A week without a smartphone: uses, abuse and dependence on mobile phone among young people
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INTRODUCTION. 98% of the Spanish population owns a mobile phone and young people are the best performers in this environment. Technology has transformed their communications and social networks are their preferred channel for information. The present research examines a) the perception that young people have of their mobile phone usage, b) the consumption of the smartphone by the young population and c) their degree of dependence based on an experience of digital disconnection. METHOD. The method proposed consists of quantitative and qualitative techniques. First, a survey was designed and applied to analyze the perception that young people have of their usage of the mobile phones. The questionnaire was distributed among young Andalusians between the ages of 15 and 24 (n=1068). Based on the results obtained, an experiment and a discussion group were carried out to check the real dependence of the device. Furthermore, eleven students from the University of Malaga—whose mobile phones were monitored for three weeks—also took part in the experiment. The disconnection in their devices for one week allowed us to observe the social, informational and emotional consequences that a digital diet of these characteristics causes in this population segment. RESULTS. The results show that adolescents cannot live without their mobile phones and it reveals how young adults make an intensive use of their smartphones (4h/day), mainly for monitoring social networks. During the week of disconnection, mixed feelings that range from discomfort, misinformation and dependence to liberation have been experienced by the participants. DISCUSSION. It is concluded that after the week of deprivation, the students, even recognizing the strong influence the mobile phone has on their lives and the freedom that some of them felt without the use of the different applications, they feel unable to control and reduce voluntarily their overall time of consumption.
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