An empirical study of Internet usage pattern of undergraduate students in South Africa

The pattern of Internet use and the rate at which undergraduate students use the Internet should be greatly influenced by the primary purpose for which it has been provided (academic). The use pattern and use rate of the Internet for this purpose also has much to do with its adoption as a medium of meeting information needs over other media. The uses and gratifications theory on which this research is anchored, suggests that media use serves functions by some specific content or by the medium in question. It sees the audience as active seekers of media in a goal-oriented way that provides them with the means of gratifying a variety of needs and that media users are aware of their needs. 390 respondents were surveyed at the Nelson Mandela and Fort Hare Universities using quantitative and qualitative methods. With findings from the study indicating a 72.3%, attesting to making use of the Internet daily for an average of six hours, entertainment, communication and social networking purposes were the main activities undergraduate students spent the time on. The use of the Internet for academic purpose ranked last. From the findings of the study, the goal of undergraduate students when using the Internet, as assumed by UGT, is not to fulfil the cognitive need type. The use of the Internet is mainly driven by the desire to meet the social interaction need type (communication and social networking), which is not the primary reason which Institution provides free campus-wide Internet access

Digital media usage and prevalence of internet addiction among undergraduate students in South Africa

The use of Internet and digital media in the academic sector has significantly improved knowledge creation. The Internet has particularly proven itself to be a valuable resource in the enhancement of knowledge production and dissemination. The purpose of the study on which this chapter is based was to establish how excessive non-academic use of the Internet detrimentally affects daily lives of undergraduate students. A survey was conducted of 390 university undergraduate students, comprising mainly of adolescents or young adults, who were selected using stratified random sampling at two South African universities. The universities selected were Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela. Data was collected using the Modified Internet Addiction Test for Undergraduates (MIATU), a modification of Internet Addiction Test (IAT) questionnaire. 282 (72.3%) of the respondents indicated that they make use of the Internet daily with 34.8% spending more than 10 hours. More than 60% have access to at least two electronic devices. Most of the respondents stayed online longer than intended (x̅ 2.88), slept less at night due to Internet use (x̅ 2.63) and hence spent less time studying owing to Internet surfing (x̅ 2.27). Furthermore, the amount of time spent on the Internet had a significant relationship with the level of influence the use of the Internet had on respondents (B = 0.250, t = 4.850, p<0.05). The findings are indications that the excessive amount of time spent on the Internet served as a distraction from school work; a situation that disadvantaged students in academic productivity. These findings suggest that the uncontrolled use of new media is both a hazard and a potential danger to academic productivity. This is the first study in South Africa that empirically investigates Internet use pattern by undergraduate students, Internet use rate and problematic Internet use among undergraduate students. Keywords: Internet addiction, Internet use, Undergraduate Students, Problematic Internet use, South Africa

An empirical study of Internet usage pattern of undergraduate students in South Africa

The pattern of Internet use and the rate at which undergraduate students use the Internet should be greatly influenced by the primary purpose for which it has been provided (academic). The use pattern and use rate of the Internet for this purpose also has much to do with its adoption as a medium of meeting information needs over other media. The uses and gratifications theory on which this research is anchored, suggests that media use serves functions by some specific content or by the medium in question. It sees the audience as active seekers of media in a goal-oriented way that provides them with the means of gratifying a variety of needs and that media users are aware of their needs. 390 respondents were surveyed at the Nelson Mandela and Fort Hare Universities using quantitative and qualitative methods. With findings from the study indicating a 72.3%, attesting to making use of the Internet daily for an average of six hours, entertainment, communication and social networking purposes were the main activities undergraduate students spent the time on. The use of the Internet for academic purpose ranked last. From the findings of the study, the goal of undergraduate students when using the Internet, as assumed by UGT, is not to fulfil the cognitive need type. The use of the Internet is mainly driven by the desire to meet the social interaction need type (communication and social networking), which is not the primary reason which Institution provides free campus-wide Internet access

Utilisation of Library Information Resources among Generation Z Students: Facts and Fiction

Generation Z was the foremost generation to have prevalent access to the Internet from an early age. Technology has strongly influenced this generation in terms of communication, education and consequently their academic information behaviour. With the next generation of scholars already being trained, in a decade, most of the researchers will be mainly digital natives. This study sought to establish the library information resources use pattern in relation to users&rsquo; preferred information media in order to render better academic information services to library users. A total of 390 respondents were surveyed at the Nelson Mandela University and the University of Fort Hare using quantitative and qualitative methods. Most of the respondents, 82.3%, were aged between 18 and 23 years; while the average library use time was two hours daily. The most utilised library resource is the Wi-Fi with e-books and e-journals found to be lowly utilised. Records from the E-librarians revealed that undergraduate students account for no more than 6% of total users of electronic databases with 62.3% of the respondents preferring print information resources. Better understanding of library users&rsquo; demographics and information media preference is essential in proving the right kind of information services to Generation Z library users