Purposes of internet use among Iranian university students: exploring its relationship with social networking site (SNS) addiction

Abstract

Background Higher education students are heavy users of the internet for a wide variety of reasons, including Social Networking Sites (SNSs). This study investigated various purposes of internet use among undergraduate university students, and how different categories of such activities are related to SNS addiction. Methods The sample set from 420 SNS users (280 females), a survey questionnaire was used to collect the information, including demographic information, purposes for internet usage (social, entertainment, academic, and economic purposes), and SNS addiction. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and a path diagram to estimate the regression coefficients were used to examine the data. Results Findings revealed that the most common purposes for using the internet were online social networking and information seeking, followed by listening to music or watching movies, learning, relaxing, using email for educational needs, and reading socio-political news. In the comparison between categories of purposes for internet usage, the most prevalent group of purposes were academic and informative, recreational, social, and economic categories respectively. Moreover, the most significant influences belonged to the social group [positively], the academic and informative group (negatively), and the recreational group (positively) on SNS addiction respectively. The economic group of purposes did not have a significant influence on SNS addiction. Conclusion This study has important implications for education and health providers, particularly in universities; we recommend that they try to improve students’ mental health and academic performance by providing opportunities for them to improve their IT literacy and skills.

WHO's global oral health status report 2022: Actions, discussion and implementation

“…Online advertisements also have an unprecedented superiority in terms of creativity and outreach and can not only help in correction of detrimental habits but also promote primary prevention. Yet, their effectiveness would be dependent on the placement of such advertisements (entertainment vs educational websites) (Hashemi et al, 2022).…”

Prevalence of Internet Usage Complaints Among Undergraduate Students

“…watching movies, and playing video games [9][10][11][12]. The Internet has been considered a stresscoping mechanism [13,14] while watching online programs or gaming but can lead to addiction [15].…”

“…Access has helped students to acquire knowledge and improve academic performance [7] and research skills [8]. It can be used to satisfy social and entertainment drives such as listening to online music, watching movies, and playing video games [9][10][11][12]. The Internet has been considered a stresscoping mechanism [13,14] while watching online programs or gaming but can lead to addiction [15].…”

Influence of Music Psychology on the Consistency of Mood in Movies: A Review of Historical Works and Empirical Research

“…The music in historical movies and television is mainly narrated in fragmented forms in conjunction with images. Adding appropriate background music at the beginning and end of the movie can serve as a prelude and ending, laying the foundation for the narrative of historical movies and creating an atmosphere (Hashemi, Zarani, Heidari, & Borhani, 2022). There are two main ways to obtain background music for historical movies and TV shows.…”