Measuring internet addiction in arab based knowledge societies: A case study of Saudi Arabia

As the technology is getting entwined with the lives of people, the adverse impacts are also mushrooming. Since decades, researchers have been trying to identify the reasons for such negative impacts with the help of various measuring tool. The present study used the modified version of the Widyanto’s Internet Addiction Test questionnaire designed by introducing ‘culture’ construct to the existing three constructs. This tool is exercised for 306 respondents, selected at random in Saudi Arabia to know the extent of internet addiction prevalence and the triggering factors. Three levels of analysis are done on the data – basic analysis for demographic characteristics, binary logistic regression analysis and principal component analysis. The results revealed interesting facts about the internet usage phenomenon in Saudi Arabia. Though culture is added in the study tool to understand its impact on the level of internet usage, it is not highlighted in the final result. However, education level is proved to be the most influencing factor internet addiction. The principal component analysis also revealed that only the demographic factors like age, gender, income level and education are the variables that could explain the variation in the internet usage phenomenon to a greater extent. Thus, this study not only throws light on the influencing factors but also gives room for further analysis to look for the possible influencing factors such as the emotional/psychological, time management, mood management and culture in all the regions. © 2005 – ongoing JATIT & LLS.Scopu