A set of actions that lead people to use the Internet for purposes that can improve their activities, facilitate goal achievement, and empower their life.
Published in Chapter:
The Onlife in Emerging Adulthood: Experimentation, Exploration, and Change in the Digital Era
Martina Benvenuti (Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche (ITD), Italian National Research Council (CNR), Italy), Sara Giovagnoli (Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy), Melanie Keep (Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Australia), Elvis Mazzoni (Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy), and Patrizia Selleri (Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1063-6.ch013
Abstract
Internet revolutionized our lifestyle. New generation devices like smartphones and tablets allow us to be always connected: the web represents a significant part of our days. These epochal changes bring with them questions about the potentialities and the risks of web. This chapter introduces a research whose purpose is to investigate the Onlife during emerging adulthood divided into two groups—youngerEA (18-24) and olderEA (25-29)—considering both the problematic and the functional side of the use of the internet. Self-esteem, self-control, online and offline social support were considered as factor that influenced the internet use habits. Typology of social networks, time spent online, device used, and number of online contacts are considered. Results show significant differences between youngerEA and olderEA in the use of the web both in problematic and functional way.