The Influence Of Internet Addiction On Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents

Abstract

Internet addiction is the loss of control of someone in using the gadgets to access the internet. Excessive use of the internet leads to depression. Depression is a mood disorder or feeling that can lead to changes in the mindset or behavior. The purpose of this research is to know the influence level of internet addiction to symptoms of depression in adolescents. The method to use by analytical research with Cross Sectional study design. Purposive Sampling technique used to got 65 respondents. Spearman Correlation test is used to analyze the data. Based on the result of the statistical test, the correlation (r) is 0.410. The Results showed correlation between internet addiction with the depression with medium strength level in the Faculty of Medicine UISU student class of 2014. P value = 0,001 (<0.05) so it can be concluded that the influence level of internet addiction to incidence of depression in adolescents.

Keywords: Internetinternet addictionadolescents

Introduction

Internet is a global communication network connect to various computer networks with various types and types of communication such as telephone, satellite and others (Zakaria, 2017). Technological developments are in line with the development of very rapid internet usage, where the continent of Asia ranks the first largest number of internet users with a percentage of 50.2% or 1,874 million users of total internet users in the world (Internet World Stats, 2017).

Indonesia have the growth largest user of internet in the world. Where as many as 69% of Indonesian people access internet by smartphone, desktop and tablet (Pratama, 2017). Based on statistical data in 2016, the user of internet in Indonesia reached 132.7 million, or around 51.8% of the total Indonesian population of 256.2 million. Increased of 88.1 million users from 2014, within a period of 2 years increased of 44.6 million. Sumatra Island is the second highest ranking of internet user after Java Island, around 15.7% or 20.7 million of users (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia, 2016). In 2014 internet users in North Sumatra reached 3.5 million people with a penetration rate of 25% of the total internet users in Indonesia (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia, 2014). Medan City ranks eighth with 389 users (Kementrian Komunikasi dan Informatika, 2017).

Problem Statement

The progress of internet use has a positive impact on human life, including making it easier to find work, study, work, communicate, shop and various other activities (Online Advertising Accounting Marketing, 2017). For adolescents, especially students, the use of the internet can help in terms of the learning process, looking for references in doing college assignments, and fostering relationships in social media as an entertainment medium for playing games. But not always technological advances have a positive impact on humans, continuous use of the internet without good control can cause problems in mental or psychological health. According to Morrison, internet addiction can have a serious impact on mental health and can increase the risk of depression (as cited in DetikInet, 2010). From the results of his research, respondents who experience internet addiction have a higher level of depression than respondents who access the internet normally (DetikInet, 2010). Based on a preliminary survey that researchers conducted on Medical Faculty students at Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara of Indonesiathat almost all students use the internet in their daily lives with variety of usage.

Research Questions

Based on the description of the background above, this study formulated the problem : “Is there any effect of internet addiction on depressive symptoms in adolescents at the Medical Faculty of the Islamic University of North Sumatra?".

Purpose of the Study

To know the effect of internet addiction with depression symptoms in adolescent at the Faculty of Medical, Islamic University of North Sumatra.

Research Methods

This research used analytical study with a cross sectional design. The place o at the Faculty of Medical, University of Islamic North Sumatra, STM No. 17 Medan. The population in this research were all medical faculty students who were taken as sample of 65 respondents with a purposive sampling method with some criteria.

The criteria includes UISU’s medical students age 17-20. Students who use internet more than 5 hours a day and students who are willing to become respondents. Meanwhile the exclusion criteria includes the batch 2014 student of the Medical Faculty of UISU refused to become a respondent, Batch 2014 students of the UISU Faculty of Medical who use the internet less than 5 hours/day and student who are not present.

Findings

The result analysis, frequency distribution of internet addiction levels at the Medical Faculty students of UISU found that the number of internet addiction was mostly in the moderate category, which is 47 people (72.3%). Frequency distribution levels in batch 2014 UISU Faculty of Medicine students found that the highest level of depression was in the category of no one experiencing depression or normal, which is 41 people (63.1%). The distribution of the incidence of internet addiction based on sex at the Faculty of Medicine UISU student found that female respondents experienced more internet addiction than male respondents because there were more female respondents. Distribution of the incidence of internet addiction rate based on respondents socioeconomic views from the work of the parents found that respondents with employment of parents as civil servants and entrepreneurs experienced more internet addiction than other types of work due to the work of parents as civil servants and more entrepreneurs. There is an influence of internet addiction on the level of depression in UISU Faculty of Medicine Students with a value of p = 0.001.

There were 65 samples that met the criteria in the Faculty of Medical, Islamic University of North Sumatra. Based on the Spearman Correlation results test to see the effect of the level of internet addiction with depression symptoms in the UISU Faculty of Medicine students obtained a p-value of 0.001 (p <0.05). It can be conclude there is an influence of internet addiction on depression symptoms in UISU Medical Faculty students. Positive correlation value (r = 0.410). This shows that there is a relationship with the moderate strength between internet addiction and depression symptoms with positive coefficient values. This research is in line with Sari's (2017) research with a total of 66 respondents, indicating a significant influence between the level of internet addiction and depression (p-value ) 0.005 which means p <0.05 and a positive correlation value (r = 0.345) which means that the more higher the internet addiction, the more higher the level of depression it takes, with the strength of weak correlation. Similarly, the research conducted by Dewiratri, Kartini, and Machmuroch (2014) that between internet addiction and depression, there are significant correlation with a significant value (p = 0,000) and a positive correlation value (r = 0.859).

In the opinion of Young (1998) in Ohorella (2009) that individuals feel that the activity of accessing the internet can provide the information needed. When online, individuals find pleasant feelings, such as passionate, happy, pounding, free, attractive, feeling supported and needed. This feeling is an reinforcement for an individual experiencing internet addiction. Conversely, when offline individuals get unpleasant feelings such as anxiety, blocking, frustration and sadness.

The researchers argue that individuals who have experienced internet addiction will tend to ignore the surrounding social environment and will feel calm when he is online, so that when they are offline they will be depressed, anxious, feeling anxious, sad and disruption of the individual's feelings and will always think about how to be able to go online again. This is what can trigger depression in individuals who experience internet addiction.

Conclusion

The result of the statistical test, the correlation (r) obtained is 0.410. It shows the medium strength connection between the level of internet addiction and the level of depression in the Faculty of Medicine UISU student class of 2014. P Value obtained is 0.001 (<0.05), so it can be concluded that the influence level of internet addiction to incidence of depression in adolescents.

References

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About this article

Publication Date

30 March 2020

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-080-8

Publisher

European Publisher

Volume

81

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-

Edition Number

1st Edition

Pages

1-839

Subjects

Business, innovation, sustainability, development studies

Cite this article as:

Susanti, M., & Lupita, D. (2020). The Influence Of Internet Addiction On Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents. In N. Baba Rahim (Ed.), Multidisciplinary Research as Agent of Change for Industrial Revolution 4.0, vol 81. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 40-43). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.03.6