Internet Addiction Of Russian Youth: Myth Or Reality?[Интернет-Зависимость Российской Молодежи: Миф Или Реальность?]

The article undergoes empirical testing of a widespread assumption in the scientific literature about the Internet addiction among modern Russian young people. The author notes that despite the large number and variety of Russian studies in this area, the true prevalence of Internet addiction among young Russians raises certain doubts. The problem is that the research practice that has developed in Russia is often based on the assumption that the very habit of young people to spend considerable time on the Internet can speak of the presence of Internet addiction among young people. Arguing against this approach, the author seeks to clarify an accurate understanding of Internet addiction and to check how its signs can be traced in the real Internet behavior of modern Russian youth. In the course of the theoretical and methodological analysis, the author clarifies those signs that may be characteristic of a person with Internet addiction. Turning to the materials of his own sociological survey among the youth of Yekaterinburg (N = 1766), the author checks the extent to which these properties can be traced in the real Internet behavior of young people. The key conclusion of the article is that the arguments about the existence of a stable Internet addiction of Russian youth are somewhat exaggerated. Many of the young Russians have indeed become active users of the Internet and spend a lot of time in it. Nevertheless, most of them do not have obvious signs of pathological inability to do without the Internet.