A Study of Internet Addictive Behavior among Teenagers and the Youth (15 to 25 years old) in Tehran

This paper examines the addictive phenomena of internet use as a social issue of the modern time. It is now more than a decade that internet addictive behavior has been identified to be considered as one of the ever-developing process in developing countries. This phenomenon has had various malfunctions for individuals, families and society at large. This paper which is the result of a survey research in 2006 examines the consequences of the development of addictive internet use in Tehran. The target population of this study includes teenagers and the youth of 15 to 25 years old who were heavy users of internet in Tehran. The 800 samples were chosen though a probability sampling method and analytical results apply to this sample. The tentative results indicate that addictive internet use is also an issue in Iran although based on standards one cannot consider this behavior to be addictive rather natural. The results also indicate that internet addictive use is in direct correlation with factors such as feeling of social responsibility, social alienation, lack of social support, lack of professional and educational efficiency, and in reverse correlation with feeling of self-respect.