer anyquestion in case of any doubt.DesignThe design of the study is a correlation design that will measure the two variables,Internet addiction and the level of social skills.Proposed AnalysisPearson correlation will be conducted for the data analysis that will investigatethe correlation between the severity of compulsive internet use and the level of socialskills.