Internet has become an essential aspect of students’ lives along with academic, personal, study, communication in the modern digital age. However, excessive and unrestrained internet use has given rise to a behavioural issue called internet addiction, which is increasingly impacting students all over the world. With an emphasis on gender disparities among secondary school students, the current study attempts to investigate how internet addiction affects students' academic performance. Based on a sample of 200 class 10th passed students—100 boys and 100 girls—the study uses a quantitative research design. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was used to gauge internet addiction levels, and academic achievement scores from student records or self-reports were also gathered. The data was analysed using statistical methods such the independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation, and descriptive statistics. According to the findings of the Research, Higher level of online addiction are linked to worse academic achievement among students, which show a substantial negative correlation between internet addiction and academic performance. Additionally, the findings indicate that boys and girls differ significantly in terms of internet addiction, with guys showing higher levels of addiction than girls. On the other hand, it was discovered that girls outperformed boys in school. According to the study, excessive internet use results in poor time management, decreased academic engagement, greater procrastination, and diminished concentration—all of which degrade academic performance. The results highlight how crucial it is to encourage pupils to use the internet in a sensible and balanced manner. According to the study, parents, educators, and educational institutions should collaborate to raise awareness of the detrimental effects of internet addiction and put strategies like digital discipline, time management training, and counselling support into practice to lessen those effects.
Dr. Aarti Mishra (Mon,) studied this question.