Investigation of internet addiction, mindfulness and boredom levels of university students

The internet is currently a major part of our daily life and has many uses such as education, business, entertainment and shopping. However, thanks to the Internet, we can spend our free time online without losing interest. It has been found that the risk of internet addiction marginally rises with the increase of length and frequency of internet usage. Research shows internet addiction causes a deterioration in social, academic and connection to loved ones in a person. These findings are more common in the young population who are more curious about developing technology and have a higher tendency to use technology. Therefore, our research was conducted with 498 university students studying at various faculties of Kirsehir Ahi Evran University (351=female, 147=male). The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between internet addiction, mindfulness and boredom. The goal is to determine whether mindfulness and boredom predict internet addiction. The Young Internet Addiction Test-Short Form (YIAT-SF), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Leisure Boredom Scale (LBS) and Personal Information Form were used to collect data. Version 1.6.11 of the Jamovi program analyzing the data is used. The Pearson Correlation coefficient method was used to determine the relationship between the variables, and as a result, internet addiction had a low negative (r = -0.21) significant (p<.001) relationship with mindfulness; We found that there was a low level positive (r = 0.24) significant (p< .001) relationship with boredom. As a result of the regression analysis conducted to see whether mindfulness and boredom predict internet addiction, it was determined that mindfulness and boredom predicted internet addiction by 9%. With these results, the internet addiction levels of university students examined found that there were significant differences according to the variables of gender, faculty of education, the tools they use to access the internet, the number of social media applications they use, the daily internet usage time and the level of perceived academic success. Internet use is thought to be a negative coping strategy with leisure boredom. It can be said that the risk of internet addiction will decrease when we use mindfulness practices in order to develop positive coping strategies with boredom.