A Study of Internet Usage and Study Habits among

Students
Daman Deep Kaur Gulati
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, BSSS, Bhopal

Dr. Mamta Bakliwal

Professor, HOD, Rajeev Gandhi College, Bhopal

ABSTRACT
The use of technology in education has brought a paradigm shift in the education sector. The
number of internet users have increased in manifolds. The student’s dependency on internet is
increasing rapidly in urban as well as rural areas. The internet is being used for academic and
non-academic purpose. There are numerous e-resources available which helps in enriching the
knowledge of students. The focus of this research paper is to study the internet usage for non-
academic purpose and pattern of study habits among higher secondary school students of
Bhopal City. The study has showed a decline in the study habits of students due to less control
over the internet usage.
Keywords: Internet Usage, Study Habits

INTRODUCTION
In this fast pace life, every student must keep his knowledge upgraded. The use of internet is
essential for all students to exceed in his life. The usage can be for academic as well as non-
academic purpose. The whole world has become a small village. Students are preferring to
play online games like Hearthstone: Heroes Of Warcraft, World Of Tanks, World of
Warcraft (WoW) , Fortnite, PABGI etc. in place of playing outdoor games. Internet is an ocean
of knowledge which provides significant information. Students surf the various websites for
making school projects, presentations and completion of home assignments. Apart from that
they spend time on YouTube for watching useful programme as well as entertainment, porn
sites, gambling and others. The social websites and applications like Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. are famous among the adolescents. They like to interact and text
through online mode instead of face to face interaction. As adolescents are always thrilled to
experiment something new. Gradually they start spending more time on online activities for
non-academic purpose and they fall in the category of internet addicts. They even neglect their
daily household core and school work. They like to use short-cuts for studying. It has been
observed that there is a change in the study habits pattern. They are giving less time for reading,
writing, note making, discussion with friends and teachers.
Empirical studies suggest that Internet Addiction , like other well researched addictive
behaviors, has an effect on many facets of a person’s life, including academic or work
performance, relationships, and physical and mental health (Goldberg, 1996; Young, 1996,
1998). Internet addiction means when an individual is not able to control his or her use of
internet for non-academic or non-essential purpose, which eventually causes some physical,
social , psychological and work related problems in one’s life. Behavioural addictions should
not be ignored because of the lack of material. The fourth and the last edition of Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, ( DSM-4-TR) introduced the internet addiction as
set of “ Impulse Control Disorders not specified as another kind” and the same disorder in the
next edition of 2011 has been classified under the same category (APA,2000a). Internet
addiction is defined as, “an individual’s inability to control his or her use of the internet, which
eventually causes psychological, social, school and work difficulties in a person’s life.” (Chao
and Hsiao, 2000). Young (1998) believed that Internet Addiction (IA) encompasses excessive
amounts of time, or the want to spend time involving numerous computer/internet activities.
These include:
 Cyber-sexual addiction - use of adult chat rooms or cyber-porn
• Cyber-relationship addiction - over involvement in online relationship
• Net compulsions - online gambling, virtual casinos etc.
• Information overload - compulsive web surfing or searches
• Computer addiction - obsessive computer games (Alam,S.S. 2014; Malviya, A. 2014)

Review of Related Literature

Nalwa & Anand (2003) conducted the research study in India showed that dependent group
found to delay work when they spent more time for online activities and they lost sleep due
to late-night online habit. Some of the respondents accepted that without internet their life
would be boring. The dependent group spent more hours on the internet comparatively to the
non-dependent group. On the loneliness amount, dependent group scored higher than the
non-dependent group. (Singh ,D.2014).
Barthakur , M. (2012). A study was conducted to find out the connection between internet
use and mental health problems. In the total 268 respondents, 24.6% were tested with
frequent problems due to use of internet. The researchers found several negative effects of
internet addiction. A large population from the sample accepted that excessive use of internet
effected their work, social life and anticipation. Heavy users of internet felt loneliness,
depressive, anxious and other disorders. The researchers recommended that internet users at
the college and workplace should be screened and interventions should be planned to prevent
mental health problems.
Lajwanti & Paliwal, A.(2012). This study was conducted on 480 students studying in
various secondary schools of Agra city in India were selected by using purposive sampling
method. It was concluded that use of internet for academic purpose by internet users and non-
users have no significant relationship with study habits.
Singh, P. (2016) had conducted a study on 600 students of class XI and XII from the
Government and Non-Government senior secondary Schools of Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and
Nawanshahar districts. It was found that there is a significant relationship among the different
categories of study-habits of the students with their academic achievement in mathematics.
Saravana, K. (2017). Under this study, it was observed that the Social work students
studying in various colleges in Tumkur University have very high degree of addiction in
Facebook and this has result in the poor study habits.
Deepika, K. (2015) has studied the internet addiction and academic achievement among 11th
Grade students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India The study reveals that the number of students
having internet addiction is low; but around 32% students out of 60% falls in average. The
 internet addiction possesses more in boys than in girls, this may be because boys are more
techno friendly and like to explore things than girls. Around 75% of the student spend time
on internet is less than 1 hour in a day, and around 10 % student spend more time on internet.
But in the study, it has shown that it has impact on learning difficulty.
OBJECTIVES
 To find out the extent of Internet Usage among the students.
 To find out the pattern of Study Habits among the students.
 To know the relationship between Internet Addiction and Study habits.

HYPOTHESIS
 There is no significant relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits

METHODOLOGY
Sample
The study was conducted on 200 students of Class 11th of CBSE schools of Bhopal. Random
sampling method was used to collect the relevant data from the students.
Statistical Tools
 To collect the information related to the internet usage for non-academic purpose,
Internet Addiction test developed by Dr. Kimberly Young was used. She adapted the
DSM IV criteria to relate to internet use in the Internet addiction Test. The split half
reliability of this tool is 0.859 and Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.902. The questionnaire
comprises 20 questions. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 to 5.
 In order to find out the pattern of study habits among the students, the Study Habits
Inventory developed by M. Mukhopadhyay and D. N. Sansanwal (2005) was used. The
reliability of the whole inventory was worked out by using split-half method. The
reliability coefficient is 0.91 which is fairly high and indicates that the inventory is
reliable.

Statistical Analysis

The data collected was analysed by using statistical techniques like percentage, mean and
Karl Pearson’s Coefficient of Correlation.
RESULTS and DISCUSSION
(1) The extent of internet usage among the students
The students responded to the questionnaire and the score was calculated to see the extent of
internet usage for non- academic purpose. High score represents the higher level of severity of
Internet compulsivity and addiction. If the total scores are less than 20 points are considered
to reflect a normal level of Internet usage; scores of 20 to 49 indicate the presence of a mild
level of Internet addiction; 50 to 79 reflect the presence of a moderate level; and scores of 80
to 100 indicate a severe dependence upon the Internet.

Table 1: Depicting the percentage of Internet Users

 Users of Internet Percentage of Internet Users
Normal Internet Users
7%
Mild Internet Users 57%

Moderate Internet Users 36%

As per the findings, out of 200 students taken as a sample for the study, 7% are the normal
users of internet. It means that they are using the internet for non-academic purpose in
controlled manner.57% students are mild users of internet, sometimes they exceed the usage
of internet but still they have good monitoring over their activities. 36% students are the
moderate users of internet, who occasionally face problems due to excessive usage and it also
influences their daily life activities.

Percentage of Internet Users

60.00% 57%

50.00%

40.00% 36.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00% 7.00%

0.00%
Normal Internet Users Mild Internet Users Moderate Internet Users

Fig. 1: Showing the bar graph based on Table 1

(2) The pattern of study habits among the students.
The study habits are the habitual practices one uses to study and learn. Good study habits can
help students to achieve and maintain good grades. For the present inventory, the study habits
are constituted of nine different kinds of study behaviours. These are: Comprehension,
Concentration, Task orientation, Study Sets, Interaction, Drilling, Supports, Recording and
Language. There are 70 items on a five-point scale (always, frequently, sometimes, rarely
and never). The responses of students were scored and pattern of study habits was evaluated.

Table 2: Showing the pattern of Study Habits among students

 Study Habits Status Pattern of Study Habits among Students
Very Poor Study Habits 52%

Poor Study Habits 36%

Below Average Study Habits 8%

Moderate Study Habits 4%

As per the above table 2, it is easy to understand the pattern of study habits among class
11th students of various streams. These students were from Commerce, Science and Arts
streams. 52% students are having very poor study habits. 36% students also showing poor
study habits. 8% students have below average study habits and only 4% students have
moderate study habits.

Pattern of Study Habits among Students

60%
52%
50%

40% 36.00%

30%

20%

10% 8%
4%

0%
Very Poor Study Poor Study Habits Below Average Study Moderate Study
Habits Habits Habits

Fig. 2: Showing the bar graph based on Table 2

(3) The relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits
In order to know the relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits, Karl Pearson’s
Coefficient of Correlation was used.
Table 3: Relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits
Variables r value
Internet -0.33882
Addiction
Study
Habits
As per the findings, it has been observed that data is normally distributed. The value of r is
equal to - 0.33882, so there is a moderate negative relationship between internet addiction and
study habits. In this case, when usage of internet is increasing the study habits are showing a
decline. The calculated value of r is compared with the critical value (0.138) of table at .05
level of significance. The null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, there is a relationship between
internet addiction and study habits.

Relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits

250

200

150

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Fig. 3: Scatter diagram depicting relationship between Internet Addiction and Study Habits

The scatter diagram is also showing a negative relationship between the two variables, it is
non-linear form with a moderate strength as the points are moderately scattered.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Author wish to extend the gratitude to Mr. Kimberly Young for her dedication in the field of
Internet Addiction. An enormous thanks to the research guide Dr. Mamta Bakliwal and to the
great mentor Dr. Anshu Mathur.
CONCLUSION
The results have indicated that the adolescents are getting carried away by the charm of internet
. As a result, they are becoming addict to the internet for entertainment. Thereby, they are
unable to practice the right study habits to study various subjects. There is a moderate negative
relationship between excessive internet usage and study habits. It is the responsibility of the
teachers, parents and administrators to guide the students . The diagnostic test for Internet
Addiction should be taken to know the actual position of internet usage. Timely measures will
help to direct the students in the right path . Human beings should rule on the technology but
not in any case human beings should get ruined by the technology.
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