Internet Addiction: An Interpersonal Perspective

Internet addiction has become important as people increasingly spend time online conducting every day affairs. The excessive use of the Internet may be due to a number of different reasons and a wide variety of consequences. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand the Internet addiction phenomenon. This quantitative study focused on the interpersonal relationship perspective, perceived online attachment motivation and perceived online relationship commitment, to explain excessive use of the Internet. A questionnaire survey to1,443 secondary school graduates found that Internet addiction was significantly related to the perceived online attachment motivation (β = .180, p < .001) and the perceived online relationship commitment (β = .366, p< .001). The model explained 25.8 percent variance of the Internet addiction measured. Implications due to the need of interpersonal relationship and the consequences of Internet addiction are discussed.