A Post Covid-19 Study On Internet Addiction And Loneliness Among College Students
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives thousands of people across the globe. The mental health crisis that has come with it is no less than the virus itself. The lockdown tested the social fabric where each person was on his and her own. It left no option other than surfing the internet for most people; students no exceptions. This present study is an attempt to assess the level loneliness in students who are established a higher level to internet use during lockdown. A sample of 50 college students from Guwahati who were affected by the COVID virus were taken as participants for the study. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and UCLA loneliness scale were used. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to test the hypothesis . The results 33 (p value)>27 showed that the hypothesis is not accepted, which states that there will be no significant difference in the level of loneliness between the internet addicted students and non-addicted students.From the mean score of the Group A (addicted internet users) and Group B (Non addicted internet users), Group A score shows higher score on the level of loneliness as tested by the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The average score of 37.16 of the addicted internet users is higher than the average score of 34.80 of the non-addicted internet users.
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