Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence of Taiwan High School Adolescents

The present study examined excessive Internet use of Taiwan adolescents and a psychological aspect of users, sensation seeking, thus to differentiate motivation of Internet dependent and non-dependent adolescents. Seven hundred and fifty three Taiwan high school students were selected using cluster sampling and 88 of them were categorized. Results demonstrated that the Internet dependents spent more time on-line than the non-dependents. While they perceived significantly more negative Internet influences on daily routines, school performance, and parental relation than the non-dependents, both Internet dependents and non-dependents regarded Internet use enhanced peer relationships. Making friends through the Internet, a critical need of adolescence, may become a demanding activity leading to excessive use of the Internet. Internet dependents scored significantly higher on overall sensation seeking and disinhibition than the Internet non-dependents. However, both groups displayed no differences on life experience seeking subscale and thrill and adventure seeking subscale. This finding is incompatible to Lavin et al. (2000). Some possible reasons accounted for the incongruent findings were suggested. Explanations for the association of Internet dependence and disinhibition in Taiwan adolescents were provided. INTRODUCTION Recently Internet has become a popular media for mass and personal communication. With intention to cultivate Taiwan’s international competition Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 3 capacities, Taiwan government played a substantial role in the promotion of Internet use around the whole country for business and education purposes. In Taiwan since the introduction of the Internet for popular consumption in 1995, there has been an explosion in the rate of growth of people subscribing to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In July 2000, an Internet survey company – Iamasia released an estimate 30% of whole Taiwan population, about 6 million people, used the Internet at least once in the past four weeks (Chen, 2000). Though people value the Internet as a powerful tool, previous studies have called attention of policy makers and educators to realize the negative influences of Internet, especially the inadequate use of Internet, the related physical and psychological problems, and harmful consequences toward significant others (Brenner, 1996, 1997; Egger, 1996; Greenfield, 2000; Griffths, 1997; Kandell, 1998; Young, 1996a, 1997). These studies used both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify Internet addicts, or used terms such as Internet dependents, technology addicts, problematic Internet users, or pathological users. Several researchers in Taiwan (e.g. Chen, 1998; Chou, Chou, & Tyan, 1999; Chou & Hsiao, 2000)also reported college students’ excessive use of the Internet (about 20 hours per week) and the pattern was very similar to the findings of the USA and Europe studies. After connecting campus computer networks in universities, Taiwan government now is promoting the set up of network in high school campuses around the country. When high school students gain more access to the Internet, they are more vulnerable to Internet dependence. Though problematic Internet use for high school students is likely to surface, unfortunately empirical studies that place attention particularly on Internet dependent adolescents are still deficient. Previous studies of Internet addition were mainly based on undergraduates, adults, or general Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 4 users voluntarily responded to Internet survey (Griffiths, 1998; Greenfield, 2000). The present study examined excessive Internet use of Taiwan adolescents and one of the psychological aspects of users, sensation seeking, thus to differentiate an important motivation aspect of Internet dependent and non-dependent adolescents. This study is a second year follow up of a research project “Internet addiction among Taiwan high school students”. In the first phase, Lin and Tsai (1999) and Tsai & Lin (1999) designed a measurement tool to identify Internet dependent among Taiwan adolescents, examined its reliability and validity, and investigated the relationship of Internet vulnerability, perception, and affect in using the Internet. In the second phase of the study, the authors tired to analyze whether sensation seeking is a possible explanation about adolescents’ problematic use of the Internet. Sensation (novelty) seeking is a significant feature during the adolescence period (e.g., Farley & Cox, 1971; Newcom & McGee, 1991) and highly related to some risk or adventure behaviors, such as drug use (Donohew, Hoyle, Clayton, Skinner, Colon, & Rice, 1999), drinking driving (Jonah, 1997), diving, or parachuting (Zarevski, Marusic, Bunjevac, & Vukosav, 1998). Surfing Internet is seemed as an adventure around the world of high tech and therefore could be related to sensation seeking. In sum, the association between sensation seeking and Internet dependence among adolescence is an interesting field to explore. RELATED STUDIES Griffiths (1998) offered a stereotype of Internet or computer addicts. They tend to be “socially unskilled male teenagers who have little or no social life and/or self confidence, and are described by names such a nerd, geek, and or anorak (pp. 63).” Though Young (1996b), breaking the stereotype, provided a Internet addition case of a middle age women lived in the U.S. as a homemaker, Kandell (1998) indicated that Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 5 college students is more vulnerable to Internet problematic use than other groups in the society. Several reasons account for this phenomenon. Most College students move away from home to dorm that help them achieve physically cutting lose from family. Away from parent’s monitor, they have more chances and freedom involving in the Internet than ever before. College students are dealing with developmental tasks to strive for personal identity as well as to develop meaningful interpersonal relationship or intimacy. These inner needs may lead them to explore the huge social network connected by the Internet. In addition, because the Internet has been labeled as super high way to high tech world and a new world of great imagination, the education system and the whole society encourage college students to use the Internet. When the Internet is more accessible to a younger group, high school students, we expect the similar problems may begin to emerge. Lin and Tsai (1999) identified a small group (N = 61) of possible Internet addict among Taiwan high school students. These Internet addicts displayed a heavy Internet usage, about 20 hours per week. The most frequent used Internet applications for these young Internet addicts were listed in descending sequence, WWW (5.79 hours/per week), BBS (3.85 hr/pw), Chat Rooms/IRC (3.61hr/pw), FTP (2.73 hr/pw), Net games/MUD (2.04hr/pw), and Email (1.77hr/pw). The Internet addictive adolescents admitted that if they don’t spend more time or engage in the Internet activities in a more extensive manner, then it is impossible to gain the pleasure or satisfaction they had experienced when they initially touched (began to use) the Internet. Though they could not stop the urge to connect with the Internet, they admitted that Internet casting negative influences on their life, e.g. school learning, health, and parental relationship. These high school students Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 6 demonstrated similar symptoms of Internet addicts found in young adult subjects in previous studies (e.g., Young, 1996, 1997), such as skipping meals, reducing sleep and study time, as well as rearranging daily routines or avoiding interpersonal interaction in order to save time for more involvement on the Internet. Because they realized the problems, most of them tried many times to cut down Internet usage but seldom successfully to gain control. In addition, when they tried to cut down, they felt depressed, anxious, and a sense of emptiness. A 17 year-old boy, Roger identified by Tsai & Lin (2000) as an Internet addict, reported to spend 3-4 hours on-line daily and longer on weekend or vacation (more than 6 hours). He mainly used the Internet to talk with friends and admitted to have more Internet friends than real life friends. He said hanging around on-line is a way of living. When he met new friends in IRC, he often felt a little bit excited but talking with familiars is ordinary (not excited, like drink water). Basically, Roger did not regard the Internet as sensation evoking place. Roger’s parents, obtained less than 9-year education, could not understand the technique their son engaged. The parents ran a family business that kept them away from home at least 12 hours a day, so Roger could stay on-line as long as he could afford. Roger once stayed on-line for 11 consecutive days, without sleeping, and claimed to hit the record high. As the consequence, Roger’s school performance dropped since he spent excessive amount of time on the Internet. His teacher then once went to his house to plug off his Internet utilities from the computer and hide them away. The parents have long refused to pay Roger’s telephone bill. Roger took several part time jobs, mainly assembled personal computers for sale or designed homepages, to pay off his bill, average 300 US dollars per month. Roger tried many times to cut Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 7 off or control Internet use but failed. However, his record to break rules of family and school discipline has gained him a hero status among his Internet adolescence friends. Admiration from friends enhanced his low confidence damaged by failure to achieve the expectations of parents and teachers. From this case and cases of Griffiths (2000), the authors believe that Internet dependent behaviors maybe used by some adolescents as one of their coping strategies. In the past thirty years, sensation seeking has emerged as an important explanatory variable for a variety of behaviors. Sensation seeking has been defined by Zuckerman (1979) as a trait illustrating “the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience (p.10). Sensation seeking may include a wide variety of activities such as drug use, aggression, sex, skydiving, body-contact sports, hiking and camping, or playing computer and video games (Zuckerman, 1979). Zuckerman’s sensation seeking scale (1979) measures individual differences in sensation seeking along four dimensions: thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and susceptibility to boredom. While the adventure seeking dimension encompasses thrill taking behaviors such as engaging in physically risky activities, the experience seeking dimension measures pursuing behaviors of new experiences through travel, music, art, and drugs. The disinhibition dimension features behaviors ignoring social constraints as in fighting, seeking social stimulation through parties, social drinking, and a variety of sex partners. The susceptibility to boredom subscale measures level to avoid boredom produced by unchanging circumstances. Lavin, Marvin, McLarney, Nola, & Scott (2000) investigated 342 undergraduates in a small American university and hypothesized that the Internet Sensation Seeking and Internet Dependence 8 addiction is positively correlated with sensation seeking. They identified 43 (12.6%) participants as Internet dependents and found the results were contradictory to the expectation. Comparing with non-dependents, Internet dependents scored significantly lower on overall sensation seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, as well as experience seeking. Lavin and others then further explained their finding and suggested that sensation seeking of Internet dependents might not be of physical, as measured by Zuckerman scale, but rather mental or social. Unfortunately, this study included subjects from only one institution that is under representative to its population, the university students in the United States.