Prevalence of internet addiction and its impact on socio educational area among students of selected high schools at urban areas of Davangere, Karnataka

Background: The Internet has developed into one of man's most important tools for information, employment possibilities, education, entertainment, social media, and networking, and it is progressively becoming an integral part of our daily lives.
Objectives: To assess prevalence of internet addiction and its impact on socio educational area among students at selected high schools of urban areas of Davangere.
Methodology: A quantitative approach with descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The samples from the selected high schools of urban areas were selected using probability multistage random sampling technique. The sample consisted of 200high school students. A Internet addiction test developed by Dr. Young was used to measure the internet addiction and questionnaire on Impact of internet addiction on socio educational area was used to measure impact.
Results: The study result reveal that, internet addiction mean internet addiction score was 34.24, median was 34.50, mode was 25, standard deviation 11.95 and range score was 1-75. Majority 82(41%) were not had internet addiction, 83(41.5%) were had mild addiction and least 35(17.5%) of participant was had moderate level of internet addiction. With respect to impact of internet addiction on socio educational area, majority 48(43.63%) were had mild impact, 38(34.54%) were had moderate impacts and least 32(29.09%) of participants were not had impact on socio educational area. The levels of internet addiction of participants of urban area are found to be statistically significant at 0.05 levels for gender, occupation of mothers and time spent daily on internet
Conclusion: The study can help policymakers to understand the burden of internet addiction among adolescent students and can make necessary changes in the education system.