ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (# 02) Year 2018. Page 14

Students’ internet dependence prevention program development

Elaboración del programa de prevención de adicción estudiantil juvenil hacia Internet

Irina S. BUBNOVA 1; Alla V. SAMIGULINA 2; Vladimir A. MISHCHENKO 3; Alfiya M. ISHMURADOVA 4; Fidan A. GURBANOVA 5; Rashad A. KURBANOV 6

Received: 16/12/2017 • Approved: 20/12/2017

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Materials and Methods

3. Results

4. Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

Being a socio-demographic group Youth is an active communicator of the information field. Accessibility and the prevalence of gadgets all types and the global Internet network determines the paradox of modern education - the younger generation spontaneous information space's formation outside the adult access zone, including official socialization agents (parents, social workers, psychologists, teachers) (Arakelyan, 2014; Kamalova &  Zakirova, 2014; Shaidullina et al., 2015; Galushkin, 2015; Bubnova & Tereshchenko, 2016; Levina et al., 2017; Song et al., 2017; Kong, Kayumova & Zakirova, 2017). Young people freely address to a variety of information content (social networks, sites, groups) containing information that is sometimes really dangerous for their health, psychic development, and the personality formation. As the computer technology improves, the multimedia products viewing, creation and distribution become more accessible. The information field thus becomes more and more uncontrollable, and the lack of the critical thinking necessary level among young people (since a development and personal growth intensive process takes place in this age group) does not prevent the seeding of negative and sometimes destructive information for the individual (Asmolov, Tsvetkova &Tsvetkov, 2004; Babaeva, Voiskounsky & Smyslova, 2002; Khutornoi, 2013; Resnyanskaya & Kuzmina, 2016; Kong, Kayumova & Zakirova, 2017; Prokhorov, Chernov & Yusupov, 2017; Akhmetzyanova, Nikishina & Petrash, 2017; Akhmetzyanova et al., 2017; Artishcheva, 2017).

Due to the seeming reliability and high reputation that the Internet supposedly possesses, the World Wide Web has become a breeding ground for the dissemination of various rumors (including disturbing rumors) and propaganda materials. Psycho-technologies have been developed and actively used to influence the network young users (manipulation of facts and biased news, bright rhetoric) including the website's various technologies (sound, video, etc.).

Against this background, the number of Internet-addiction in the youth environment is growing every year, according to UNICEF, about 10% of users in the world are Internet dependent today, computer dependence (addiction) also "rejuvenates" along with the technical progress (Malygin, Khomeriki & Smirnova, 2011).

Addictive behavior is one of deviant behavior forms characterized by a constant desire to receive a subjectively pleasant emotional state and is expressed in an active change in one's mental state (Arshinova & Bartsalkina, 2010; Mendelevich, 2013; Minicheva & Maslova, 2015). The process of dependence formation is simple, figuratively speaking: the player receives only positive emotions, adrenaline, and along with them - a powerful "injection" of pleasure hormone into the brain. It is easy to habituate to a happiness feeling like for addict to depend on the dose. The pleasure hormone replaces all vital human needs. But at the heart of the Internet addiction are other reasons: the first is based on the qualities that "Self on the Internet" acquires in the whole against the "real self" (looseness, tactlessness, passive perception and simplicity), meaning the ability to get rid of some restrictions and act without effort. Therefore, it seems that the Internet is attractive for dependent people due to the opportunity to get rid of the social environment demands. The obtained results of a number studies allow us to conclude that such a property of the Internet as an uncertainty is significant for the dependent people. The Internet uncertainty is not used by them to realize the ideal of "self". Their need for using the Internet takes on a super-significant, pathological nature due to the increased sensitivity of dependent people to restrictions.

The second reason for Internet addiction is the Internet-dependent people need in emotional support and the perception of the Internet as an environment that can provide this support, unlike a real social environment, where it is much more difficult to get such support (Voiskounsky, 2004; Dubgorin, 2014;  Khusainova et all, 2017).

Consequently, the computer and Internet technologies impact should be analyzed from the perspective of changing general cultural processes, the emergence of leisure's new forms and forms of communication between young people in order to reduce their impact. Internet addiction also leads to the formation of psychological problems number that only exacerbates the difficulties that pupils have. In virtual space, students often have the illusion of permissiveness and impunity, which encourages violating human rights.

Scientific literature theoretical analysis shows that it is possible to single out the following main reasons for the students Internet dependence emergence on social networks:

1. psychological trauma or difficult life situations, as a result of which a young man or girl ceases to appreciate the real world and strives to avoid it;
2. social adaptation violation, relationships problems in the family and with peers have a negative impact on the emotional well-being of a young man or girl, who begin to feel a sense of loneliness, lack of attention, anxiety, which lead to  the decrease of their self-esteem and self-confidence; lack of serious interests, hobbies, attachments with a huge amount of free time and lack of control by adults;
3. inability to communicate with other people, as well as personal peculiarities and traits of character, such as malice, greed, vindictiveness, resentment, etc. - everything that can act as a barrier for establishing contacts. Making new acquaintances is much easier in a virtual world. And the absence of the interlocutor visible reaction allows you to feel your importance. In the virtual space, it is possible to discuss any topic, join interest groups;
4. self-doubt, complexes. The reason is that life in a virtual world for a teenager of 14-18 years is a way of compensating those problems that exist in real life.

In turn, Internet addiction also leads to the formation of a number of psychological problems, which only exacerbate the difficulties young people face. These include conflict behavior, persistent depression, the virtual space's preference   instead of real-life, the difficulties of social adaptation, the reduction of self-control, the emergence of discomfort feeling when there is no possibility of using the Internet.

Important conditions for preventing dependence on social networks are the communication skills development and the students’ interpersonal interaction problems overcoming, the formation of ideas about social networks and about dependent behavior, interaction with the family.

The Internet addiction prevention from social networks is one of the most important directions in the conditions of general and vocational schools, since it is obvious that at the present stage the younger generation is actively involved in a virtual communication system that has both a positive and negative impact on the development of the young men and women personality.

Another reason for the preventive work need is that for many young men and women who are dependent on social networks, social networks act as a means of compensating of their difficulties, and they exacerbate the disharmonious development of the individual.

In accordance with this, the program has been developed, aimed at preventing Internet addiction on social networks among students (school senior students, college and university students).

The purpose of the program: Internet dependence prevention on social networks among students, promoting the optimization of interpersonal relationships.

Objectives of the program:

1. Formation of life attitudes, value orientations, necessary to prevent dependence on social networks.

2. The development of the ability to activities conscious regulation on the development of computer technology in the life process.

3. Development of communication skills.

The main principles of the program were:

1. The principle of partnership, based on the facilitation of the child's activity in the process of its development.

2. The principle of impacts' variety.

3. The principle of graduation, based on psycho-preventive methods, allowing building a life perspective and image of the future.

4. The principle of psychosocial methods unity, based on the psycho-preventive problems solution through the use of psychological and pedagogical forms and methods of work.

5. Principle of protection, based on creating conditions for students successful socialization.

The methodological basis for the development of this program is a set of approaches, the principles of which were also taken into account in the organization of work:

- a systematic approach that made it possible to reveal the integrity of the Internet addiction phenomenon and consider this dependence as a psychosocial phenomenon of modern societies;

- interdisciplinary approach, which allowed using the methods of various sciences in the study  of modern society's dependent parts and determine the possibilities of their re-socialization;

- axiological approach, aimed at the worldviews formation about universal and personal values, a healthy lifestyle;

- personality-oriented approach, which made it possible to determine the possibility of   preventive work main directions developing taking into account the dependent students personal characteristics.

The structural units of the program:

1 unit. Motivationally-cognitive.

Purpose: to provide participants with theoretical psychological and pedagogical information about the consequences of Internet addiction on social networks, the influence of the network on the mind and the human body. There were mini-lectures, discussions conducted on the topic: "Computer and my health", "Virtual aggression", "Do you see the problem of Internet addiction on social networks among young people?"

2 unit. Practically-oriented.

The purpose: preparation of participants for mastering techniques and methods for preventing Internet addiction on social networks, conducting questionnaires and surveys for participants. Conversations on the following topics were conducted: "Dependence on social networks and how to deal with it", "Do you see the problem of Internet addiction from social networks for young people?", survey, questioning for parents and teachers.

3 unit. Reflexive.

Purpose: to consolidate the participants' mastery of knowledge about the consequences of Internet addiction on social networks, the network influence on the mind and the human body. Memos, rules for parents and teenagers were developed, and conversations were held on the theme: "How to avoid dependence on social networks."

The founder of studying the phenomena of Internet addiction is K. Young (2000). She believes that Internet addiction is a complex comprehensive phenomenon that denotes a whole series of problems of behavior and control over aspirations.

In her research, Young identified up to ten symptoms of Internet addiction, including excessive online time, increased anxiety while in the real world, the lying or hiding the amount of time spent in the Internet space, or sluggish functioning in the real world and etc.

The research conducted by this author proved that excessive stay in the virtual world leads to social isolation, increasing depression, family disintegration, academic failures, loss of work and other consequences. As part of the work, the authors used the Kimberly- Young test "Internet Addiction Test", which is a tool for self-diagnosis of pathological predilection for the Internet (regardless of this predilection form). This test can serve as a screening tool for selecting those individuals who need expert advice, and dynamic testing can be used to assess the improvement of the patient's state during treatment.

The experimental study was conducted with the participation of 267 people: senior pupils of secondary schools in Moscow (76 people); students of Kazan Construction College (78 people) and first-year students of Irkutsk State University (113 people).

Carrying out the technique of K. Young (2000) allowed us to formulate the following conclusions (the results obtained are shown in Figure 1).

Figure 1
The level of Internet addiction among young people by the method of K. Young, %

According to the quantitative indicators, a high level of Internet addiction among students is not revealed. Based on this, we can conclude that among the young people being studied the predominant is average and low level of Internet addiction. Each of the levels has distinctive characteristics. It is necessary to reveal them in more detail.

The school senior pupils with a high level of Internet addiction noted the lack of self-control, the inability to limit their stay on the Internet, the constant need to find a network. These students spend a lot of time on the network, visiting various sites, communicating with others, watching movies and do other activities.

Being on the network for this group is the most significant one than communication in reality. In fact, we can state that they are displacing real life and replacing it with virtual life. This may be due to the presence of a whole range of psychological problems with these students, against which an Internet addiction is formed and, in turn, it causes secondary psychological problems.

The average level was found with 48% of the students in the experimental group and 44% in the control group. In the case of a medium-level Internet addiction, the lack of control over the time spent on the network, over the organization of one's own activities, the prioritization of staying on the Internet and the implementation of various current affairs, including training, is a young people characteristic feature.  At the same time, these students can limit their stay on the Internet and they can give priority to real communication with their friends or doing any deeds. Also these students’ acute need constantly to be on the Internet is not expressed, although the entertainment and forms of pastime that the network offers are very interesting for them.

A low level was found with 52% of the students in the experimental group and 56% in the control group.

Young people with a low level of Internet addiction are characterized by good self-control, a conscious attitude to the Internet as a source of information, opportunities for communication, for viewing some films, clips, etc., including for training. These schoolchildren and students, as a rule, effectively organize their activities and they are able to limit their staying on Internet on time to perform other tasks. They have no acute need for the Internet.

Based on this, we see that a sufficiently large number of young people are characterized by a risk of developing Internet addiction, since they have an average level.

Thus, the study of interpersonal relationships with the surrounding people in the sample of young people showed that, in general, most types of relationships to surrounding people are formed in an average and low degree. The most striking types of relations to others are of aggressive type, subordinate type and dependent type. Insufficient formation of interpersonal relationships, the predominance of non-constructive types of relations to surrounding people can be factors that predispose the dependence of young people on social networks.

Forms and methods of preventive work: the program uses such forms and methods of work as conversations, classes, group discussions, role-playing and business games, training exercises, psycho-gymnastic exercises, brainstorming, etc.

Form of work: group. In total, 15 sessions were conducted aimed at preventing Internet addiction on social networks.

Requirements for the facilitator training   who is carrying out the work on this program: the facilitator needs to know the basics of age psychology, pedagogy, technologies of social pedagogical and psychological-pedagogical correction and development. The facilitator should have the appropriate qualification, which allows him or her to work with students.

The organization of work on the prevention of Internet addiction on social networks was carried out in three main areas: working with students, working with parents (pupils and college students) and working with teachers. This approach is due to the fact that, in our opinion, the most effective measure in the prevention of dependence on social networks problem is a comprehensive approach, focused on the inclusion and active interaction in this problem prevention for all participants in the educational process.

The main focus was on working with young people. The work with parents and teachers was carried out in parallel to this work.

When working on the author's program on prevention, the following results were expected:

1. Determining the social networks importance in the life of a modern young man.

2. Identifying the young person's level of dependence on social networks.

3. Young people knowledge's increase about the consequences of dependence on social networks, the network influence on the mind and the human body.

4. Forming skills of safe behavior in social networks for students.

5. All-round interaction of all participants in the general educational process.

Approbation of the program aimed at preventing Internet addiction on social networks has shown its effectiveness.  Thus, a comparative analysis of the results obtained at the ascertaining and control stages of the experimental work made it possible to reveal positive dynamics.

The results for K. Young's test are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2
The level of Internet addiction among young people according to K.
Young's method before and after the introduction of the program, %

As we can see from Figure 2, the level of Internet addiction among the students has changed as a result of our work.

The quantitative indicators of these changes are the following: the number of young people with a high level is not revealed. The number of young people with an average level decreased in the experimental group by 14%, in the control group - by 4%. The number of young people with a low level of Internet addiction increased in the experimental group by 24%, in the control group by 4%.

Qualitative analysis of the results suggests that after the work conducted, young people have increased self-control, a conscious attitude to the Internet as a source of information, opportunities for communication, for viewing of some films, clips, etc., including and for training. It was school senior pupils who began to organize their activities more efficiently, limit their stay on the Internet in favor for other cases.

This means that our preventive work contributed to reducing the risk of creating Internet addiction in general and helped to prevent the development of Internet addiction on social networks.

Summarizing the results obtained in the course of the experimental work, we arrive at the following conclusions:

1. One of the urgent problems of our time is the problem of dependence on social networks among young people, and therefore the search for ways to solve it attracts the attention of many researchers. As a risk factor for the Internet addiction emergence among students, there is also a tendency to seek new sensations, aggressiveness, anxiety, social coping strategies, emotional alienation, and low communicative competence. Also, the young man or a girl character’s such qualities, as resentment, vulnerability, low self-esteem, low stress-resistance, inability to resolve conflicts, etc., can be included to factors of the Internet addiction emergence (Egorov, 2007; Kosenko, 2008; Voiskounsky, 2010; Bubnova, 2016).

2. Prevention of dependence on social networks is aimed at awakening personal resources that ensure the normal construction of relationships with surrounding people; introduction in the educational environment of technologies that provide the creation of values for a healthy lifestyle; setting up a monitoring system for dependence on social networks (Bol'shev, Carulli & Draganova, 2012; Gubanov & Chkhartishvili, 2009; Objorin, 2011; Pan, 2014; Khil'ko, 2015; Minicheva & Khrustova, 2017).

3. The results of the research showed that preventive work had a positive impact and contributed to a decrease in the predisposition manifestations to Internet addiction on social networks among students. The objectives of the program were: the formation of life attitudes, value orientations necessary to prevent dependence on social networks; development of the ability consciously to regulate the activity on mastering computer technologies in the process of vital activity; development of communication skills. Approbation of the program proved its effectiveness; preventive work had a positive impact and contributed to a decrease in the predisposition manifestations to Internet addiction on social networks among students.

Acknowledgments

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University         

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1. Department of Social Pedagogy and Psychology, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia. Contact e-mail: irinaz-bubnova@yandex.ru

2. Department of Legal Regulation of Economic Activities, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia.

3. Department of Education and Phycology, Yugra State University, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

4. Department of Foreign Languages, Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia.

5. Faculty of Translation, Baku Slavic University, Baku, Azerbaijan.

6.Department of Civil Legal Disciplines, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, Russia.