Effects of mobile phone use on academic performance of college going young adults in India

Abstract

Mobile phones have become the most popular way to communicate with other individuals. While cell phones have become less of a status symbol and more of a fashion statement, they have created an unspoken social dependency. Adolescents and young adults are more likely to engage in SMS messing, making phone calls, accessing the internet from their phone or playing a mobile driven game. Once pervaded by boredom, teenagers resort to instant connection, to someone, somewhere. Sensation seeking behavior has also linked adolescents and young adults to have the desire to take risks with relationships, rules and roles. Individuals seek out entertainment and avoid boredom at all times be it appropriate or inappropriate. Cell phones are used for entertainment, information and social connectivity. It has been demonstrated that individuals with low self – esteem use cell phones to form and maintain social relationships. They form an attachment with cell phone which molded their mind that they cannot function without their cell phone on a day-to-day basis. In this context, the study attempts to examine the extent of use of mobile phone and its influence on the academic performance of the students. A face to face survey using structured questionnaire was the method used to elicit the opinions of students between the age group of 18-25 years in three cities covering all the three regions the State of Andhra Pradesh in India. The survey was administered among 1200 young adults through two stage random sampling to select the colleges and respondents from the selected colleges, with 400 from each city. In Hyderabad, 201 males and 199 females participated in the survey. In Visakhapatnam, 192 males and 208 females participated. In Tirupati, 220 males and 180 females completed the survey. Two criteria were taken into consideration while choosing the participants for the survey. The participants are college-going and were mobile phone users. Each of the survey responses was entered and analyzed using SPSS software. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS - 16) had been used to work out the distribution of samples in terms of percentages for each specified parameter.