1. Introduction
Subjective well-being can be defined in different ways and the literature presents it in various related concepts such as: health, bliss, happiness, or satisfaction (Džuka, 2004) . In Slovak and Czech translations, the authors use different variations, such as mental well-being, personal well-being, life satisfaction, subjective comfort, welfare feelings, but also the personal well-being concept that is sometimes associated with health (Šolcová, 2003) . In the research we will use the term of personal well-being or personal subjective well-being, well-being.
The subjective side of life is represented by the construct of personal well-being where Wilson in 1967 (Diener et al., 1999) was the first author devoted to personal well-being, who declared that a happy person is young, healthy, educated, well-paid, extroverted, optimistic, carefree, religious individual in a wedlock, a person with high self-esteem, work ethic, modest aspirations, of any gender and different intelligence levels. Happiness and life satisfaction are equally available to young or old, male, or female, rich or poor (Myers & Diener, 1995) .
Šolcová (2003) claims that personal well-being can be divided into two dimensions, subjective and objective: Subjective aspects include personal psychological well-being, self-esteem, self-control, and self-actualization; among the objective aspects of personal well-being mainly the individual health status, where the functional capacity of an organism and the socioeconomic status are included. The emphasis lies on the general evaluation of the quality of life; where the concept of quality of life includes subjective well-being and satisfaction in various areas of life, functioning in social roles and external living conditions. The quality of life can be satisfactory in one area, but in other area it can be unsatisfactory or insufficient, but during the life the individual components as well as the quality-of-life are changed (Katschnig, 1997, in (Rosinská, 2004) ).
Changes in our personal subjective well-being depend on the scope of the Internet use, what sites we visit, what social networks we use and with whom we interact virtually (Kross et al., 2013) .
The individuals with a lower level of communication skills prefer online communication to face-to-face communication, thus consequently they have problems with controlling the time spent online. Rehman, Shafi, & Rizvi (2016) found the existence of a significant negative relationship between the Internet addiction and psychological well-being.
The use of social networks, and Internet interaction can affect personal subjective well-being. Various studies disagree on extensive use to which social media affects our subjective well-being; some studies reveal positive relationships and associations between the social networks use (primarily the social network Facebook) and personal subjective well-being. The relationship between social network use and well-being can be influenced by many factors, such as the number of social network friends, perceived support of an online network community, depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and self-esteem (Kross et al., 2013) . Kross together with his colleagues (Kross et al., 2013) conducted the research aimed at the issue whether Facebook use predicts declining of subjective well-being in young adults. The results showed that direct interactions on social networks lead people to feel better, also suggest that Facebook use may represent a unique form of interaction, and there exist large evidence suggesting that the social network use does not lead to decline in subjective well-being, taking into account the fact that people are more likely to visit Facebook when they feel down. However, Facebook use predicts a significant decrease in well-being when controlling for loneliness, what predicts increases in Facebook use and decreases in emotional well-being variable.
Kircaburun (2016) revealed significant correlations between depression, self-esteem, daily Internet use and social media addictions. Self-esteem negatively influences daily Internet use what can be explained by the fact that individuals who have low self-esteem do not prefer face-to-face interaction and therefore the virtual environment is mostly used.
Research in the field of personal psychological well-being experiencing the relation to excessive and problematic Internet use shows different results. Some authors confirm the negative relationship in the given areas, others claim that the Internet use leads to increased experiencing of personal subjective well-being. Most research in this area is focused on youth, which is the largest group of the Internet and social networks users. Based on the knowledge from the literature analysis, our research is aimed at finding the relationship between personal subjective well-being and excessive Internet use in adults.
The research focuses on whether Internet use leads to low level of personal psychological well-being. Rehman, Shafi, & Rizvi (2016) found a statistically significant negative correlation between Internet addiction and personal subjective well-being in young people. Waldo (2014) also pointed out that there is a significant negative relationship between Internet addiction and personal psychological well-being.
Heris et al. (2017) found that students who suffer from Internet addiction experience a higher level of anxiety and its symptoms compared to those who are not addicted, thus the difference between addicts and those who are not addicted was confirmed.
Further we investigate whether excessive Internet use has a relation to self-esteem, where we focused on how the Internet affects relationships with others, and whether excessive Internet use has a negative impact on relationships with other people.
1.1. Research Goals
The goal of the research is the comparison of personal subjective well-being in the real and virtual world. Furthermore, was investigated the relationship between personal subjective well-being and Internet use in adults.
Based on the main goal, were defined individual sub-goals as follows:
Compare the variables of personal psychological well-being in a group of people who are regular Internet users with people who do not use the Internet or use it only occasionally.
Find out whether people with a high level of addiction experience lower scores in subjective well-being variables (self-acceptance, positive relationship with others, personal growth, independence, meaning of life, harmony with the environment).
Find out which group of people show a higher level of negative experience in real life.
1.2. Research Questions
1) Is the excessive use of the Internet related to the life satisfaction of individuals?
2) Is the use of Internet and social networks related to a person’s subjective well-being?
1.3. Hypotheses
H1: People with a higher level of Internet use will demonstrate a lower rate in the self-acceptance variable.
H2: People with a higher score in the social disadvantage dimension will show a lower score in the variable of positive relations with others.
1.4. Research Sample
The research respondents were selected based on quota sampling, as their age had to be over 25 years of age. The research sample had 53 respondents of it 48.4% were men (N = 74) and 51.6% were women (N = 79) (Chart 1); the average age of the respondents was 35 years, the minimum age of respondents was 25 and the maximum age was 66. The largest group of respondents consisted of individuals with secondary education graduation with school leaving exam (N = 69), followed by individuals with a university degree (N = 53), and the least respondents were from the group who graduated from secondary school without a school leaving exam (N = 31).
2. Methods
The research battery was compiled from the questionnaires as follows:
SWLS-Satisfaction with life scale = Scale of satisfaction with life.
Originally, this scale was compiled by Diener and his team in 1985 as a one-dimensional scale that belongs to self-assessment scales that determines the level of personal well-being of individuals and overall satisfaction with life.
The scale contains 5 items, asks respondents about overall life satisfaction, which is evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “completely agree” to “totally disagree”. The individual answers are added up to a gross score, where higher score indicates higher life satisfaction—very satisfied (35 - 30 points), high score (29 - 25), average score (24 - 20), slightly below average (19 - 15), dissatisfied (14 - 10), extremely dissatisfied (9 - 5) (Pavot & Diener, 1993) .
The scale was also translated into Czech (Blatný et al., 2004) and in the terms of psychometric properties, they showed similar characteristics to the American original version: in the original version the Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.87, and in the Czech version was the Cronbach’s α coefficient 0.80.
PWB-The Ryff’s scales of psychological well-being
The PWB scale is one of multidimensional scales, thanks to which the level of psychological well-being can be measured. The scale consists of a series of statements reflecting six areas of psychological well-being: self-acceptance, positive relationships to others, sense of life, personal growth, harmony with the environment/personal coping and independence.
Recently there exist 3 questionnaire versions: a full standard version with 84 items, a 54-item version and finally a short version with 18 items, which is not statistically reliable. Respondents give answers on a 6-point scale from “completely agree” to “completely disagree”; for the purpose of our research the 54-item version of the PWB scale was used.
The Cronbach’s α coefficient in the original version reached the following values—self-acceptance: 0.93, positive relationships with others: 0.91, sense of life: 0.90, personal growth: 0.81, harmony with the environment: 0.81, independence: 0.88. The Czech version of the scale was addressed by Smékal (2008) where Cronbach’s α coefficient ranged from 0.86 to 0.93.
PRIUSS = The Problematic and Risky Internet Use Screening Scale
The standardized questionnaire PRIUSS consists of 18 items, divided into three dimensions:
1) Dimension of social disadvantage (items 1 - 6)—the items of this dimension show how the Internet use influences social interactions. It describes difficulties with offline communication and socialization, as well as difficulties with relations creation and maintenance because of Internet use. Cronbach’s α of the original version is 0.89.
2) The dimension of emotional disadvantage (items 7 - 11)—this dimension evaluates the degree of emotional ties to Internet use. This dimension describes a maladaptive psychological connection with Internet use. Cronbach’s α of the original version is 0.90.
3) Dimension of risky/impulsive Internet use (items 12 - 18)—the items of this dimension are focused on the characteristic problem behaviour that is typical when using the Internet. It is described as the inability to limit Internet use and the inability to function in normal daily life because of Internet use. Cronbach’s α of the original version is 0.88 (Jelenchick et al., 2014) .
The questionnaire has been evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 4 (very often). Cronbach’s α in the translated Slovak questionnaire version reached the following values: dimension of social disadvantage = 0.92, dimension of emotional disadvantage = 0.86, dimension of risky/impulsive Internet use = 0.89.
Internet Addiction Test (IAT)
The internet addiction test measures light, medium and severe internet addiction. It is a one-dimensional test, where higher dependence indicates higher scores.
In the questions, the respondents answer on the extent they agree with the presented statements. In the questions are mentioned the terms “online” and “offline”, with the meaning of the connectivity, respectively, dysconnectivity to the Internet.
The IAT questionnaire examines the influence of six factors:
Salience factor—a high score within this factor indicates that the individual often thinks about Internet activities, preferring them to other activities, it also shows no interest in activities and relationships with other people and preference to spend time alone and online.
Excessive use factor—high values included in this factor indicate that the individual sacrifices a lot of time and the Internet use can be of a compulsive nature. An individual cannot control the time spent online and hides from others the time spent online.
Work Neglect Factor—individuals who score high in these items show poorer performance at school or work due to the time spent on the Internet. Individuals are secretive about the time they spend online.
Anticipation factor—individuals often think about Internet activities when they are not online, they also have a compulsions to use the Internet when they are not there.
Loss of control factor—high score values indicate that individuals do not manage planning the time they devote to online activities. Individuals stay on the Internet longer than was their intention, and people around them often complain about the time they spend there.
The factor of social life neglecting—individuals prefer to create their new relationships online as to avoid stressful situations or life problems (Young & Abreau, 2011) .
The test consists of 20 items evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale, the points are added up, and it is possible to reach from 0 to 100 points. Evaluation of the questionnaire—Normal use of the Internet: 0 - 30 points is a state without addiction, 31 - 49 points mild addiction, 50 - 79 moderate addiction, 80 - 100 severe addiction.
This test has been validated in several countries, where the Cronbach’s α coefficient reached the level of 0.804.
3. Result Analysis
The results were processed by the SPSS statistic program.
The table (Table 1) describes the categorical variable Internet use, evaluated based on the IAT (Internet Addiction Test) questionnaire. The table shows the frequency and percentage distribution of individual categories within the Internet use variable. The most represented group was minimum use of the Internet with 54 users (35.3%). The category average use and frequent use had the same number, 41 responses (26.8%). The group with Internet addiction was the least common in our file, with 17 responses (11.1%).
The following table (Table 2) shows the description of life satisfaction variable, the results of which were obtained by the SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale) use. In the entire set of respondents, the most represented was the category of Mostly good life satisfaction (28.8%), followed by the category Average life satisfaction (26.8%), Very good life satisfaction was achieved by 27 respondents (17.6%), Slightly below Average life satisfaction was appeared in 21
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Table 1. Descriptive table of Internet use variable.
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Table 2. Descriptive table of the life satisfaction variable.
respondents (13.7%), 16 respondents belong to the category of Most life dissatisfaction (10.5%) and 4 respondents belong to the category Extreme life dissatisfaction (2.6%)
The relationship between the variables Internet use and Life satisfaction was calculated with Spearman’s correlation coefficient use, where the results are given in the table (Table 3). The result is significant at the level of statistical significance Sig. < 0.001, and the value of the Spearman coefficient is R = −0.694. There is a negative, strong relationship between the variables Internet use and Life satisfaction, which means that there is an inverse relationship between the variables. The higher the score in the Internet use variable, the lower the score in Life satisfaction is. Thus, the answer to the research question RQ1, is yes, the excessive Internet use is related to the variable Life satisfaction. Respondents who spent more time on the Internet achieved a lower level of Life satisfaction.
RQ2: Is excessive use of Internet and social networks connected with subjective personal well being?
Considering the linear relationship between the variables, to answer the RQ2 the Pearson’s correlation test was used to examine their relationship. Based on the detected statistical significance of Sig. < 0.001 can be considered that the correlation relationship between the Internet and social networks use and Subjective well-being is significant. The value of the Pearson correlation coefficient is r = −0.582. This is a negative, strong relationship, which means that there is an inverse relationship between the variables. The more frequent the Internet and
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Table 3. RQ1 testing results: Correlation of the variables internet use and life satisfaction.
social networks use, the lower the Subjective well-being of the respondent appears. The results are shown in the table (Table 4). Therefore, the answer to RQ2 is yes, the use of the Internet and social networks is negatively related to personal subjective well-being, and excessive use of the Internet and social networks leads to a lower level of personal subjective well-being.
H1: People with a higher level of Internet use will demonstrate a lower rate in the dimension of self-acceptance.
Within both variables (the Internet use and Self-acceptance), the normal distribution was not confirmed, therefore the Hypothesis 1 was tested using the Spearman correlation coefficient, the result of which is shown in the table (Table 5). Based on the results, the relationship between the variables Internet use and Self-acceptance can be considered as statistically significant at the level of significance Sig. < 0.0001. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was R = −0.776. There is a negative, very strong relationship between the variables, which means that there is an inverse relationship of variables. The more respondents use the Internet, the lower their level of Self-acceptance is. Based on the data analysis, Hypothesis 1 was accepted.
H2: People with a higher score in the dimension of Social disadvantage will show a lower score in the variable of Positive relations with others.
Due to the non-linear relationship of variables (positive relationships with others and social disadvantage), investigated was the correlation relationship of Hypothesis 2 by Spearman’s correlation coefficient use, where the results are presented in the table (Table 6).
Based on the correlation coefficient analysis was considered the relationship between the variables Social disadvantage and Positive relationships with others as significant, at the level of statistical significance Sig. < 0.000. The results showed that there is a negative, very strong relationship between the variables Social disadvantage and Positive relationships with others, with a Spearman coefficient value of R = −0.725. There is an inverse relationship between the variables. The higher the level of Social disadvantage, the lower the level of Positive relationships with other people is. Hypothesis 2 was accepted.
Further research outcomes
Our research examined whether the relationship between the Internet use and individual dimensions of Personal subjective well-being (self-acceptance, positive relationship with others, environment, autonomy, sense of life, personal
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Table 4. RQ2 testing results: Correlation of the variables the use of internet and social networks and subjective well-being.
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Table 5. Results of H1 testing: Correlation between variables Internet use and self-acceptance.
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Table 6. Results of H2 testing: Correlation of variables social disadvantage and positive relations with others.
development) exist. Based on the non-linear relationship of variables, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used. The table (Table 7) presents the correlation relations results of the given variables. Across all variables, there is a statistically significant relationship between Internet use and Personal subjective well-being at the Sig. < 0.001 level of statistical significance.
Statistically there is a significantly very strong, negative relationship of Self-acceptance and Internet use (R = −0.776, Sig. = 0.000), with an inverse relationship of the variables.
Internet use and Positive relationships with others have negative, very strong correlation with each other (R = −0.744). The higher the level of Internet use, the lower the level of positive relationships with others is.
The Environment variable is negatively correlating with the Internet use. There is a negative, strong relationship between the given variables (R = −0.602). The more often the respondents use the Internet, the less they manage the competences and responsibilities of the Environment.
There is a negative, strong relationship between the variables Internet use and Autonomy (ρ = −0.555). The higher the level of Internet use, the lower level of autonomy appears.
The Environment variable significantly correlated with the Internet use. There is a negative, strong relationship between the variables (R = −0.602), the more respondents use the Internet, the lower their level of Sense of life is.
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Table 7. Correlation of the variables personal subjective well-being and internet use.
Personal development is also significantly related to the Internet use. There is a negative, strong relationship between the variables (R = −0.587), which indicates an indirect proportionality; the higher the rate of Internet use, the lower the score of the respondents in the Personal development is.
4. Discussion
The work dealt with personal subjective well-being related to the Internet use and social networks among adults over 25 years of age. Respondents who used the Internet to a greater extent experienced a lower level in their subjective experience, subjective well-being and life satisfaction.
The research question RQ1, was addressing whether the excessive Internet use is related to life satisfaction of individuals. The results analysis showed that there is a negative statistically significant relationship between the variables. Shahnaz & Karim (2014) studied the relationship between Internet addiction and Life satisfaction and found that Internet addiction leads to lower Life satisfaction. Cao et al. (2011) investigated how problematic Internet use affects Life satisfaction in Chinese students where adolescents who used the Internet excessively scored low in all Life satisfaction dimensions.
Evaluation of RQ1: People who spend too much time on the Internet do not devote enough time to their lives and neglect their responsibilities in real world thus, as a result, they may not feel happy in their lives and experience higher level of dissatisfaction. As a result of spending excessive time on the Internet and social media, people see and follow other people’s lives that seem simple, seamless, and perfect compared to their own ones.
As part of the research question RQ2, was addressed the connection between excessive Internet and social networks use and Personal subjective well-being. The analysis of the results showed that the Internet use has a negative effect on our personal subjective well-being. Several studies also confirm that excessive Internet use is accompanied by a lower rate of personal subjective well-being experiencing. For example, Cardak (2013) demonstrated that university students with a higher level of Internet addiction have a lower level of personal subjective well-being, thus, personal subjective well-being was negatively affected by the Internet and social networks use. Sharma & Sharma (2018) in their work presented that excessive Internet use can lead to negative and low personal subjective well-being. Other researchers have also found statistically significant negative relationships between excessive Internet use, Internet addiction, and personal subjective well-being (Rehman, Shafi & Rizvi, 2016; Kross et al., 2013) .
Evaluation of RQ2: As it was mentioned in RQ1 and as well as within the relationship of the Internet and social networks use and personal subjective well-being, can be stated that people who prefer the Internet and are daily active on social networks do not devote enough time to activities and responsibilities in the real world, they are not engaged in activities that bring them joy, which can result in their personal subjective well-being disruption as well as the enjoyment, happiness and comfort.
In hypothesis 1, was assumed that respondents who used the Internet to a higher extent achieve a lower level of self-acceptance. Hypothesized was that respondents who spend a lot of time on the Internet have low self-esteem and feel a lower level of selfacceptance. Naseri et al. (2015) looked at social support and self-esteem in relation to Internet addiction in university students, where the results showed significant relationships between the given variables. Individuals with low self-esteem and lower social support were more vulnerable and prone to Internet addiction. Aydm & Volkan San (2011) found that self-esteem is negatively correlating with Internet addiction; Błachnio et al. (2019) demonstrated that self-esteem is a predictor of Internet addiction, further they also found that internet addiction is related to lower self-esteem. People who are highly self-critical and evaluate themselves as worthless are more prone to Internet addiction.
Evaluation of H1: It is quite difficult for every person to accept himself in a way he is. Through the Internet, especially through the social networks, we are presented with a perfect world, we follow users who post on their perfect life, a perfect job, expensive vacations, or a perfect figure. On the Internet and social networks, people often watch and see what they desire, want, but it is also for them difficult to achieve in real world. As a result of frequent websites visiting and monitoring, difficult for an individual is to accept himself as he is, to accept his imperfect life and live it to the fullest; what was also demonstrated in the Hypothesis 1 results, where the respondents with a higher level of Internet use achieved a lower level of self-acceptance.
In the second hypothesis, was assumed that people with a higher score in the dimension of social disadvantage achieve a lower score in the variable positive relations with others. The results analysis showed a non-linear strong relationship of dimensions. If the respondents scored higher in the dimension of social disadvantage, then they scored lower in positive relationships with other people. Research in this area show similar results: Karapetsas et al. (2015) confirmed that there is a high positive correlation between loneliness and Internet addiction; students who were Internet addicted were significantly lonelier. Hasmujaj (2016) , in turn, pointed out that students with a higher rate of Internet and networks experience had significantly lower rate of loneliness. Sharma & Sharma (2018) found that excessive Internet use has a negative effect on face-to-face communication; they have shown that individuals, because of spending a lot of time on the Internet, spend less time with their family, friends and loved ones. Weinstein et al. (2015) found a correlation between Internet addiction and social anxiety in college students.
Evaluation of H2: On social networks, users have up to hundreds or even thousands of friends, while in the real world the number of friends varies rapidly. People spend a lot of time sending messages through social networks, but many times happens that our “friends” on the social network are not our real friends. As a result of the fact that a person has no one to turn to in the real world, he returns to the Internet again, where he spends more and more time. The more time individuals spend online, the less time they spend in society; they neglect their family, friends, acquaintances, do not communicate with them. Often individuals may become annoyed and respond with an anger and raised voice, when interrupted while using Internet networks. Spending too much time on the Internet can cause misunderstandings or arguments, resulting in impaired positive relationships with other people in the real world.
Further findings
Within the work, we came to additional findings through the results analysis, that also demonstrated statistically significant relationships of personal subjective well-being (self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relationships with others, the environment, the sense of life, personal development) and the Internet use. Within all items, the results showed negative relationships with Internet use. The more the respondents used the Internet, the lower the scores they achieved in personal subjective well-being. Sharma & Sharma (2018) found that excessive internet use leads to lower levels of personal well-being. Rehman, Shafi, & Rizvi (2016) also addressed the relationship between Internet addiction and personal well-being, where they argue on negative relationships between Internet addiction and personal well-being.
Evaluation of other findings results: Excessive Internet and social networks use is a well-known concept manifested in all age categories. Spending a lot of time on the Internet, watching different sites and other people, can distort the perception of real world and lead to the fact that people do not live their own lives to the fullest and with joy. On the Internet, people create a new identity, a world that for them represents perfection and becomes their priority; thus, the real world takes only the second place, and as its result, people become more dissatisfied, experience a lower level of personal subjective well-being and return to the virtual world again, where it is for them simpler and according to their imaginations.
People on the Internet see perfection, they create a perfect world there where they feel much better than in the real one. Subsequently, the Internet is for them on the first place, thus the time spent there is disproportionate and excessive; the real world brings them difficulties, problems in relationships, disability to accept themselves, further develop and live a satisfactory life.
5. Conclusion
Our task was to investigate the relationship between personal subjective well-being and the Internet and networks use in adults. We found as follows:
The Internet and social networks use to some extent affect the personal subjective well-being.
The statistically significant results were found in the relationship of personal well-being, dimensions of personal subjective well-being and Internet use.
The excessive Internet use has a negative impact on life satisfaction.
The respondents who spent a lot of time on the Internet have problems in relationships with other people in the real world, because of an excessive time spent on the internet, the respondents neglect their families, friends, loved ones and lose contact with them.
To conclude, the increased age limit within the studied sample is a contribution for our future research; important is to focus on the elderly and to take some preventive measures within the stated topic. During the literature and individual research analysis was found that the our work results coincide with previous findings, but also there exist studies that have not found a relationship between Internet use and personal subjective well-being.
Work limits, further goals, and work outcomes
The sample scope and the influence of other variables can be accepted as the limits of our work; the sample consisted of 153 respondents, of whom as excessive Internet users was identified not even half of the whole sample. For the future, it is necessary to increase the number of respondents. Under the other variables are understood personality characteristics, as people have different types of personalities, and everyone is comfortable with a different type of interaction or communication; for shy and introverted people, using the Internet can be an advantage because with the Internet help it can be easier for them to communicate or maintain their relationships. Therefore, in the future, it would be good to add personality characteristics to investigated variables as well as to investigate to what extent are the personality characteristics influenced by the Internet use.
The findings can be used as an enrichment and contribution for further personal subjective well-being monitoring and excessive Internet and social network use, mainly because of selected research sample. The issue of excessive Internet and networks use have been mainly studied by researchers among adolescents, but the Internet is a big phenomenon today, thus it is not only used by adolescents, but nowadays to larger extent by all age groups, which in future should be also included in our further research.