Internet addiction: Studies in Turkey and an evaluation in the light of expert opinions

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the internet addiction, which occurs as problematic internet use or problematic internet use, through the studies done and to explain it from the point of view of the experts. In our study, 30 dissertations and 30 articles on internet addiction made in the last 6 years in our country were examined by content analysis method and the studies on the subject were discussed with certain criteria. It seems that in these studies researches were carried out on which age groups and school levels, and which methods and scales were used. In addition, the most researched social media channels, internet usage situations, the sciences that most research internet addiction and the topics that are the most subject to internet addiction studies are separately tabulated. Afterwards, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the experts of the subject in order to convey the effects of internet addiction on psychological and social life. The interviews were completed with a total of 5 experts, one of whom is a Psychologist, two Psychological Counseling and Guidance Specialists, one Communication Specialist academician and one PDR specialist academician. A total of 11 questions were asked to those experts regarding the definition, treatment and prevention of internet addiction, and the answers were given in the last section under sub-headings. According to the results reached out it has been determined that internet addiction researches in our country are mostly conducted by psychology departments. As a subject, it was seen that the aspects of internet addiction with parent relationships were investigated. It was concluded that most of the time questionnaire was used as a method and the internet addiction scale was the most favorable scale chosen. It has been determined that among social media environments, Facebook is mostly preferred as the subject of investigation. As a school environment, internet addiction studies were carried out mostly on high school students. Expert opinions are given in detail in the results section.