Internet Addiction and Spiritual Vulnerability of Adolescents in Public Secondary Schools in Owerri, Imo State of Nigeria

Though, the internet is a very important development in the life of humans as it widens the mental horizons of man. Man has strove in many aspects of life because of his intellectual prowess as a result of his dependence on the internet. It is obvious that the internet has some flaws that can mar the character of human beings, more especially the vulnerable folks as the youths.   It is undoubtable that both adults and adolescents are affected by the menace of the internet, but reliance on the internet by adolescents has made them to be slaves to the internet sacrificing their future for the internet, thereby murdering their academic success. When wrongly used the internet becomes a stumbling block to achieve a greater height as it corrupts the moral development of these young people.  Many adolescents are seen today navigating into sites not encouraging for their young minds. Pornography and other eyesore movies have taken their toll on adolescents` life as they concentrate on watching them than reading their books. The question is who are to be blamed for this? Parents are to be blamed as they buy phones for them at this tender age when they are not supposed to use such. The study adopted correlational survey research design. The population comprised all the public senior secondary school students in Owerri, Imo State numbering 26,836. The proportionate cluster random sampling technique was used to get a sample size of 382 from the population of the study. Adolescent Addiction and Spiritual Wellness Rating Scale was used for data collection. It is recommended among others that Secondary Education Management Board should formulate policies that will discourage overuse of the internet by adolescents, and parents should monitor their children on too much use of the internet at home.

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