Internet addiction among school adolescents in Jeddah-Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Internet addiction is increasing among adolescents worldwide. There is a lack of research assessing internet addiction and factors contributing to it among adolescents in Jeddah city. The current study aimed to assess the rate of internet addiction among adolescents in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the potential factors associated with it. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey, hosted by SurveyMonkey, was used to capture data on internet use from 462 adolescents aged 12-18 years between March and May 2022. Young's Internet Addiction Scale was used to assess the degree of internet addiction as perceived by adolescents. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify possible predictors of internet addiction among adolescents in Jeddah. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 15.5 ± 1.9 years. The majority were females (75%) from public schools (63%), spent an average of six hours on the internet daily, owned smartphones (98%), accessed the internet via a smartphone (94%), and used the internet for socializing (82%). Internet addiction mean score was 39.20 ± 15.20 out of 100. More than two-thirds of the participants had mild to moderate levels of internet addiction (68%). Significant predictors contributing to internet addiction were using the internet for socialization and playing online games. The more hours spent on the internet daily, the more the internet addiction was (p ≤ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The internet addiction rate is high among school adolescents in Jeddah. The majority of high school adolescents had mild to moderate levels of internet addiction. Interventional multidisciplinary programs are needed to mitigate the factors that influence internet addiction.

Vertebrate cell culture as an experimental approach - limitations and solutions.

Mammalian cell culture has provided the foundation for the incredible expansion of cell biology to uncover the 'inner life of the cell'. The protocols for propagating cells in the laboratory have their origins in the mid-20th century. At that time the focus was on creating cell culture media that kept cells viable and favoured replicative growth. To the extent that oxygen level was considered as an important parameter, it was in the context of ensuring that oxygen was not depleted; the idea that environmental oxygen levels could be toxic was not widely appreciated. We increasingly understand that media composition and oxygen levels have important effects on cellular functions and that maintaining physiologically relevant conditions is necessary to maintain in vivo behaviours. We also understand much about the impact of growing cells that function in a 3D environment in 2D adherent monolayers. In this review, we examine some of the issues affecting standard cell culture approaches and new solutions that address these issues to increase the physiological accuracy of the cellular environment. We have reached a threshold in cell biology in which we know enough about the problems and their solutions to inform useful adjustments to protocols moving forward. This will increase the accuracy and translatability of this reductionist approach to understanding cell behaviours.