Journal Screenshot

International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development

Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2226-6348

The Effects of Smartphone Usage on University Students

Nalini Arumugam, Sivajothy Selvanayagam, Sai Tarishini Sathiyasenan

http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARPED/v9-i3/7960

Open access

This study examined the daily usage of smartphones by university students. The study utilised a questionnaire via Google form to elicit information from 106 tertiary level students that had agreed to participate in the research. The data obtained from the survey was compiled into tables to categorize the respondents into hours they had spent using their smartphones. A descriptive quantitative analysis was used to examine the findings in the study. Results indicate that too much time spent on smartphones late night affects students’ quality of sleep, which in turn affects students’ state of mind in the next day. In addition, it was found that students in the 18-30 age range are the ones most affected in their social interactions because of the reliance on smartphones. Findings also indicated that university students’ excessive smartphone use during the night has negative effects on their well-being. They are unable to concentrate during lectures the following day, often feeling sleepy during the day, and face difficulties handling the day to day pressures, as well as, thinking rationally whenever problems occur. In addition, results also revealed that when university students rely too much on their mobile phones, they become anxious when their gadgets are not with them. In short, students’ dependency on their smartphones affects them both physically and psychologically.

Acharya, J. A., Acharya, I., & Waghrey, D. (2013). A study on some psychological health effects of cell-phone usage amongst college going students. International Journal of Medical Research & Health Sciences, 2(3): 388-394.
Akpan, K. P., & Abe, E. (2017). Effectiveness of WhatsApp as a collaborative tool for learning among undergraduate students in University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom state. International Journal of Advanced Education and Research, 2(5), 43–46.
Alavi, S. S., Ferdosi, M., Jannatifard, F., Eslami, M, Alaghemandan, H., Setare, M. (2012). Behavioral addiction versus substance addiction: correspondence of psychiatric and psychological views. Int J Prev Med. 3:290–294.
Arefin, S., Islam, R., Mustafi, M. A. A., Afrin, S., Islam, N. (2017). Impact of smartphone addiction on business students’ academic performance: a case study. Independ J Manage Prod. 8:955–975.
Arumugam, N., Ismail, N., Selvanayagam, S., & Sathiyasenan, S. D. (2019). Social Media In Enhancing English Language Competence Among Undergraduates. Journal of Institutional Research South East Asia, 17 (2), p. 86 - 102. ISSN 1675-6061. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1996. tb02311.x
Augner, C., Hacker, G. W. (2017). Associations between problematic mobile phone use and psychological parameters in young adults. Int J Public Health. 57:437–444.
Ayar, D., Gerceker, O. G., Ozdemir, E. Z., & Bektas, M. (2018). The Effect of Problematic Internet Use, Social Appearance Anxiety, and Social Media Use on Nursing Students' Nomophobia Levels. Computers, informatics, nursing: CIN. Epub 2018/07/14. 10.1097/cin.0000000000000458
Boumosleh, J. M., Jaalouk, D. (2017). Depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction in university students- a cross-sectional study. PLos ONE.12(8):e0182239
Cha, S. S., Seo, B. K. (2018). Smartphone use and smartphone addiction in middle school students in Korea: prevalence, social networking service, and game use. Health Psychology Open.1–5.
Chu, H. C., Liu, Y. M., & Kuo, F. R. (2018). A mobile sleep-management learning system for improving students’ sleeping habits by integrating a self-regulated learning strategy: randomized controlled trial JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 6(10): e11557
Davis, K. (2018), What's to know about sleep deprivation? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307334.php
Elhai, J. D., Dvorak, R. D., Levine, J. C., Hall, B. J. (2016). Problematic smartphone use: A conceptual overview and systematic review of relations with anxiety and depression psychopathology. Journal of affective disorders, 207:251–9.10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.030
FNP, K. D. (2018). Medical New Today. What's to know about sleep deprivation? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307334.php
Ganasegeran, K., Renganathan, P. & Rashid A. (2017). The m-Health revolution: Exploring perceived benefits of WhatsApp use in clinical practice. International, Journal Med Inform, 97:145-151.
Giri, P., Baviskar, M. & Phalke, D. (2013). Study of sleep habits and sleep problems among medical students of Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences Loni, Western Maharashtra, India, Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, 3(1), 51–54.
Gutiérrez, J., Rodríguez, F., Rubio, G. (2016) Cell-phone addiction: a review. Front Psychiatry, 7:175.
Jafarzadeh-Kenarsari, F., Pourghane, P., & Mahdavi, N. (2018). Consequences of using smartphone technology in university students: Experiencing challenges. J Qual Res Health Sci 7(3): 252-63.
Kim, J. H., Seo, M., & David, P. (2015). Alleviating depression only to become problematic mobile phone users: Can face-to-face communication be the antidote? Computers in Human Behavior, 51:440–447. 10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.030
Lenord, J. (2015). 16 seriously damaging side effects of your smartphone addiction.https://www.naturallivingideas.com/16-seriously-damaging-side-effects-of-your- smartphone-addiction/
Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E., & Karpinski, A.C. (2015): The relationship between cell phone use and academic performance in a sample of U.S. college students. SAGE Open, 5: 1–9.
Malaysian Healthcare Performance (2017). Technical Report 2016, Unit National Institute of Health, Ministry of Health, Malaysia. https://www.moh.gov.my/moh/resources/Penerbitan/Laporan/Umum/Mental%20Healthcare% 20Performance%20Report%202016.pdf
Miller, Y. A. (2017). Smartphones negative effects: A summary of latest comprehensive research. https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Smartphones-Negative-Effects-A-Summary-of-Latest-Comprehensive-Research.html
Ministry of Health Malaysia. (2016). Patient Congestion: Sharing experience with the implementation of Lean at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital Klang, Malaysia. http://www.mpc.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hospital-Tengku-Ampuan-.pdf
Nath, D. A., & Mukherjee, S. (2015). Impact of mobile phone/smartphone: A pilot study on positive and negative effects . International Journal Of Advance Research In Computer Science And Management Studies, 295-297.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2018). Brain basics: Understanding sleep.https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep
Parasuraman, S. Sam, A.T., Yee, S.W., Chuon, B.L. & Ren, L.Y.(2017) Smartphone usage and increased risk of mobile phone addiction: A concurrent study. Int J Pharma Investig, 7:125–131.
Rotondi, V., Stanca, L., & Tomasuolo, M. (2017). Connecting alone: Smartphone use, quality of social interactions and well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 63: 17–26. 10.1016/j.joep.2017.09.001
Russell, D. (2018). Mobile phones in the classroom. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/mobile-phones-in-the-classroom-what-does-the-research-say
Sarhandi, P. S., Bajnaid, A., & Elyas, T. (2017). Impact of smartphone-based activities on EFL students’ engagement. English Language Teaching, 10(6) :103-117.
Sharples, M. T., & Vavoula, G. (2006). A Theory of Learning for the Mobile Age. Andrews, R. and Haythornthwaite, C. The Sage Handbook of Elearning Research, Sage publications, pp.221-247, 2006. ffhal-00190276f
Short, M. A., & Louca, M. (2015). Sleep deprivation leads to mood deficits in healthy adolescents. Sleep Medicine, 16(8):987–993. pmid:26141007
Shoukat, S. (2019). Cell phone addiction and psychological and physiological health in adolescents. EXCLI journal, 18: 47–50.PMCID: PMC6449671
Tao, S., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., Zhang, S., Tong, S., & Tao, F. (2017).Effects of sleep quality on the association between problematic mobile phone use and mental health symptoms in Chinese college students. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 14(2):185. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14020185 Chu HC.
Tariq, R. S. (2013). Impact of smartphones on society. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c28/0b6a690442a97a571e09b2404e2d21720db4.pdf
Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., & Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults—a prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 11(1):66 10.1186/1471-2458-11-66
Thomée, S., Eklöf, M., Gustafsson, E., Nilsson, R., & Hagberg, M. (2007). Prevalence of perceived stress, symptoms of depression and sleep disturbances in relation to information and communication technology (ICT) use among young adults–an explorative prospective study. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(3):1300–1321. 10.1016/j.chb.2004.12.007
Yildirim, C., & Correia, A. P. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49:130–137. 10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.059.
Wilmer, H., Sherman, L. E., & Chein, J. M. (2017). Smartphones and Cognition: A Review of Research Exploring the Links between Mobile Technology Habits and Cognitive Functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 8: 605.
White, J., & Mills, D. J. (2012). Get smart!: Smartphones in the Japanese classroom. In A. Stewart, & N. Sonda, JALT2011 Conference Proceedings, Tokyo, 328-337.

In-Text Citation: (Arumugam et al., 2020)
To Cite this Article: Arumugam, N., Selvanayagam, S., & Sathiyasenan, S. T. (2020). The Effects of Smartphone Usage on University Students. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 9(3), 107–183.