The Impact of Online Classes on Adolescent's Internet Use

After switching to online classes due to COVID-19, the biggest concern is that teenagers are leading to excessive Internet immersion and addiction. This study, targeting male middle and high school students (N=940), attempted to find out the current status of Internet use for learning and non-learning purposes, the impact and satisfaction of online classes on daily life, and differences according to amount of online class, GPA, devices used, and age. As a result, after switching to online classes, students with a large amount of online classes evaluated themselves to be better in terms of learning effects, regular lifestyle habits, and personal time use. Online classes did not necessarily increase Internet usage for non-learning purposes. But, GPA was an important variable, and students with low GPA had fewer online classes, and increased internet usage and internet addiction scores after conversion to online classes. In addition, when middle school students used phones, Internet usage for non-learning purposes was higher, and amount of increase in Internet use and the degree of Internet addiction were also higher after switching to online class. The implications related to these results were discussed.