Internet Use of Pharmacy Students and its Assessment with Cognitive Absorption Scale

Objective: Frequent Internet use mainly for communication and education purposes in daily life may be “problematic” in some cases. Adolescents and youngsters who live in Turkey and their internet use may differ due to their different social determinants. As reaching all subgroups is a very difficult task, exploring university students’ behaviors may be important in this context. Therefore, we assessed the Internet use behaviors of students of faculty of pharmacy from state universities located in Ankara. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire form prepared by the researchers according to the Cognitive Absorption Scale (CAS) was used to assess the internet use behaviors of the students. The participation rate was 89.6% (N=291). The questionnaire was filled by the students under observation. Results: Mean age of the students was 22.29±1.84 years. The majority of them were females (194 students; 66.7%). Student’s first three reasons of using the Internet were “watching movies”, “communication”, and “social networking”. The total CAS score of the students was 97.71±30.65. Conclusion: Upon obtained findings it can be stated that there is a need to improve internet use towards a “positive” direction, by increasing education for proper use of internet among university students.