Examining the Internet Usage Behavior of Adolescents After the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study investigates adolescents' problematic internet use after the Covid-19 pandemic period. In the research using the scanning method, a total of 336 adolescent participants, 233 (69.3%) girls and 103 (30.7%) boys, were reached online and a questionnaire consisting of 11 questions was conducted. The first two questions of the questionnaire are about demographic information including gender and grade level. Seven of the nine questions are closed-ended and two are open-ended. Quantitative data were analyzed with simple statistical analysis in the SPSS package program, and qualitative data were analyzed with thematic analysis. In the quantitative findings, information is presented about adolescents' internet usage purposes and duration, and their perception of addiction by gender and grade level. As for the qualitative findings, while the theme of internet use results is defined in two categories as negative reflections of internet use and neutral evaluation of internet use, the theme of the meaning of internet usage was evaluated in three different categories as negative a attributed to internet usage, positive meanings attributed to internet usage and neutral meanings attributed to internet usage. As a result, most of the adolescents who participated in the study perceive the reflections of their internet usage behavior negatively and attribute both positive and negative meanings to the internet.