A study of mobile phones and Internet use among Spanish university students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Lately, the use of mobile phones and the Internet has become usual among young and not so young people. This study aims to identify the profile of mobile and Internet users in the Spanish university population, identifying problematic uses and trying to establish possible differences in use between men and women and between the different ages. METHOD. This study is not experimental and with an ex post facto design, and intentional sampling for N = 775 people studying in the Faculty of Education (Complutense University of Madrid). An ad hoc questionnaire with different blocks of questions was applied during the month of March 2015. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Excel. We have conducted a descriptive and also an inferential analysis, with a = 0.05. RESULTS. In line with previous studies, and contrary to what one might expect, the results show that, although the mobile phone and the Internet have broken through and today occupy a very important space in young people’s lives, we cannot talk of a pathological use in this sample. DISCUSSION. We have found differences targeting different usage profiles between men and women and more frequent use among younger people in the sample. The results indicate that young people take advantage of the possibilities offered to them by the devices tested, but do not fall into a use that may be characterized as pathological.