Internet Addiction and Its Effects on Daily Lives of the

Students

Introduction

Today, the modern generation lives in a world where almost everything revolves

around the internet. The convenience of having the internet on an individual’s daily life

becomes more useful day by day. Internet has experienced extraordinary growth in both

its size and number of users around the world. Many uses of the internet and its charm in

recent years have led to the emergence of a phenomenon called Internet Addiction.

The benefits of the internet have been widely researched and include keeping in

touch with friends, transferring funds, engaging with entertainment and assisting with

educational needs. Internet has enlightened the human society by providing information,

transforming knowledge and facilitating for communication. However, it created its own

problems and internet addiction becomes one of them (Asemah ES, Okpanachi RA,

Edegoh LON,2017). According to Maya Kosoff, not everyone in the world even has

access to the internet. In fact, only 39% of the world does but due to the demand of it,

everyone experiences some sign of dependency on the internet.

As years pass by, most of the people who gets too reliable and too drowned on

using the internet experiences changes on their living. According to Dr. Keith W. Beard
(2005), an individual is addicted when an individual’s psychological state, which includes

both mental and emotional states, as well as their scholastic, occupational and social

interactions, is impaired by the overuse of the internet. The tendency to be unable to live

without smart phones seems to be the case to the people who became too addicted to it.

With that, the internet affects the daily lives of the users, positively or negatively.

Internet has become an essential part of our daily life, especially among

adolescents and youth. It is mainly used for education, entertainment, social networking,

and information sharing. Teenagers have the most number of users of the internet and

most of them are already addicted to it. Teenagers depend on the internet the most

especially for their studies. That's why the researchers chose students to be their

participants. The researchers wanted to see how being dependent and addicted to

internet makes any effect to the students.

Therefore, the researchers decided to study about the how internet addiction

affects the daily lives of the students in order for them to know more about their topic

prior.

Preliminary Literature and Related Studies

The uses and gratifications theory, developed by Elihu Katz and Jay

Blumler, seeks to explain the relationship between an audience and how this audience

uses the media. This is actually based on the idea that media audiences are active rather

than passive, meaning, they don't just receive information, but also unconsciously attempt

to make sense of the message in their own context (Peirce, 2007). This theory works
operationally through the social and the psychological needs for individuals generating

motives and expectation of mass media (Katz, 1959), and how individuals use media to

satisfy their needs and to achieve their goals (as cited in Patrick, 2010).

Media audiences will make choices depending on their needs,

satisfactions, and motives. They will choose a certain form of media, whether it is a

medium (television or radio, for example) or a specific program (television show,

foexample) over another form in order to satisfy needs or wants (Peirce, 2007). As a

result, audiences of a particular program will most likely have similar needs, interests, and

tastes and will seek rewards (satisfaction).

Regarding that theory, the desire of the users, mainly the students, is what

makes them dig down on what reaches their satisfaction which is the continuous use of

the internet.

According to the research conducted by Hilarie Cash, Cosette D Rae, and

Alexander Winkler, Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) ruins lives by causing neurological

complications, psychological disturbances, and social problems. All addictions, whether

chemical or behavioral, share certain characteristics including salience, compulsive use

(loss of control), mood modification and the alleviation of distress, tolerance and

withdrawal, and the continuation despite negative consequences.

In terms of the daily lives of the students, there's another research that

states that smart phone has complicated the situation where important ventures like study

and writing are adversely affected. Research findings have shown that excessive use of

internet or internet addiction adversely affects one's physical health, family life, and
academic performance. Internet usage creates positive impacts on education in way of

increasing communication with classmates and lecturers, reviewing e-books, increasing

access to libraries and educational databases, and improving study hours and study

habits. Despite these benefits of internet use, researchers have maintained that students

are at particularly high risk for developing internet addiction. (Akhter N. Relationship

between internet addiction and academic performance among university undergraduates.

Educational Research and Review, 2018)

Statement of the Problem

The researchers aimed to know the effects of internet addiction to the daily lives of

selected Grade 11 Accountancy and Business Management students of San Pedro

College of Business Administration in the school year 2019-2020 along with the following:

1. What is the profiles of the students in terms of the following:

1.1 Age

1.2 Gender

2. What are the most commonly used internet sites of the students?

2.1 Facebook

2.2 Instagram

2.3 YouTube

2.4 Google

2.5 Other sites

3. How many hours does the students spend time on the internet?

4. How often students use their gadgets in terms of:

 4.1 Smart phones

4.2 Tablets and Ipads

4.3 Laptop

4.4 Desktop

5. How does internet addiction affects the daily lives of the students in term of the

following:

5.1 Doing household chores

5.2 Spending time to sleep

5.3 Spending time with their family and friends

5.4 Spending time doing school works

Hypothesis

Internet addiction does have major side effects on our daily lives.

Internet addiction doesn’t have major effects on our daily lives.

Methodology

Respondents of the study

The study was conducted at San Pedro College of Business Administration, school

year 2019-2020. The Grade 11 Accountancy Business and Management students in San

Pedro College of Business Administration were the respondents of the study. To find out

the respondents whom they need to conduct a survey, they asked first the permission of

the advisers so they can ask questions to the students. As a result, they have selected
random students in Grade 11 Accountancy Business and Management. The respondents

were individually given a copy of a questionnaire.

Research Instrument

Questionnaires was used in data gathering.

Research Procedure

This study was conducted at San Pedro College of Business Administration school

year 2019-2020. The problem and its background and significance of the study were

considered carefully and then all of them were stated in Chapter 1. Related literatures

and studies were selected and review in Chapter 2 of the study. Research methodologies

and research procedure was also considered before the research was officially

conducted. Then the first three (3) chapters of the study were checked and edited by the

teacher in charge. After that, the research instrument, a questionnaire-checklist, was

prepared and submitted to the teacher in charge for validation and approval. After the

validation of the questionnaire, a letter requesting that the researcher was allowed to

gather data from the San Pedro College of Business Administration was presented to the

advisers or subject teachers who will be affected by the said survey. When the approved

letter was released, the researcher personally distributed the copies of questionnaires to

the students.
Timeline

Task August September October November December

Planning

Research

Design

Implementation

Interpretation

Reference

Kosoff, M. (2014, Dec 20). Study: 420 Million People Around The World Are Addicted

To The Internet Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/420-million-people-are-

addicted-to-the-internet-study-2014-12

Beard, K. (2005). Internet Addiction Disorder. Retrieved from

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder#Social_consequences
Akhter N. (2018). Relationship between internet addiction and academic performance

among university undergraduates. Educational Research and Review. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330875262_Relationship_between_Internet_a

ddictions_and_academic_performance_among_Afghan_universities_students

Peirce, J. (2007). Uses and Gratifications Theory. Retrieved from

https://sites.psu.edu/sarahturney/uses-and-gratifications-theory/

Cash, H. et al. (2012, Nov). The Internet Addiction: A Brief Summary. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480687/#__ffn_sectitle