Instagram Addiction among Students Pursuing Medical and Non-Professional Courses: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study attempted to compare the extent of Instagram addiction among students pursuing medical and non-professional courses.  The sample consisted of 323 students (123 students from medical and 200 students from non-professional courses) comprising of 167 male and 156female students.  The students completed Test for Instagram addiction (TIA) developed by D’Souza, Samyukta and Bivera (2018) in one session. Test for Instagram addiction measured addiction in 6 factors– Lack of control, Disengagement, Escapism, Health and interpersonal troubles, Excessive use and Obsession. Chi-square tests were applied to find out the association between levels of Instagram addiction and student groups, gender, domicile and stay. Results revealed students pursuing non-professional courses used more Instagram application during week days and weekends. On the whole, 4.0% of them were definitely addicts, 59.1% of them were prone for addiction, 16.7% of them were average users, 18.3% of them used on a low and remaining 1.9% of them had no/minimal addiction towards Instagram. Students pursuing non-professional courses were found to be more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing medical courses. Gender and domicile of the students studied did not have significant influence over extent of Instagram addiction. Students who were staying in other places apart from home, hostel and paying guest facilities had higher addiction to Instagram.