Researchers from the University of Surrey and elsewhere have found that young people (24 years and youger) spend an average of six hours a day online; older people spend 4.6 hours online.
“Our main aim was to clarify the difference between using the Internet in a problematic way and being addicted to it,” said Dr. Brigitte Stangl, a researcher in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey.
“We found that the younger you are, the more likely you are to be addicted to the Internet, and this tendency decreases with age.”
“We also wanted to explore how the severity of Internet addiction affects users’ experience with new, high-tech applications like augmented reality.”
In their study, Dr. Stangl and her colleagues from the WU Vienna, Kyung Hee University and the University of Jyväskylä analyzed data from the questionnaires filled out by 796 participants.
They introduce a new Internet addiction spectrum, categorizing Internet users into five groups:
(i) casual users (14.86%): this group mainly goes online for specific tasks and logs off without lingering; they show no signs of addiction and are generally older, with an average age of 33.4 years; they are the least interested in exploring new apps;
(ii) initial users (22.86%): these individuals often find themselves online longer than they initially planned and are somewhat neglectful of household chores but don’t consider themselves addicted; they are moderately interested in apps and have an average age of 26.1 years;
(iii) experimenters (21.98%): this group feels uneasy or anxious when not connected to the Internet; once they go online, they feel better; experimenters are more willing to try out new apps and technology, and their average age is between 22.8 and 24.3 years;
(iv) addicts-in-denial (17.96%): these users display addictive behaviours like forming new relationships online and neglecting real-world responsibilities to be online; however, they won’t…
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