An Empirical Research on General Internet Usage Patterns of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

As a growing trend in the world, internet-based research has become vital in one's daily life. The internet use by students has increased dramatically in recent years and also surfing the internet has become an important part of general student life. Furthermore, information technologies (IT) have greatly expanded into the field of education in last two decades. The aim of this research is to summarize the internet usage patterns of undergraduate students and to show in what density students utilize from internet sources for educational purposes. In accordance with this aim, we examined and reported their internet usage patterns and main purposes of using IT with a field survey. As a result of this research, it was aimed to state a general profile of the students reflecting their practices towards internet usage. At the same time, this study reveals that using information technologies make students not just to consume technology but also lead them to produce it. Shortly, spending long hours during online might be helpful for young to make some contributions to their knowledge about information technologies and unlike some people's prejudices, surfing internet is not totally waste of time for students but more or less a productive facility. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.