A recent study, involving 3,000 students from Turkey's 26 different universities, found that one in every two university students use the internet when they feel lonely.

A group of researchers from Selçuk University, led by professor Birol Gülnar decided to conduct the study to determine why people turn to virtual life on the internet.

The study looked at whether university students use the internet for entertainment, communication or to search for information.

The study revealed students usually use the internet 224 minutes for communications and 180 minutes for entertainment. However, the students only spent only 60 minutes to search for information on the internet.

The study stated that 44% of the participants watch videos, play online games and login to their social media accounts whenever they use the internet.

“Students tend to use the internet more for entertainment when they are depressed or lonely. It is hard to say that the internet makes the students depressed but it actually is a tool to compensate for their loneliness. However, the depression state of the students increases when they continue to use the internet for entertainment purposes. This is a sad situation,” said professor Gülnar.