Digital natives in online classes. Internet use among Warsaw adolescents prior to, and during, the COVID-19 pandemic. Mokotów Study 2016-2020

Abstract

Introduction: The internet has become a part of adolescents' lives with all the positive and neg-ative consequences. The major risks include so-called problematic internet use (PIU). The latest Mokotow Study provided an opportunity to exam-ine adolescents' internet use during the pandemic. This is one of the few studies in this area conduc-ted on adolescents from Poland.Material and methods: The study participants' group consisted of first-year high school stu-dents from Warsaw (N = 769, 14-16 years of age, 47.6% female). An online questionnaire was used for the study. The IADQ developed by Kimberly Young was used to measure internet-use patterns. The results were compared to the previous round of the Mokotow Study from 2016.Results: Compared to the 2016 study wave, the severity of most PIU-symptoms increased dur-ing the COVID-19 pandemic, and the percentages of adolescents using the internet in a risky man-ner (3-4 PIU-symptoms) increased significantly. In contrast, no significant changes were observed in the percentages of adolescents who use the in-ternet in a dysfunctional manner (5-8 PIU -symp-toms). PIU symptoms were found to be signific-antly higher among girls. Discussion: The results indicate that adolescents' risky internet use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the increase was not as spec-tacular as could have been expected. This may mean that, while for some teenagers, more intens-ive internet use during the pandemic contributed to related problems, for others it may play an ad-aptive role.Conclusions: The results of our study suggest the need to take care of adolescents' "digital hy-giene", understood as creative, responsible and nonharmful forms of internet use.