The Rise of Internet Addiction Post-COVID: Exploring Trends in Online Behavior at a Thai University
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Abstract
The excessive use of the Internet seems to be a common trend during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as everything has to be done online. This situation has made students engage in varied virtual world activities, such as, learning, communication and entertainment leading to Internet Addiction (IA). The study aims at raising students’ awareness of the possibility of becoming an Internet addict, as well as suggesting preventive measures to the problem in post-COVID era. Data were collected from 244 First year student teachers in a Northeastern university in Thailand using Internet Addiction Test, and individual written reflections. Word frequency corpus-based analysis was employed using AntConc, a freeware used for multi-purpose corpus analysis toolkit, for the quantitative data and thematic analysis was used for analyzing the written reflections. The quantitative results revealed that 133 participants (54.5%) were identified as having moderate level of internet addiction while 4 participants (1.8%) have had severe dependence upon the Internet. Accordingly, 92 participants (37.5%) had mild level of Internet addiction while only 16 students (6.3%) were defined as normal level of Internet usage. Salient themes, codes generated from word frequency provided by AntConc, revealed possible treatment were family, friends, and sports. This possible treatment reported by the First year student teachers is in line with the CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) model that is used in treating people with Internet addiction. The findings of this study can be useful for University’s teachers in Reducing state of Internet addiction among students on campus. All teachers can use these findings to create treatments and instructional programs that focusing the unique issues and triggers which related to students' excessive internet use. This method supports academic success and general well-being in addition to creating a better online environment for students.
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