Impact of Internet Addiction on Social Skills

Impact of Internet Addiction on Social Skills The world continues to progress all the time with the rapid development of new technologies. Inventions like telephone, television, computers, and Internet being one of  the most recent in a series of technological developments have proven that people are no  longer limited by geographical boundaries. Almost everyone will agree that Internet is  the largest and most flexible source of information in the world today. It is widely used  by the business world for conducting their daily work or research and by individuals for  communication, entertainment, learning and relaxing. However, apart from the  advantages there are some disadvantages of the excessive use. Internet has been  responsible for decreased family time, relationship problems, lower productivity in  employment, continuation of false information and the increasing of psychological  problems (Beard, 2005). The development of Internet is increasing worldwide and the  excessive use leads to Internet addic tion that became a common problem nowadays. The nature of the term addiction is difficult to define. Addiction has been referred  as an uncontrollable compulsive behavior that despite of the negative consequences it is a  repeated behavior. This behavior includes using more of the substances than intended;  having unsuccessful attempts to stop, and experiencing problems in their social and work  environment (Kring, Johnson, Davison, Neale, 2010). Internet addiction disorder was first seen in the U.S press in 1995, in an article  that was published in New York Times with the title The Lure and Addiction of Life On  line ». The author of the article, O Neill, stated that health professionals related excessive  Internet use to obsessive shopping, exercise, and gambling (Chack Leung, 2004). Goldberg (1996) presented the first definition for Internet addiction, describing it as a  behavioral addiction that took the criteria from substance dependence from the DSM-IV. Griffiths (2000) expanded the definition by stating that technological addictions are a  subset of behavioral addictions that include six components (salience, mood  modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse). Also Internet addiction might  be caused by many aspects of internet use like distant communication, the fact that there  is no face to face contact, and other online activities like chat rooms (Griffiths, 2000). A  second definition that was called Problematic Internet Use (PIU) took criteria from DSM-IV and was associated with pathological gambling (Young, 1996). The author stated that  in order for a person to be addicted he/she has to meet five of the eight criteria. Some of  these criteria are, obsession with internet, environmental problems, withdrawal when  reducing internet etc. Also according to Young, Problematic Internet Use could be more  related to impulse control disorder that substance dependence. The problem that arises  out o f these two definitions is that they neither exclude co-morbidity as an important  factor nor determine whether the time spent on the internet is related to their normal work  or to a pathological addiction. Both defitions support a pathological etiology that has no  theoretical base (Hall Parsons, 2001). By extending the definition of Young, Davis (2001) suggests that problematic  internet can be regarded as Specific Pathological Internet Use and Generalized  Pathological Internet Use. The first is using the internet to increase an addiction that has  occurred before (gambling), while the second is about the general use of internet  (searching, chatting). Another definition that was presented for internet addiction was  named Internet Behavior Dependence. This definition suggests that excessive Internet use  can cause problems to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional functioning in a generally  healthy person. The dependence that a person has on internet can been seen by the  following: deficient in satisfaction 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 the  use regardless of all the physical, psychological and social problems. No matter how  someone call it, Int ernet- related disorders are arising as a serious problem for which  people need understanding, help and change. The internet because of its rapid spread is reachable nowadays by almost  everyone and especially college students. They tend to be more vulnerable than others  because of the developmental stressors, like social relationships, and because internet can  be easily accessed. Many students use it nowadays for many purposes, like preparing  course works, search information, communicate, and entertain those selves (Ceyhan,  2008). Also online relationships differ from real relationships ». Through internet  anonymity is provided and anxiety is reduced because there are no face to face  interactions. The self- presentation of a person in an online activity may prevent him from  being judged for his appearance or personality style (Kandell, 1998). Therefore students  are more likely to develop problems with internet than others. Many studies have been  conducted using DSM- based criteria and showed higher rates in internet use among  college students than in gen eral population (Morahan- Martin Schumacher, 1999;  Yang, 2001). In the literature there is a great number of studies showing that Internet  addiction has been related to many variables apart from social skills such as gender and  internet 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 with  internet addiction (Young, Rogers, 1998), and impulse control disorder (Shapira, 2003). Social skills are a fundamental factor in the development of the relationships. They include all the behaviours that a person should have in his/her interactions and  communication with other people (Teodoro, 2005). Caplan (2002) developed a theory  imploring deficient social skills. The author claimed that people who are depressive and  lonely tend to have a negative view towards their social skills. Another explanation can  be that people who tend to be low in social skills are attracted by some special features of  online communication. These features allow the person to adopt another self-presentation  that cannot be developed through face to face interaction. Through this, a person may  exaggerate and present himself different than he is in real life (Caplan, 2002). Thus, for  some people Internet is a place much easier and safe because of its anonymity and  because it requires less interpersonal communication. It is a place less stressful where  they 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 measure internet  addiction and social skills in college students. Most of the studies focused on excessive  internet use and how it affects the development of social skills in children and  adolescents (Harman, Hansen, Cochran, Lindsey, 2005). The research that has been  conducted focused in some specific aspects of social skills like shyness, loneliness, social  adjustment. There is a contradiction in the literature referring to these specific aspects of  social skills and internet addiction. Engelberg (2004) in his study about internet use,  social skills and social adjustment found out that individuals who use excessively internet  tend to be lonelier and have problems in their social adjustment in work and in their spare  time. 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 lonely  people tend to use internet for emotional support and that their social behaviour is  increased by making online friends. In a study it was shown that shyness and locus of  control were associated with internet addiction. It was found that persons scored higher  levels of internet addiction tend to be shier and indicating more difficulties in their social  life. (Chack Leung, 2004). Most of the studies that have been conducted measured  some specific aspects of social skills that are most of them loneliness, shyness and social  adjustment and social comfort. There is a contradiction in the studies referring to  loneliness and social comfort, with studies indicating different results (Engelberg, 2004;  Waestlund et al., 2001). Due to this contradiction further research should be conducted to  measure whether these aspects of social skills are related in a negative or in a positi ve  way with the use of internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship  between compulsive internet use and four dimensions of social skills that are loneliness/depression, impulse control, social comfort and distraction. Methods Participants An approximately number of 70 undergraduate college students is going to  participate in the current study. Their age will range from 18 to 35 years  old. The study will be conducted in an English University in northern Greece and  students will be recruited from different departments, the psychology, computer and   business department. The measuring tools will be given in English since they know and  understand the language. Also participants will not be from the same ethnicity but from  different countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Serbia and Fyrom. Measures Online Cognition Scale (Davis, Flett, Besser, 2002). The OCS is a  multidimensional questionnaire that was designed to measure Problematic Internet Use. It  is consisted of 36-items that cover four subscales, six items measure loneliness/  depression, ten items measure diminished impulse control, distraction is measured by  seven items and social comfort by thirteen items. Respondents will rate in a seven-point  Likert scale with answers ranging from 1- strongly disagree, 4- neither agree/ nor  disagree to -7 strongly agree. Students will respond to statements such as: I feel safest  when I am on the internet; I use the Internet more than I ought to; I am less lonely  when I am online and I often use the Internet to avoid doing unpleasant things. In  order to avoid order effects the items of the online cognition scale were presented in a  random order. The author in order to establish the validity of the Online Cognition Scale  investigated the association betw een various cognitive and behavioural variables and the  OCS dimensions of problematic internet use. Item-total correlations were highly  significant, 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. It  includes 14 items and participants will respond in a five-point scale: 0, never; 1, seldom;  2, sometimes; 3, often; 4, very often. The questions included in the scale are like: How  often do you think about the Internet, even not online; How often do you go on the  Internet when you are feeling down. The author in order to test the validity of the test  used another test the online cognition scale. Pearson correlations were high and  significant between CIUS and OCS with p Procedure The 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 useful  instructions provided. They will have the chance to fill them right away or hand them  over later to secretary. Also with the questionnaires they will receive a consent form that  have to sign in order to show that they agree to participate in the study. Participants will  be encouraged to answer as honest as they can, but someone can be never sure about the  answers and if someone will feel offended or upset by a question. Participants will have  the right to withdraw anytime they do not want to continue for any reason, without  receiving any penalty. Confidentiality and anonymity were provided and explained that  the study is only for research. Also, the instructor will be there ready to answer any  question in case of any doubt. Design The design of the study is a correlation design that will measure the two variables,  Internet addiction and the level of social skills. Proposed Analysis Pearson correlation will be conducted for the data analysis that will investigate  the correlation between the severity of compulsive internet use and the level of social  skills.