University Students' Problematic Internet Use and Communication Skills According to the Internet Use Purposes

Abstract This study was carried out to investigate whether the levels of university students' problematic internet and of perceived communication skills differ with respect to their basic internet purposes. The participants were 411 university students [215 of whom were females (52.30%) and 196 of whom were males (47.70%)]. In the study, the Problematic Internet Use Scale and the Communication Skills Evaluation Scale were applied. The analysis of the data was carried out via multivariate analysis of variance. The findings revealed that university students' perceived communication skill levels did not differ with respect to their main internet but that the levels of their problematic internet did. In this respect, it was found that in terms of basic internet purpose, the problematic internet levels of the university students who use the internet for entertainment purposes and of those who use the internet to establish social relationships with unfamiliar people were significantly higher than that of those who use the internet to obtain information. This result points out that the of the internet for entertainment and social interaction constitutes an important risk factor for the emergence of the problematic internet symptoms. Key Words Problematic Internet Use, Internet Addiction, Communication Skill, University Student. The internet, thanks to a number of opportunities it provides, facilitates, diversifies, enriches and develops human life. Despite the contributions of the internet to human life, it also brings the problems and these problems rise day after day. Therefore, like other technological tools, problematic human behavior regarding the internet has also started to accompany the opportunities and facilities provided by the internet. Such negative behaviors of the internet users tend to increase in future due to the increases in the variety of its use, its duration, and to the decrease in user age. Recently, the internet has increased rapidly and this increase has a potential for leading to pathological/problematic internet or the internet addiction (Chou, Condron, & Belland, 2005; Nalwa & Anand, 2003) Problematic internet or the internet addiction is used to describe the over-use of the internet and the effects of the problems it creates. In addition to these two concepts, various concepts such as the internet dependency, pathological internet use, the internet addiction disorder can also be used to depict the internet related behaviors (Beard & Wolf, 2001; Chou et al., 2005; Young, 1998). Because of this variety in the internet related concepts, terminology in the literature is a problem (Chou et al., 2005). In fact, ongoing discussions about whether the internet addiction takes place in forthcoming the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) versions continue (Dowling & Quirk, 2008). In this framework, the preference for the concepts of problematic, excessive or maladaptive internet is more appropriate because of the associated meanings (Beard, 2002; Beard & Wolf, 2001). Problematic internet is meant to be an inability to control the internet that causes to distress and dysfunctionalities in daily life (Shapira, Goldsmith, KeekJr, Khosla, & McElroy, 2000). In this respect, problematic internet is described as one type of impulse control disorder (Schmitz, 2005; Shapira et al., 2000; Shapira et al., 2003; Young, 1998, 2004). In literature, a great deal of research on problematic internet shows that overuse of the internet and problematic/pathological internet or the internet addiction have a significant relationship with such factors as loneliness (Ceyhan & Ceyhan, 2008; Erdogan, 2008; Keser Ozcan & Buzlu, 2007; Moody, 2001; Nalwa & Anand, 2003, Whang, Lee, & Chang, 2003), low self-esteem (Niemz, Griffiths, & Banyard, 2005; Wu & Cheng, 2007; Yang & Tung, 2007), depression (Ceyhan & Ceyhan, 2008; Keser Ozcan & Buzlu, 2007; Yang & Tung, 2007; Yen, Ko, Yen, Wu, & Yang, 2007; Whang et al. …