Prevalence of internet addiction and its effects on academic performance among college students in semi-urban settlement of Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State Nigeria

The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of internet addiction and its effects on academic performances among college students of health sciences and technology, Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State Nigeria. Descriptive research survey type was employed for the study. The population of the study comprised of all the students of college of health sciences and technology in Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State Nigeria. A sample population of 150 students was used for the study through structured questionnaire. A descriptive statistics of frequency count and percentage was used to analyze the personal data and prevalence of internet addiction while inferential statistics of pearson correlation study at 0.01 level of significance was used to analyze the effects of internet addiction on academic performances among college students in Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti state Nigeria. Findings reveal that majority of the students are minimal user of the internet while significant percentages of the respondents were moderate users of the internet and few respondents were excessive user. Also internet addiction significantly influences academic performances among the students of college of health sciences and technology in Ijero-Ekiti. It was concluded that poor knowledge about the effects of internet addiction among the respondents account for the level of internet addiction most especially as recorded among the excessive users. Based on the result of this study, recommendations were made to drastically reduce the trends of internet addiction among college students through concerted efforts which include pubic campaign, creation of awareness about the negative effects of internet addiction, heath education and promotion.


Introduction
The world is a global village which has great influences in all aspects of life positively. There are school of thoughts that Information Computer Technology as well as more traditional Computer Assisted Instructional Applications (CAIP) are positively influencing students learning processes and outcomes. Every day we adopt integration of internet as part of our life, internet adaptability has been increasing exponentially throughout the world in this contemporary times. This is however prevalent in our homes, schools, colleges, libraries, corporate organization and consequently internet cafes are common places where internet facilities are more available and accessible these days as reported by Azim, et al 2009 [1]. Common activities usually exploited on the completing schoolwork, playing online games, reading and writing emails and engaging in real time chatting are the common online activities. Preliminary studies had shown that a large number of American children and adolescents with age around 5 to 17 years old have access to the internet and are exposed to the internet at a very early age [2].
Before now, addiction has been described in term of psychoactive substances that is capable of crossing brain permeable membrane and alters chemical balance of the brain. These psychoactive substances include alcohol, tobacco, and some drugs. However, in these contemporary times, social scientists, healthcare professionals and psychologists opined that psychological dependency such as gambling, sex, internet, work exercise are to be regarded as addiction as they have tendency to cause guilt ,shame, hopelessness, despair, failure rejection and anxiety.
Several terms have been proposed to describe excessive computer use such as internet addiction, cyberspace addiction, internet addiction disorder, online addiction, net addiction, internet addicted disorder, pathological internet use, high internet dependency, problematic internet use and others [3,4 ,5]. Researches have shown that our daily living has been consistently being influenced by internet as numerous aspect of our engagement is related to internet. Equally, internet users are more likely to spend their leisure time in the cyber community [6] Equally, Young (2006) [6] stated that "the internet has Janus face" which means that internets provide facility for people while on the other hand people might abuse the internet usage also. Studies confirm that internet and computer usage have become popular worldwide but also have negative impact on some individuals and on society at large. It was reported that impact of some selected ICT devices on students' academic performances are appreciated as it intensify their academic output. [7] Internet adaptability has become an indispensable tool in these contemporary times considering the benefits associated with Internet use, which include accessibility to prompt and needed information, worldwide access to news, events and interpersonal communication through email. Despite this phenomenal growth of the internet and its use, researchers has shown concerns about the risks associated with the internet overuse as reported by Kim J.H (2008) [8]. Equally, Nalwa & Anand (2003) [9] observed that negative effects of internet were predominantly indiscriminate use of the internet such as excessive playing of games, watching pornographies and mostly cybercrime commonly known as yahoo ,yahoo rather than academic activities.
Studies shows that people who are addicted to internet can develop many types of disorder and one of the disorders that are common for the modern day is Internet Addiction Disorder (IDA). Individuals who are suffering from Internet Addiction Disorder (IDA) can exhibit symptoms such as drawbacks and face consequences that are similar to individual who are addicted to alcohol, gambling, shopping or other compulsive behaviour. It is now believed that there could be widespread addiction to it in particular amongst College and University students [10,11].
Evidence of Internet Addiction has been suggested by the findings that some internet users spend increasingly longer periods of time online and experience withdrawal symptoms when offline. Those preoccupied with Internet-related activities may neglect exercise, family and social activities. [12] Technology and the Internet use particularly by college students have been associated with more frequent communication with friends and family members. One of the most important features of modern society is the growing impact of online communication tools, especially internet on people [13]. This impact is also felt on adolescents, no doubt Mesch, Turjeman & Fishman, (2008) [14] have identified certain factors that increase adolescents' tendency to the internet. These are the desires like to be free to communicate easily, to create an identity easily, and to develop meaningful personal relationships. These and other factors increase adolescents' internet use rate day by day. Increased use brings some problems with it. Perhaps, the most important of these is the "Internet Addiction, Excessive Internet use is seen in different cultures [11] and it is stated that adolescents group is at highest risk .Adolescents' beliefs and perceptions about themselves reflect in their behavior characteristics when using the internet. [15] It was observed that college students are most time obsessed with internet usage as they spend most of their valuable hours on internet watching pornography, charting, watching films, dating etc. In spite of the fact that the internet could contribute a lot to students' learning, it is vital to scrutinize students' internet use trend for early care taking. Due to the mentioned consequences, which may influence negative effects on the academic performances of students. In view of this, this research work was designed to assess the "influence of internet addiction and its prevalence among students of College of Health Sciences and Technology Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State in Nigeria.

Objectives of this study include
 Assessing the pattern of internet use among college students in the study area.  Determine the prevalence of internet addiction among the college students in the study area  Identifying the effects of internet addiction on educational performances among college students in the study area.

Study design
The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional research so as to determine the prevalence of internet addiction and measure its effects on academic performances of college students at the same time. Descriptive survey is the study of existing conditions by collecting, interpreting and analyzing data and arriving at some conclusions and recommendations.

Study population
The study population comprises all students both male and female of College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti State Nigeria whom by the virtue of their provisional admission letter are students of the College.

Sample and sampling technique
Stratified random sampling technique was used to randomly select thirty (30) students from nine (9) departments to make One hundred and fifty (150) respondents. This enables each segment of the target population to be represented.

Instrument design
Internet Addiction Test (IAT) developed by Dr. Kimberly Young, 1998 and modified in year 2006 which consist of 10 questions was adopted to evaluate the respondents' level of internet addiction. Each item was scored using a five-point likert scale, a graded response was selected (1 = rare to 5 = always). It covers the degree to which internet use affect daily routine, social life, productivity, sleeping pattern, and feeling. Each rating is then multiplied by two to make 100 score. The minimum score is therefore 20 while the maximum is 100 and the higher the score the greater the level of internet addiction. Three types of internet-user groups were identified in accordance with the original scheme of Young and the scores ranging from 20 to 49 indicate minimal users while scores from 50 to 79 indicate moderate users and the scores from 80 to 100 indicate excessive users in the section B of the research instrument.
Equally, those who have Cumulative Grade Point of 3 and above were considered to be above average, those with Cumulative Grade Point of 2.5-2.9 were average while those with Cumulative Grade Point below 2.5 were below average.

Administration of the instrument
Questionnaires were distributed to one hundred and fifty (150) students selected from eight (8) departments in the College. One Hundred and forty seven (147) questionnaires were therefore retrieved back for the study. Explanation and instruction on how to complete the questionnaire were clearly spelt out to the respondents through self-interview.

Data analysis and management
The data collected was subjected to descriptive statistics, while simple percentages were used to analyze the level of internet addiction and pearson correlation were computed to investigate the relationship between internet addiction and academic performance (CGPA and GPA).     The table above shows that 20.4% of the respondents rarely stay online longer than intended, 27.2% of them occasionally stay online longer than intended, 20.4% of them frequently stay online longer than intended, 23.1% of them often stay online longer than intended while 8.8% of the respondents always stay online longer than intended. However, this implies that more respondents occasionally stay online longer than intended. Total 147 100.0 Table 6 above shows that 24.5% of the respondents rarely prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner, 27.2% of them occasionally prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner, 19.7% of them frequently prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner; 19.7% of them often prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner, while 8.8% of them always prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner. It can be concluded that more respondents occasionally prefer the excitement of the internet to the intimacy with partner.   The table 8 reveals that 42.9% of the respondents said that their amount of time spent online rarely affect their grades or school work 23.1% of them said that their amount of time spent online occasionally affect their grades or school work, 16.3% of them said that their amount of time spent online frequently affect their grades or school work, 11.6% of them said that their amount of time spent online often affect their grades or school works while 6.1% of the respondents said that their amount of time spent online always affect their grades or school works. It can be concluded that majority of the respondents affirmed that the amount of time spent online rarely affect their grades or school work. The table reveals that 33.3% of the respondents said that the internet rarely affect or suffer their job performance or productivity 23.8% of them said that the internet occasionally affect or suffer their job performance or productivity 19.7% of them said that the internet frequently affect or suffer their job performance or productivity 12.9% of them said that the internet often affect or suffer their job performance or productivity while 10.2% of them said that the internet always affect or suffer their job performance or productivity. It can be concluded here that more of the respondents believed that the internet rarely affect or suffer their job performance or productivity. Total 147 100.0

Prevalence of internet addiction among the respondents
The table above revealed that 26.5% of the respondents rarely find themselves anticipating on when to go online again, 21.8% of them occasionally find themselves anticipating on when to go online again, 27.9% of them frequently find themselves anticipating on when to go online again, while 15% of them often find themselves anticipating on when to go online again, and 8.8% of them always find themselves anticipating on when to go online again. It can be concluded that more respondents frequently find themselves anticipating on when to go online again.  Total 147 100.0 The table above reveals that 23.1% of the respondents lose sleep due to late-night logins, 27.9% of them occasionally lose sleep due to late-night logins,19% of them occasionally lose sleep due to late-night logins, 18.4% of them often lose sleep due to late-night logins, while 11.6% of them always lose sleep due to late-night logins. In conclusion, more respondents occasionally lose sleep due to late-night logins. Total 147 100.0 The table above reveals that 25.9% of the respondents rarely fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online; 21.1% of them occasionally fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online, 25.2% of them frequently fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online, 16.3% of them often fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online, while 11.6% of them always fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online. In conclusion, majority of the respondents rarely fail in trying to cut down the amount of time spent online. 100.0 The table shows that 25.2% of the respondents rarely choose to spend more time online over going out with others 22.4% of them occasionally choose to spend more time online over going out with others, 23.8% frequently choose to spend more time online over going out with others, 21.8% often choose to spend more time online over going out with others, while 6.8% of them always choose to spend more time online over going out with others. This implies that more respondents rarely choose to spend more time online over going out with others.

Discussion
The study revealed that some of the respondents occasionally stay online longer than intended and have preferences for internet with relatively high prevalence as internet addicts, this is similar to the previous studies by Turel & Serenko, 2010 [16]who affirmed that students over use internet for gaming; blogging; email, internet pornography or internet shopping.
Equally, Lanthier and Windham (2004) [17] revealed that internet addict do not only find themselves in the process of developing their identities, but they also start to establish intimate relationship at that particular stage of their lives.
However, 42.9% of the respondents' school works suffered because of the amount of time spent online This corroborates Masters, (2015) [18] who describes euphoric feelings that usually characterized staying longer in front of computers including inability to keep schedules, no sense of time, isolation, defensiveness, avoiding doing work and agitation.
In addition, internet addiction rated is arranged in the sequence [Minimal users, Moderate users and Excessive users] while cumulative grade point average is arranged in the sequence [Above Average, Average and below Average], as stated in the instrument design. Therefore, reduction in the rate of internet addiction is positively correlated to increased cumulative grade point average while excessive use of internet is positively correlated to below average cumulative grade point average. This affirms the report of Cha (2010) [12] which stated that uncontrolled frequency of internet use among students could jeopardize their good academic and professional performance. Similarly, Nalwa & Anand, 2005 [9] studies have claimed that people may use the internet addictively and that this can cause harmful effects on individuals, academic problem, changing their social behavior, habits and abilities in a negative way. It can thus, be deduced that increased rate of internet addiction have negative effects on the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of college students in the study area. Further studies should look into the differences in the trends of addiction among male and female students and consequent effects on the academic performances.

Conclusion
In line with the findings of the study, majority of the students are minimal user of the internet while significant percentages of the respondents were moderate users of the internet and few respondents were excessive user. Equally, reduction in the rate of internet addiction is positively correlated to increased cumulative grade point average while excessive use of internet is positively correlated to below average cumulative grade point average. It can also be deduced that internet addiction can affects college students emotionally which include feeling guilt, anxiety, depression, dishonesty, euphoric feeling when in front of computer, unable to keep schedules, no sense of time, isolation, defensiveness, avoiding doing work and agitation which may significantly influence poor academic performances.

Recommendation
 Government should define, explore, investigate and predict addiction and identify possible intervention or treatment for internet addiction.  In spite of the fact that the internet could contribute a lot to students' learning, it is vital for parents to scrutinize students' internet use trend for early care taking.  College students should learn how to plan and be responsible for their proper time management, skills and introduce alternative profitable activities to their addictive behavior  Concerted efforts are required by the relevant agencies to drastically reduce the trends of internet addiction among college students through pubic campaign, creation of awareness on the negative effects of internet addiction including health education and promotion.