Associating Internet Usage with Depressive Behavior Among College Students
Raghavendra Katikalapudi and colleagues at Missouri University of Science and Technology ask whether the way a student uses the internet differs with depressive symptoms. They screened 216 undergraduates with the CES-D scale, about 30 per cent of whom met its minimum criteria for depression, then examined one month of anonymised campus network records, from February 2011, covering which applications were used, how much data flowed and how erratic sessions were. Students with depressive symptoms used file-sharing, email and chat more, favoured high-bandwidth applications and switched between applications more erratically, and the team identified nine usage patterns that may indicate depression. The study covers one month at one university, relies on a screening scale and not a clinical diagnosis, and shows associations only. It cannot show that people reach for a product because they feel low.
Raghavendra Katikalapudi and colleagues at Missouri University of Science and Technology ask whether the way a student uses the internet differs with depressive symptoms. They screened 216 undergraduates with the CES-D scale, about 30 per cent of whom met its minimum criteria for depression, then examined one month of anonymised campus network records, from February 2011, covering which applications were used, how much data flowed and how erratic sessions were. Students with depressive symptoms used file-sharing, email and chat more, favoured high-bandwidth applications and switched between applications more erratically, and the team identified nine usage patterns that may indicate depression. The study covers one month at one university, relies on a screening scale and not a clinical diagnosis, and shows associations only. It cannot show that people reach for a product because they feel low.
Written from the repository record and press account read 2026-10-21 (Scholars' Mine, Phys.org).
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Katikalapudi, R., Chellappan, S., Montgomery, F., Wunsch, D., & Lutzen, K. (2012). Associating Internet Usage with Depressive Behavior Among College Students. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 31(4), 73-80. doi:10.1109/MTS.2012.2225462.