CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MANIFESTATION OF STUDENTS’ INTERNET ADDICTION

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study and substantive characterization of the features of Internet addiction manifestation among students across behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social, communicative, and academic domains.
          Our research findings and the analysis of specialized literature indicate that Internet addiction is a multifactorial and multilevel phenomenon formed through the interaction of personal, family, educational, and technological factors.
       It manifests itself in reduced control over Internet use, prioritization of online activity, the search for emotional compensation, the increasing salience of different identities, and the restructuring of social relationships in favor of the virtual environment.
         It is substantiated that Internet addiction manifests across several interrelated levels — behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social.

 The paper presents and characterizes the manifestation features of Internet addiction, taking into account behavioral, cognitive, emotional, socio-psychological, academic, developmental-age, and communicative characteristics.

Special attention is paid to communicative features — the dominance of online interaction, the possibility of anonymous self-presentation, mechanisms of rapid social validation, and the engaging impact of group digital interactions.
         The theoretical interpretation is based on Stryker’s Identity Theory, within which Internet addiction is viewed as a reordering of the hierarchy of role identities, where online identity gains high salience and commitment due to symbolic validation received in the digital environment.

In this context, Hirschi’s  Social Control Theory is also considered, according to which addiction develops under conditions of weakened social bonds, involvement, belief in social norms, and commitment. These approaches make it possible to view the problem not only as an individual behavioral disorder but also as a process conditioned by social interaction and identity construction.