The Explorer Islamabad: Journal of Social Sciences ISSN: 2411-0132(E), 2411-5487(P) Vol-1, Issue (11): 416-420 www.theexplorerpak.org
MOBILE PHONES ADDICTION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: EVIDENCE FROM TWIN CITIES OF PAKISTAN Muhammad Shahzad1, Muhammad Nadir Shahzad2, Touqeer Ahmed3, Shahid Hussain4, Farhan Riaz4 1 University of Sargodha, 2Quaid.i.Azam University Islamabad, 3Area Manager, Innovative development strategies Pvt. Ltd, 4PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Corresponding Author: Muhammad Shahzad University of Sargodha lashari003@gmail.com Abstract: Wireless communication is fast growing technology as it guarantees to access any individual in remote corner of the world. The usage of mobile phones has the potential to effect positively as well negatively on lives of people in the world. The Current study presents empirical investigation of the usage of mobile phones among university students in twin cities of Pakistan. Quantitative research design was employed and simple random sampling technique was used to extract the study sample from the whole population. A self-structured questionnaire was used as a tool for the data collection and a sample of 260 respondents from two universities of twin cities was extracted and then analyzed through (SPSS) statistical package for social sciences and presented in tabular form with description and interpretation. The study was hypothesis based and chi square was applied to test the hypothesis. The results of the current study revealed that addiction of mobile phones was negatively affecting the relationship of respondents with their families because they don’t tolerate any kind of interruption from their parents while using mobile phones. It was also concluded that mobile phones were intensively used by the respondents which kills their precious time and loss of their study. The present study suggested that there should be proper mechanism of guidance by the parents and teachers for the usage of cell phones.
Key Words: Mobile phones, Addiction, University students, Parents INTRODUCTION Wireless communication technology has become an important and integral part of our society. The benefits of mobile phones are undeniable because of the access of any individual in remote corner of the world within no time. The advantages of cellular phones are patent and several researchers have highlighted the benefits of mobile phones because these are a major source to be in touch with anyone and support the relationship with family and other people in the world (Power and Horstmanshof 2004). Mobile phones guarantees easy contact with anyone residing anywhere (Srivastava 2005) feeling of security in emergency situation (Taylor and Harper 2001) and parents who remains busy and have not enough time to see their Childs can communicate easily (Frissen 2000; Matthews 2004). Mobile phones have positive as well as negative impacts on youth. The researchers has identified
the negative impacts of mobile phones due to excessive usage and addicted behavior. a study in Australia on usage of mobile phones and concluded that student’s addiction rate of mobile phones was recorded between 1.5 to 5 hours on daily basis and the expenditures of usage was calculated approximately 145 dollars which is costly for those students who have not enough income (James and Drennan 2005). There is found a relationship between criminal activities and mobile phone use. It was concluded from the study that those students have high rate of criminality like quarrelling, drinking, drugs addiction and robbery (Ling 2005). Srivastava (2005) resulted from his study that there is found a negative relationship between mobile usage of students and their studies. Students use mobiles during their classes and they could not concentrate well on their lectures which badly effects their study and ultimately leads towards low academic performance.
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A conducted research in USA among college students and highlighted that most of the students bring mobile phones while admitting in college. They results of their study revealed that students use their cell phones five times a day to contact their peer groups, classmates, teachers, girlfriends, boyfriends, blood relatives and neighbors (Aoki and Downes 2003). The cellular phone usage behavior and policies of educational institutions. Majority of the educational institutions hindered to use cell phone prior to entering in their class rooms but a student bring their phones with them and claims that they only use their phones for clock. It was extracted from the study that commonly students use phones to send emails to one another during their classes (Ito 2006). Several studies has been conducted on harmful effect of mobile phone usage. Intensive use of mobile phones was observed on prohibited places where the usage can be a fatal like petrol pumps, airplanes, CNG stations and hospitals. in an article that there is a dire need to control this phenomena. The parents and teachers of the students should spread awareness about the
harmful use of the mobile phones as the intensive usage causes hazardous for public health (Niaz 2008). MATERIALS AND METHODS In order to conduct the present study quantitative research design was used to get information from the respondents. The research was restricted to twin cities (Islamabad & Rawalpindi) and further two universities were selected from each city. Quaid-e-Azam University from Islamabad and Pir Meher Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi were selected on convenient basis. The researcher collected data from both the universities randomly using well-structured questionnaire. A sample of 260 respondents was extracted from both the universities and then analyzed statistically using chi square in SPSS. The data was further tabulated and interpreted. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Mobile phones addiction behavior of students is measured in the study. Mobile phone usage and time consumption are parallel with each other. For the students mobile phones are just like a time killing machine. The results are below as
Average time respondents use mobile phone for calls 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 less than 20-40 min 41-60 min more 20 min than 1 hour
more than 2 hour
Frequency
more than 3 hour
more than 4 hour
more than 5 hour
unlimited
Total
Percent
Figure. 1: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents According to Their Average Time Spent on Making Calls on Mobile Phones.
The above figure illustrates the data regarding average time respondents use mobile phones for calls. The data highlights that majority of the respondents 28.1 % use mobile for calls more than 1 hour, 21.2 % respondents use mobile for calls up to 20-40 minutes, 13.5 % respondents use mobile for calls between 41-60 minutes, 11.9 % respondents use mobile for calls more than 2
hours, 8.1 % respondents use mobile for calls more than 3 hours, 7.3 % respondents use mobile for calls more than 5 hours, 5.8 % respondents use mobile for calls less than 20 minutes, 3.8 % respondents use mobile for calls more than 4 hours, and a lowest proportion of the respondents 0.4 % use mobile for unlimited time.
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Average calls respondent make in a day 300 260
250 200 171
150 100
100 65.8
50
48 18.5
21 8.1
0
None
5-Jan
10-Jun Frequency
12 4.6 15-Nov
6 2.3 16-20
2 0.8 More than 20
Total
Percent
Figure. 2: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents According to Their Average Calls Made in a Day.
The above figure is shows data consisting the average calls made on daily basis and the results showed that 65.8 % respondents which is the highest proportion made up to 1-5 calls in a day, 18.5 % respondents made 6-10 calls in a day. 8.1 % respondents did not call in a day, 4.6 % respondents made 11-15 calls in a day, 2.3 %
respondents made 16-20 calls in a day, and 0.8 % respondents made more than 20 calls in a day. Hypothesis Testing
H0: There is no association between who made the decision to buy cell phones and who bears mobile expenditures. HA: There is association between who made the decision to buy cell phones and who bears mobile expenditures.
Table .1: The Cross Tabulation between Decision to Buy Cell Phone and Cell Phone Expenditure.
who made the decision to buy a cell phone for respondents
father
who bears respondent's mobile expenditures mother brother sister friend relative FiancĂŠ
Lover
yourself
Total
Father
58
7
13
0
0
0
0
5
13
96
Mother
12
15
1
2
0
0
2
1
6
39
Brother
6
1
6
1
2
0
1
1
4
22
Sister
1
0
0
3
1
0
0
1
2
8
Friend
10
2
3
0
0
2
0
1
4
22
relative Fiance
1 1
0 0
0 1
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 4
0 0
1 0
2 6
Lover
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
9
2
14
yourself
17
6
3
1
0
1
0
2
21
51
108
31
28
7
3
3
7
20
53
260
Total
Table 1 illustrates the cross tabulated results of mobile phones buying decision and mobile phones expenditures. The calculated p value from chi square is less than 5% which is .000 and
shows a strong relationship between both the variables. On the basis of calculated p value we reject the null hypothesis and accepts the alternate hypothesis.
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CONCLUSION Mobile phone has become the need of the day because it has connected the world. Wireless communication has become an integral part of our society. Our new generation is totally dependent of this technology. Now a days cellular company are busy in making cheap phones. The ultimate motive behind is that low income people should access this technology. The present study was conducted to observe the usage of mobile phones by the university students and it was concluded that approximately every student possess cell phone to make contact with their friends, parents, girlfriends. Boyfriends and neighbors etc. these are the positive side of the picture but this technology has negative and harmful effects on the lives of the students. They spend their most of time using mobile phones which disturb their study routine and ultimately leads towards bad academic performance. Majority of the students don’t like the interruption of their parents when they are busy in mobile. But another side of coin is that parents are not checking their mobile. They have so many other interests and activities and they don’t know that how their children use mobile phones. Students think that mobile phone helps to pursuing romantic relationship. Without mobile phone they feel incomplete and uncomfortable. Furthermore, students viewed the mobile phone as an impressive and liberating personal tool that allowed them to have a better social position in life. It is suggested from the research that there should be a proper mechanism of guidance from parents and teachers of mobile phones usage. REFERENCES Aoki, Kumiko, and Edward J. Downes 2003 An Analysis of Young People's Use of and Attitudes toward Cell Phones. Telematics and Informatics 20(4): 349364.
Frissen, Valerie AJ 2000 ICT in the Rush Hour of Life. The Information Society 16(1):65-75. Ito, Mizuko 2006 Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-Placement of Social Contact. Springer London. James, Diana, and Judy Drennan 2005 Exploring Addictive Consumption of Mobile Phone Technology, ANZMAC 2005 Conference: Electronic Marketing, In Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy conference, Perth, Australia. Ling, Rich 2005 Mobile Communications vis-à-vis Teen Emancipation, Peer Group Integration and Deviance. Springer Netherlands. Matthews, R 2004 The Psychosocial aspects of Mobile Phone Use among Adolescents. In Psych 26: 16-19. Niaz, Unaiza 2008 Addiction with Internet and Mobile: An overview. Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society 5(2):72. Power, M. R., and L. Horstmanshof 2004 YYSSW (Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, whatever): Keeping and Supporting Relationships through SMS Text Messaging. Human Communication and Technology Communication, National Communication Association Annual Convention, Chicago, Illinois. Srivastava, Lara 2005 Mobile Phones and Evolution of Social Behaviour. Behaviour and Information Technology 24(2): 111-129.
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Taylor, A.S. and R. Harper 2001 Talking Activity: Young People and Mobile Phones. Paper presented at C HI 2001 Workshop: Mobile Communications: Understanding Users, A doption and Design. Publication Date: Dec-1-2015 © 2015“The Explorer Islamabad” Journal of Social Sciences-Pakistan
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