A Sociological Study of the Relationship between Social Capital and Addiction to the Internet among the Youth in the City of Hamedan

Extravagant use of the new communications technologies and its unwanted consequences has become a threat to social live. Among them, the internet has a special place because of its high attraction and various services it offers. Though it is useful, extreme use of the Internet can lead into Internet addiction which may cause disorder in both individual and social functions. Internet addiction can be found among different people but it is more common among young adults. The Objective of the present research is the survey of the relationship between social capital and internet addicted among the adults in Hamedan. Here we have used theories of social capital, social network, and the mutual effect of the two variables of social capital and internet addiction. The research method is survey. Universe of study includes the youth, among which 138 people were selected as research sample through n snowball sampling method. Data was collected using Young’s (1998) standard questionnaire on internet addiction, and a questionnaire made by the researcher on social capital. Data were processed with SPSS. Findings of the research show that the rate of internet addiction among men and women is 41/05 and 36/41 respectively. There is no significant relation between internet addiction and social capital. No significant relation also was seen between internet addiction and the variables of age and education; however, internet addiction and gender were found to be significantly related to each other.