IMPACT OF THE INTERNET USAGE ON RESEARCH/STUDIES OF THE RESEARCH STUDENTS

Abstract

People use the Internet to access the needed information. The use of the Internet plays a major role in helping researchers’ access to a large number of materials from different parts of the globe. Researchers from all corners of the earth are finding that their work thrives in a networked environment. Immediate access to the work of colleagues and a virtual library of millions of volumes and thousands of papers afford them the capability to incorporate a huge amount of knowledge. But a group of educators, psychologists and parents are greatly worried about the negative effect of using the internet. Keeping in view the importance of internet usage in student’s life and the growing concern about its impact on research /studies of the research students, a study was planned with the objectives: to work out the extent of internet usage by the research students; and to find out the impact of internet usage on research/ studies of the research students. The primary data needed for the present study was collected through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was specially structured for the students. The data from the students were collected by personal interview method. The collected data was analyzed by applying t-test, z-test and chi-square test.  Analysis revealed that all the male as well as female respondents liked to surf the internet. The highest proportion i.e. 46.97 percent of male respondents and 55.88 percent of male respondents used to surf internet for 2 hours in one go. Searching for data collection tools was the priority topic to be searched on internet by both the male as well as female students. The significant finding of the study was that 93.18 percent of male respondents and 91.18 percent of female respondents reported that internet contributed significantly in a positive manner towards their academic performance.