Facebook addiction and loneliness in the post-graduate students of a university in southern India.

BACKGROUND: Facebook is a social networking site (SNS) for communication, entertainment and information exchange. Recent research has shown that excessive use of Facebook can result in addictive behavior in some individuals.

AIM: To assess the patterns of Facebook use in post-graduate students of Yenepoya University and evaluate its association with loneliness.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done to evaluate 100 post-graduate students of Yenepoya University using Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) and University of California and Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale version 3. Descriptive statistics were applied. Pearson's bivariate correlation was done to see the relationship between severity of Facebook addiction and the experience of loneliness.

RESULTS: More than one-fourth (26%) of the study participants had Facebook addiction and 33% had a possibility of Facebook addiction. There was a significant positive correlation between severity of Facebook addiction and extent of experience of loneliness ( r = .239, p = .017).

CONCLUSION: With the rapid growth of popularity and user-base of Facebook, a significant portion of the individuals are susceptible to develop addictive behaviors related to Facebook use. Loneliness is a factor which influences addiction to Facebook.