Prevalence of internet addiction in south Indian chat rooms

Background: There are various reasons for internet addiction. In the recent covid and post covid era people have taken up chatting as a pastime. Many spend time chatting with strangers for various reasons. This study was conducted to see the prevalence of internet addiction in south Indian chat rooms and the reasons leading to itMethods: After doing a pilot study, many chat room users were administered an online questionnaire. Of the 1763 people approached only 700 of them agreed to participate in this studyResults: Of the seven hundred participants, two hundred and sixteen suffered from internet addiction. Of those with Internet addiction, 85% of the chat room users agreed that they drink alcohol when they chat,63.9% cited individual factors as a reason,62% of the chat room users said they visit chat rooms to game with their friends,31% stated cyber relation addiction as a cause,7.4% said lack of a steady job made them get online and chat and 2.3% of the chat users said they frequented chat sites for want of cyber sexConclusions: People should understand that it’s a virtual world and not real. They should start stepping out and decrease spending time online. Chat rooms should be on a strict vigilance and steps should be taken to screen the chat room users.