Internet Usage and Its Effect on the Lifestyle of University Students

Abstract

With the diversity of internet technology in the world today, usage has spread across every sector of the economy and business operations. Students are not left out from the use of the internet. Most people all over the world are using the internet for scholarly works. Researches on the use of the internet by students have been conducted by many scholars. This research is focused on the various uses of the internet by students in the universities in Ghana and the effects of the usage on their lifestyle. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed. Self-administered questionnaire was the primary data collection instrument. One hundred and fifty-four (154) students were selected randomly for the study. Most of them were undergraduate students and a few of them were graduate students. Students in the universities in Ghana accessed the internet for two main reasons – for academic activities and for making friends from other parts of the world. The results of the study reveal that most students access the internet daily. They spent several hours on the internet in a day and also for varying days in a week. It was found that students were addicted to the internet and they accessed social media purposely for making friends. They spent varying sums of money on buying internet bundles; even they use their last sum of money to browse the internet. However, with long hours spent on the internet some of them did not make enough time for their academic activities, including visiting the digital libraries.

Keywords: Internet, Information Communication Technology (ICT), digital libraries, internet addiction, university students’ lifestyle, Ghana

DOI: 10.7176/IKM/10-7-05

Publication date:October 31^st 2020