Impact of Using the Internet on Students: A Sociological Analysis at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh

This is an exploratory research to examine the possible impact of using the internet on students’ academic, personal and social life. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. For collecting quantitative data, a total of 85 samples were drawn purposively and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. In addition, 2 case studies were conducted for the qualitative part of this study. Findings reveal that almost every student in the study area uses the internet to some degree. From the study it is found that about 56% of respondents use the internet for educational purpose, 24% of them use the internet only for recreation and 44% were found who use the internet to browse social networking sites. The study also indicates that the majority of the students use the internet for 0 4 hours per day. A significant proportion of the respondents said that the internet can positively enhance their academic performance and as well as improve their quality of life. On the other hand, results have shown that internet addiction has a negative impact on students’ academic performance and social life. Overall, the internet plays a vital role in improving students’ academic performance and quality of life.


Introduction
The internet is one of the greatest recent advancements in the world of information technology and has become a useful instrument that has advanced the Open Journal of Social Sciences achievement is measured by CGPA. This study explored that if students spend more time on study purpose than social media, the CGPA is good and vice-versa.
Extreme use of the internet by university students reduces their social activities. Ivwighreghweta & Igere (2014) in their study stated that most of the students have internet access and they are skillful in using the internet. This study found that maximum students use the internet on academic pursuit including collect reading materials, preparing for examination and encouraging research work. The authors argued that the internet is regarded as the new tool of learning, also exceed the impotence and information of physical library. This study also identified that students face some challenges in using the internet i.e. low internet speed, power outage and information overload. Jackson, Eye & Biocca (2003) found that about 30 minutes are spent by the children and more surprisingly, they do not use internet on communication purpose. Mainly two types of social outcomes are discovered in their study. Firstly, children use the internet for strengthening the communication with those people who are physically be present in distance. On the other hand, this virtual communication somehow decreases face-to-face relationship with family and friends. They also revealed that CGPA is high of those students who use the internet. Saha & Guha (2019) noticed that the internet has been raised tremendously as a platform of communication among the young generation. Most of the students have possession of the internet through mobile phone. Students use internet at least one hour per day for chatting. Use of the internet and social media has both positive and negative impact on students' social life. Internet is used for communication and news updates. Sometimes heavy use of the internet leads to waste of time and depression among students. This study concluded that use of the internet and social media lead to healthy life and enrich learning practice. Talooki, Ataee, Gorji & Aghaei (2017) indicate that use of the internet may effect on students 'behavioral pattern. Not only behavior, using the internet has a great impact on all aspect of human life including personal, social, political, economic and academic life. By using this sophisticated tool, students can communicate with other, collect study materials, understanding cultural phenomenon and so on. But use of excessive internet has badly affect students' life. Waste of time, depression and isolation, unemployment, misplacing social bonding and Physical abnormalities are caused by heavy internet use.

Methodology
Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study. It comprises the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principals associated with a branch of knowledge. Typically, it encompasses concepts such as philosophical or theoretical framework, theoretical model, phases and quantitative or qualitative techniques.

Nature of the Study
Using survey research method, both qualitative and quantitative data were col-

Method of the Study
There are several methods in sociology. These are social survey method, Observation Method, Case Study Method, Anthropological Method, Comparative method, Philosophical Analysis, content analysis, Statistical method etc. We were used different methods for the purpose of collecting holistic information. Generally, we used survey method for preparing questionnaire as well as case study method for in-depth analysis.

Study Area
The study area is selected purposefully on the basis of objectives of the study. The study area included Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh.

Unit of Analysis
Unit of analysis is an important factor for conducting any research. It is the "what" or "who" that is being studied. In social science research, typically the unit of analysis includes individual, groups, social organization and social artifacts. To achieve the objective of the study data were collected from the students of university level.

Population of the Study
After identifying the unit of analysis, then we have to identify the target population, the group of people that we want to draw a conclusion about once the research study was finished. Identifying the target population requires specifying the criteria that determines which individuals are not included. Data were collected from the students of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University.

Sampling Procedure of the Study
For this study, data were collected from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh. Firstly, purposefully the educational institution was selected. Then, by using simple random sampling technique, sample size (85) was identified from the total population. In this method, each observation has an equal probability of being selected, therefore, the sample taken is very much representative.

Source of Data
To prepare the study properly available and reliable data are very much essential.
To conduct the study two types of data sources are utilized, the first is primary data i.e. field surveys. The other data source is secondary materials, relevant to the study. These sources are online journal, newspaper, thesis papers, articles,

Techniques of Data Collection
The study is mainly dependent on primary data. Some secondary data have also been. Quantitative data have been collected through semi-structured interview questionnaire as a part of survey method. On the other hand, a checklist for the case studies has been used as the tools of the research.

Development of Study Instrument(s)
Primarily, an interview schedule was developed and given to the supervisor for correction. Corrected interview schedule was primarily applied for data collection through pilot survey. Some problems were identified during the pre-test and then edited correctly. According to the problems as identified during pre-test, interview schedule was developed with the suggestion of the supervisor. Finally, modified interview schedule was employed for data collection from the study area.

Processing of Data
For the study purpose, the data were processed with the start of encoding of the primary data. In the time of data procession, some data error correction, data management, standardization, scaling and other procedures have been done. In this case, tabulation method implying comparative study of different variables has been used. For doing this, different statistical software such as Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), Microsoft Excel have been used. In order to draft the whole paper, Microsoft Word was used. The quantitative data have also been prepared according to the need and objective of the research. After completing the processing, the data were analyzed and prepared for the final presentation of major study findings. In order to ensure the data validity of the study result, some careful measurements were taken.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data
After processing the data, analysis and interpretation were done by using statistical techniques.

Age of the Respondents
It is seen that the age of the respondent is a vital factor to appreciate the different social and cultural phenomena in different situations of society. Respondents are selected from different ages in this study. This research is basically done on tertiary level students. Here respondents are selected from honors first year to honors final year whose age is around the 18 -24.  access on their own and they also use the internet on a regular basis. About 94% of respondents are using the internet actively whereas 6% of respondents are not involved in internet using, they have no internet access. Table 2 shows the average hours students spend on the internet per day. Due to the rapid spread of different types of technological devices, the use of the internet has been enhanced rapidly. Students spend a long period of time using the internet whether it may be for academic purposes or recreational purposes. For investigating the overall impact of the internet on students, it is very important to know the average time of internet use per day by the respondents. Thirty-two-point-nine percent of respondents use the internet 0 -1 hour per day whereas 2 -4 hours/day are used by 40% respondents. 11.8% respondents said that they use the internet 5 -6 hours per day and 5.9% of them use 7 to 9 hours a day. 3.5% of respondents have found who spend more than 10 hours per day on the internet.

Type of Internet User Categorized by Internet Addiction
Here in Figure 2, it represents the types of internet user categorized by internet addiction. Internet addiction is defined by too many urges or behaviors regarding computer use and internet access that lead to damage or distress (Shaw, 2008    than of it is called a heavy addictive internet user, who uses 3 -16 hour/day is a moderate addictive user, and who uses less than three hours is a light user (Webroot, 2020). In this research, we make this arrangement depending on spending hours with the internet and computer. Internet addiction has been associated with dimensionally measured depression and indicators of social isolation (Shaw, 2008). We classify internet users into two types based on previous research, i.e. normal internet user and the addictive user because there were no respondents in this research who use the internet more than 16 hours/day. Here clearly identified that most of the students use the internet on a general basis or for normal purposes. But, in this research, some students have an infatuation with internet use. Overall, most of the respondents use the internet for academic purposes. When they use it for relaxation (i.e. social networking sites, motivational videos, video games), it leads to internet addiction. Among the respondents, 73% are using the internet on a normal basis, and 28% of respondents using the internet addictively. Table 3 represents the types of technological devices are used by the respondents. Most of the respondents (67.5%) like to use the internet on smartphones because a smartphone is bearable and its functions are also too much easy to understand. Here 6.2% of the respondents use desktop whereas 18.8% of respondents use laptops. Only 7.5% of them have been found who use tablets.

Respondents Purposes of Using the Internet
The internet is now a global network in which human beings in every sphere are related to each other. Moreover, the internet has both positive and negative impacts on students' life. Students use the internet for various purposes. In previous studies, it is identified that students basically use the internet for the purpose of academic and social betterment but sometimes they become addicted to it when they have free time or when they need emotional support. One of the main objectives of this study is to explore the purposes of using the internet by respondents.

Academic Purposes of Using the Internet
From this study, it is found that most of the respondents of this study use the internet for academic purposes. Among the academic purposes, there are different areas of interest. The following table represents the different purposes of the academic use of the internet. From Table 5 it is found that 59% of the respondents complete their required course work with the help of the internet, 29% of the respondents use the internet to do research work. Internet is also used by 33% of the respondents for completing home task, assignments and course works assigned by the course teachers. 66% of the respondents use the internet for reading books and collecting the required study materials.

Internet Tools and Resources Used by the Respondents
This study found that most of the respondents in this study have internet access.
They use various tools and resources for browsing the internet. The following     Table 7 represents the percentage distributions of the respondents according to their opinion on the impact of excessive use of the internet on face to face inte-Open Journal of Social Sciences raction and interpersonal relationship. 17.6% of respondents are found who have strongly agreed that addictive internet use decreases face to face relationship where 47.1% of respondents have agreed with this statement. On contrast, 10.6% of students have disagreed and only 1.2% have strongly disagreed. Table 8 shows the percentage distributions of the respondents according to their opinion on the negative impact of internet addiction on students' academic performance. Internet is regarded as an important tool in this technological era. But abuse of the internet by students has negative impact on their life. In this research, respondents were asked to opine "Internet addiction affects negatively on the academic achievement of students". 42.5% of respondents have strongly agreed with this statement and 21.5% of them have agreed. Whereas 18.75% of respondents were in neutral position, 5% have strongly disagreed and 7.5% have disagreed. Table 9 represents the importance of using the internet for enhancing the quality

Conclusion
The conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that internet usage is the factor that influences students' life both positively and negatively including academic performance, personal and social life. Graphical representation of internet usage and its impact on students shows the internet accessibility, spending hours in using the internet, purposes of using the internet, and impact of using the internet on students' academic achievement, face to face relationship with their friends and families. Positive and negative impact of using the internet is proportionally equal in this study. Here, positive outcome includes academic achievement (completing course work and research work, searching in search engine for study materials, completing assignments and so on) and improving the quality of social life. Negative impacts are internet addiction, lack of face to face communication, waste of time, excessive use of social networking sites and depression. The study recommends that as the internet is regarded as an inseparable part of human life, students should conscious of using the internet. Seminars and conferences should be arranged to highlight the negative impact of using the internet on students. However, the quality uses of the internet depend on the respective study context in terms of available accessibility of the internet, individual skills and affordability of users.