POSSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF UTILIZING ICT FOR EDUCATIONAL AND NON-EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

We live in a world of digital and computer technologies. With elements of Informatics we meet in various spheres of our social lives, including fields of academic studies and education. For achieving the desired education degree and to fulfill their study obligations, students often need to take the advantage of the Internet and ICT. Utilizing information and communication technologies opens up new ways to obtain information which can lead to independence in the field of study, self-improvement and communication competencies. On the other hand, too much time spent at the computer has a negative impact on physical and mental health. It can lead to addiction, formation of diseases of various kinds and even to the violation of the law in greater or lesser extent. In this paper we focus on the generation of young college students. For the reason that the statistics in this area are not very developed and broader overview is more a matter of conjecture and speculation, our aim is to carry out such statistics and focus not only on the study time but mostly on the time spent for non-educational activities. Here, of course, we are interested in the reason for which students spend time at the computer in connection with potential addictive symptoms. In the paper we compare our survey with the published current state of the discussed topic, also highlight the potential risks and describe negative consequences resulting from them. Part of the research result will build such a questionnaire for teachers on the basis of which they will manage to designate the symptoms of addiction to the computer or the Internet. There will be important to determine the boundary of the average period of time spent at the computer for educational and non- educational purposes and for purposes unrelated to rest and regular entertainment. The survey was conducted between the two universities in the Slovak Republic, the statistical sample was represented by students of teacher training courses as well as students of engineering studies. In addition, this survey was conducted on a sample of Slovak -speaking students, and a sample of Hungarian -speaking students. To confirm the authenticity and demonstrability of results, they are subjected to statistical analysis.