Profiles of University Students According to Internet Usage with the Aim of Entertainment and Communication and their Affinity to Internet
Author :
Abstract
For university students, there are three major activities such as activities for academic/learning purposes, communication and entertainment. Using attractive and various activities on the Internet would mean intensive and long usage of Internet, and intensive and long usage of Internet is considered as a predictor of problematic Internet use. However, affinity to Internet might be the reason of intensive Internet usage. Internet affinity is the degree to which people feel attached to the Internet. The aim of this study is to determine the profile of university students who are considered as digital natives according to their Internet usage with the aim of entertainment or communication and understand whether their profiles have differed depending on affinity to internet. Cluster and variance analysis procedures were used to identify students’ entertainment and communication oriented Internet use profiles and to examine differences in students’ affinity to Internet. Three hundred fifty-eight university students completed questionnaire about their affinity with Internet, social networking, online gaming, instant messaging/chatting, e-mailing, and downloading series or movies. Results of the study show that university student digital natives divide into two profiles in the sense of using Internet with the aim of entertainment and communication and the affinity to Internet has great effect on this division. The profile of the first cluster is composed of the students who are mostly male, use Internet intensively, and those who give great importance to this media. Students in the second cluster have the profile which uses Internet less intensively, and give importance to Internet at medium level.
Keywords
Abstract
For university students, there are three major activities such as activities for academic/learning purposes, communication and entertainment. Using attractive and various activities on the Internet would mean intensive and long usage of Internet, and intensive and long usage of Internet is considered as a predictor of problematic Internet use. However, affinity to Internet might be the reason of intensive Internet usage. Internet affinity is the degree to which people feel attached to the Internet. The aim of this study is to determine the profile of university students who are considered as digital natives according to their Internet usage with the aim of entertainment or communication and understand whether their profiles have differed depending on affinity to internet. Cluster and variance analysis procedures were used to identify students’ entertainment and communication oriented Internet use profiles and to examine differences in students’ affinity to Internet. Three hundred fifty-eight university students completed questionnaire about their affinity with Internet, social networking, online gaming, instant messaging/chatting, e-mailing, and downloading series or movies. Results of the study show that university student digital natives divide into two profiles in the sense of using Internet with the aim of entertainment and communication and the affinity to Internet has great effect on this division. The profile of the first cluster is composed of the students who are mostly male, use Internet intensively, and those who give great importance to this media. Students in the second cluster have the profile which uses Internet less intensively, and give importance to Internet at medium level.
Keywords
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