Relationship between dependence on internet and social skills of students

One element of being socialized in all cultures is social skills or the ability to communicate effectively. Dependence on internet influences on social skills and currently is noted by many researchers and scholars. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between internet dependency and social skills among students. Social skills include initiation and termination, assertiveness, social support, direction, empathy and cooperation. This research employed multi-stage cluster sampling. The participants were 291 undergraduate students of Kangavar Payame Noor University. The instruments were two questionnaires, the first one is related to internet dependency and the second one is relevant to students’ social skills. The data was analyzed by Descriptive statistics and correlation test. The results indicated that there is a relationship between dependence on internet and social skills variables. Dependence on internet had a reverse and significant relationship with initiation and termination, assertiveness, social support, empathy and cooperation. It means that when dependence on internet increases, the social skills will decrease. But there is no meaningful relationship between dependence on internet and direction. In general, Virtual environment reduces social skills