Friends, porn, and punk: sensation seeking in personal relationships, Internet activities, and music preference among college students

Adolescence, Summer, 2004 by Robert S. Weisskirch, Laurel C. Murphy

Internet Use

Participants used the Internet for diverse activities. In the 24 hours prior to completing the questionnaire, 29% used the Internet to read the news, 30% to play games, 90% to access and send e-mail, 65% to download or play music, 10% to get sex-oriented material, 63% to chat/ instant message with known friends, 18% to chat/instant message with virtual friends, 9% to chat/instant message in a chat room, 66% to conduct research, 49% to access library resources, 6% to access a dating/singles website, 63% to surf the Internet, 11% to watch Internet movies, 2% to form relationships with strangers, 7% to find out about drugs or drug-related material, and less than 1% to gamble. In the past week, a similar pattern of Internet use emerged, with the top three activities being to access and send e-mail (87%), to access library resources (37%), and to read the news (29%). In the prior 30 days, the top three Internet activities were to read the news (28%), to chat/ instant message with known friends (28%), and to play games (26%). Moreover, in the 30-day period, 20% or more of the participants indicated using the Internet to get sex-oriented material, to chat/instant message with virtual friends, to access library resources, to access a dating/singles website, to gamble, to form relationships with strangers, and to find out about drugs or drug-related material.

Independent-samples t tests were conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that high sensation seeking would be related to Internet activities (see Table 2). Participants who used the Internet to get sex-oriented material, in the past 24 hours, scored higher on total sensation seeking (M = 61.33, SD = 7.41) than those who had not used the Internet for that activity (M = 54.44, SD = 5.89), t(112) = 3.73,p < .001. Participants who had accessed the Internet to get sex-oriented material in the past 24 hours also scored higher on the Intensity subscale (M = 31.69, SD = 4.57) than those who had not (M = 26.60, SD = 3.94), t(123) = 4.34, p < .001. Participants who, in the past 24 hours, used the Internet to download or play music scored higher on the Intensity subscale (M = 27.89, SD = 4.21) than those who had not downloaded or played music (M = 25.70, SD = 4.07), t(123) = 2.79, p = .006. In the previous 24 hours, participants who had accessed the Internet to play games and to chat/instant message with friends scored higher on the Intensity subscale (M = 28.37, SD = 4.08, and M = 27.84, SD = 4.00) than those who had not done so (M = 26.60, SD = 4.28, and M = 25.93, SD = 4.52), t(123) = 2.16, p = .03, and t(123) = 2.44, p = .02, respectively. Participants who used the Internet to play games, to download or play music, and to watch Internet movies, in the past 24 hours, scored higher on total sensation seeking than those who had not done so, with differences/approaching significance (p < .10).

In the past week, those who used the Internet to conduct research scored higher on total sensation seeking (M = 56.97, SD = 7.24) than those who had not conducted research using the Internet (M = 54.40, SD = 5.88), t(112) = 1.99, p = .05. In addition, participants who had not chatted/instant messaged with friends in the past week (M = 55.85, SD = 6.06) had higher total sensation seeking scores than those who had (M = 53.07, SD = 7.04), t(l12) = -2.02, p = .05. Similarly, those who had not chatted/instant messaged with virtual friends (i.e., they had never met face-to-face) in the past week (M = 55.68, SD = 6.06) had higher total sensation seeking scores than those who had (M = 51.15, SD = 7.71), t(112) = -2.46, p = .02. When asked about Internet use over the previous 30 days, participants who had not used the Internet to read the news scored higher on total sensation seeking (M = 56.01, SD = 5.90) than those who had used the Internet to read the news (M = 53.00, SD = 7.16), t(112) = -2.30,p = .02. In the past 30 days, participants who had surfed the Internet scored higher on total sensation seeking (M = 60.00, SD = 6.94) than those who had not surfed the Internet (M = 54.70, SD = 6.17), t(112) = 2.56,p = .01.