Time Management of Internet Dependency among University Students and its Impact on Academic Performance

Abstract

The study examines time management of Internet dependency among university students and its impact on academic performance. It takes the entire undergraduate students of universities in Nigeria as the universe and sampled 402 students from university of Maiduguri using multistage sampling technique. It adopts cross-sectional research design with two complimentary instruments; the ‘Internet use survey’ and ‘Cognitive Behavioural Checklist’ questionnaires to elicit facts from respondents.  It retrieves 384 copies of valid questionnaire for this analysis using descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlations. A total of 344 (89.6%) students were categorised as Negative for internet dependency and 40 (10.4%) were categorised as “Positive for internet overuse.” The Internet dependency among students was found to positively correlates with the amount of time spent on the internet (Pearson r = 0.269, p < 0.05) but negatively correlates with their academic performance (Pearson r = -0.05, p > 0.05) though not statistically significant. There was no association between academic performance and the hours spent online. Conclusively, the study found that one out of every ten student was negative for Internet overuse. This study is useful to management and IT professionals, academicians, researchers, government and students alike. It recommends effective time management, creation of awareness and counselling of students on the danger of Internet overuse to enhance academic performance. It also recommends further research to evaluate the relationship between Internet dependent users with symptoms such as stress, social solitude and other functioning activities in other to effectively manage them.

Keywords: Internet Use, Students, Dependency, academic Performance, University