The Internet addiction and the correlation with the socio-economic crisis in students of University of applied sciences of Thessaly (TEI of Thessaly)

Introduction Use of the Internet lately has significantly been increased worldwide. The time users spend browsing the Internet is constantly increased resulting to serious consequences incurred in personal, professional and social life. Aim The purpose was to explore whether the economic crisis is affecting the use and addiction to Internet, whether the economic crisis is a risk factor in the appearance of addiction to the Internet and if the occupation and the existence of extra-curricular activities act as barriers to the development of addiction to the Internet on students. Methods A questionnaire was prepared based on the diagnostic tool IAT (Internet Addiction Test). The survey was conducted in June of 2014 on 632 students. Result It was found that 6.2% of the sample population has moderately addictive behavior and 0.5% has a serious addiction. Addiction levels to the Internet are affected by someone working while studying and his monthly income, by daily time spent by the student in activities besides school, by the time spent daily on the Internet and by the operations mostly used. Also found that the risk of developing Internet addiction is higher among students who said they had difficulty paying their bills and Internet subscription and to those who due to economic crisis would stop all their activities in order to obtain money. Conclusions The economic crisis is a factor that affects on Internet addiction and occupation and activities may act as a deterrent to the emergence of the phenomenon.