Extent of Instagram Addiction among College Students in Mysuru City: Influence of Select Demographic Factors

Abstract

Recently the utilization of social networking applications is on the rise among college students.  The present study attempts to find out the prevalence of Instagram addiction among college students studying in Mysuru city. The sample consisted of a total of 1342 college students of which 672 were male students and 670 were female students studying in Arts, Commerce/management and science courses in various colleges of Mysuru city. 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. The data were analysed using Independent samples tests to find out the extent of usage of Instagram by male and female students and chi-square tests were done to find out the association between levels of Instagram addiction and select demographic factors. Results revealed that on an average the number of hours spent on Instagram during weekdays and weekends were 3.40 and 3.13 hours respectively, female students spent more time Instagram. It was found that an alarming 58.6% of the sample selected was addict prone to Instagram, and 3.9% of the sample studied was definitely addicts. Female students had higher addiction towards Instagram than male students. Students from rural and urban area were more addicted to Instagram than students from semi-urban areas. Students pursuing arts course were more addicted to Instagram than students pursuing science or commerce/management