Abstract:

In the situation of global lockdown, caused by COVID-19, the levels of anxiety, stress, depression and loneliness increase as negative effects of social isolation and lack of immediate interpersonal communication in a period of crisis. Forced switching to distance learning and absentee organizational activity increases the time spent in the virtual environment, leading to the risk of Internet and technology addiction. In order to analyze some negative impacts of excessive use of Internet and web-based applications on the mental health of the individual, in the period March – May 2020, 850 students from the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies – ULSIT, Sofia, Bulgaria, aged 18 to 49 (M=24.05, SD=7.28), in bachelor’s and master’s degree were surveyed through an online questionnaire. The target group of the study is the younger generations as a risk group that is an excessive use of virtual space for entertainment, learning, information searching, communication, work, shopping, etc., especially in the pandemic of COVID-19.

In the questionnaire, world-renowned methodologies in the field of psychodiagnostics and personality psychology such as the Internet Addiction Test, IAT (Young, 1998) and Satisfaction with Life Scale, SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) were applied. The raw data from the empirical study were entered and processed with the statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics 21. The correlation analysis shows that with increasing levels of all IAT subscales such as Salience (hidden online behavior), Excessive Use (compulsive online usage), Neglect Work (compromising personal obligations), Anticipation (desire for online inclusion), Lack of Control (problems with online time management), and Neglect Social Life (presence of social deficits), as well as the general IA value, life satisfaction decreases and vice versa. The study raises several questions related to the consequences of problematic Internet use on the optimal functioning of the individual in the conditions of COVID-19 and the possibilities for prevention.

Keywords:

COVID-19, Internet addiction, life satisfaction, students.