Abstract:

Today social networks represent an important tool of interpersonal communication between young people which enables users to share, create and distribute information. Millions of people around the world are part of the virtual environment as users of different virtual social networks. In the last 20 years, the phenomenon of addiction to information technology has appeared in the literature. Internet addiction since the 1990s has attracted the attention of both professional and general public all over the world. Internet use has grown exponentially worldwide to more than 2.5 billion active users with the majority being adolescents and young people. Paralleling the rapid growth in internet access is a rise in internet addiction, especially among adolescents, gaining increased attention from the popular media, government authorities, and researchers. There is no uniform terminology and definition in the literature. In general, addiction to the Internet is defined as the excessive use of the Internet, which brings psychological, social, work or school complications to life. The aim of the research is to evaluate the relationship between potential IA, personal traits and self-esteem among pre-service teachers. The participants were 558 pre-service teachers aged 19-26. To determine the empirical data we used the following research methods: Neo Big-Five Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Young Internet Addiction Test and Sociodemographic Questionnaire. A negative relationship was found between age, self-esteem, personality factors and internet addiction among social network users. Gender differences were found as well.

Keywords:

Internet addiction, personality, self-esteem.