A Study to Explore the Impact of the Internet Shutdown among Nursing Students in Selected Colleges, Guwahati, Assam

Today It has not only become an ubiquitous entity but also has literally become an indispensable modern day tool in our daily activities. But he Assam Government has shut down the internet or prevented people from communicating on the web and accessing information for a certain period in December 2019 after the Citizen Amendment Bill was approved. Aim: The aim was to explore the impact of the internet shut down during this particular period among nursing students in selected colleges of Guwahati, Assam. Method: quantitative research approach was used, and descriptive design was adopted in the study. The samples were collected using convenience sampling technique from 165 students, who were in the age group of 17 -30 years, studying in selected college of Guwahati, Assam and who fulfills the inclusion criteria. . Semi structured questionnaire was used to explore the impact of the internet band among nursing students. Result: It was found that majority 98 % of the respondents used whatsapp, 39 % of them do still check unintentionally the social media even though there is internet shut down. It was also that found during the internet shut down, the majority i. e 51 % of the respondent expressed they could not update the studies.46 % expressed due to the internet shut down they have lost connection with their friends and 43 % feel upset.57 % 0f the respondents used to spend more time in watching movies. The study also reveals that only 15 % of the respondents expressed that they are never dependent on the internet and remaining 85 % were dependent to internet to some extent. There was also statistically significant association of dependency on internet with demographic variables like age, education, duration of the internet use before internet shut down. Conclusion: It was concluded that there is dependency on the internet to some extent among the nursing students. So there is a need to educate the community regarding the prevention of internet dependency