Internet Use for School-Mandated and Self-Initiated Learning: Good, Bad, or Both?

Abstract

Because delivery of school assignments and other learning materials has been migrating to online learning environments, use of the Internet for learning has become obligatory for high school students. However, research on the consequences of Internet learning remains equivocal, with some advocating benefits of such learning and others warning about its potential negative effects. In this study, we approach Internet use for learning from a motivational perspective and argue that such learning can be both positive and negative depending on whether it contributes to harmonious or obsessive Internet passion. We test how two types of Internet use for learning, school mandated and self-initiated, may relate to harmonious and obsessive Internet passion among high schoolers in the United States and Russia. The results indicate that Internet use for school-mandated learning is positively related to both harmonious and obsessive Internet passion, and these results hold in both countries. Internet use for self-initiated learning was also positively related to harmonious Internet passion in both Russia and the United States, but was unrelated to obsessive Internet passion in either country. This research not only augments the nomological network of the Internet passion construct but also informs educators on how to incorporate Internet use into the learning environment in ways that are likely to promote harmonious Internet passion and decrease obsessive Internet passion.