Investigation of Digital Addiction Levels, Digital Games Playing Status and Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills of University Students

Nowadays, developments in technology have undoubtedly facilitated people's lives but also have caused the human being to spend longer time with digital tools. While acknowledging the negative effects of digital gaming, this paper poses the question whether their focus on problem-solving within a fun environment actually improves real-world problem-solving and multi-tasking capabilities by helping individual subjects to perform logical analyses, to develop strategic thinking, and by enhancing communication skills. In this context, the study was conducted as a descriptive survey. A total of 521 students from various faculties of Kocaeli University took part in the study and 83.5% of them indicated that they play digital games regularly. To determine the relationship between interpersonal problem solving and digital addiction we used the "Interpersonal Problem Solving Scale" and the "Digital Addiction Scale'' to collect data. Students' perceptions about interpersonal problem-solving skills and digital addictions were at a medium level, notably, there was a positive correlation between interpersonal problem-solving skills and the level of digital addiction. Therefore, use of the internet within a reasonable time can have a positive effect to improve certain skills without being dependent on the digital game. In the future, while this study was based solely on students' perceptions, we suggest for further study that the parameters should be extended to observational and experimental studies and scales based on parent and peer notification or psychological tests can be used.