An Empirical Study On Internet Use And Information Anxiety Of College Students

With the popularization of Internet and mobile Internet,the information society is gradually becoming a reality from a theoretical conception.The Internet is the main channel for users to obtain information.The rich information in the Internet is closely related to users' daily life,and also brings positive or negative impacts to users.The explosive growth rate of information quantity and the faster and faster speed of information dissemination,on the one hand,increase the amount of information users are exposed to and expand their knowledge;on the other hand,they may cause "information anxiety" among users and affect the efficiency of information utilization.Some studies have pointed out that anxiety arises when individuals encounter difficulties in pursuing their goals and such difficulties continue to be uncontrollable.College students are young people with strong thirst for knowledge.In the process of using the Internet,information needs to be searched,screened and processed at high frequency,which makes it easier to encounter difficulties in the process of information processing,thus causing information anxiety.Therefore,under the background of information explosion,it is particularly important to investigate the current situation of college students' information anxiety and explore the relationship between college students' Internet use and information anxiety.This paper uses the research method of questionnaire survey and in-depth interview to conduct an empirical study on college students' Internet use and information anxiety,and to explore the relationship between college students' Internet use and information anxiety.The main contents include: using the questionnaire survey method to measure the internet age,daily internet usage time,usage motivation and content preference of college students;At the same time,the information anxiety scale in the questionnaire was used to measure the information anxiety level of college students.Then,the data are analyzed,and the interviewees who show information anxiety are interviewed deeply.The data obtained from empirical research are combined with in-depth interviews to introduce the current situation of information anxiety of college students and find out the influencing factors of information anxiety of college students.Finally,the research findings are explained in combination with relevant theories,and targeted information anxiety resolution strategies are given.The research found that the interviewed college students showed moderate information anxiety.Internet age and daily Internet usage time have negative effects on one dimension of college students' information anxiety respectively.This paper holds that the age of internet and the length of internet use reflect the proficiency of college students in using the internet.the longer the age of internet and the longer the time of daily internet use,the more experience they have in obtaining and using information,and the less likely they are to suffer from information anxiety.In addition,"communication motivation","news information preference" and "emotional entertainment preference" have a positive impact on one dimension of college students' information anxiety.This paper holds that the stronger the motivation of communication and expression,the easier it is for college students to find relevant information in interpersonal channels and ignore the mastery of information search strategies.The more college students like reading news,the more likely they are to have anxiety in the information searching process.Emotional entertainment content often takes up a large amount of college students' time and conflicts with information utilization behavior,thus causing interviewees to feel anxious.The information anxiety of college students is the result of the complex Internet information environment,the knowledge structure of college students and their media usage.This paper suggests that information service providers should start to improve their service quality,while colleges and universities should advocate media literacy education to improve the media literacy of college students,thus eliminating information anxiety.