DIGITAL MEDIA BEHAVIOR IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: INTERNET ADDICTION

Abstract

Information and communication technologies have changed in their wake an immense amount of intergenerational culture and customs, among the most attached to this problem are adolescents and young people, since they face the change of analogous to digital behavior. This research is a literary review of various studies on Internet addiction and presents relevant results in favor of the construction or modification of public policies for the control of abusive use. The study was carried out in two universities in Ecuador, with a random sample of n = 859 undergraduate students (56.9% male and 43.1% female). An instrument with sufficient validation guarantees has been applied (α.94), used in multiple investigations and verified through a factorial analysis of main components. The dimensions covered are emotional and cognitive concern of Internet use and loss of control and interference with life. It has been determined through a statistical treatment (Pearson) that there is moderate correlation between the two dimensions and that age influences the increase of addictive behavior among university students