Abadan School of Medical Sciences students' viewpoints on information seeking behavior in the mobile smartphone environment

Abstract

Aim: Information, communication and telecommunication technologies are developing and expanding day by day. One of these new technologies is mobile smart phones, which, in addition to their communication roles, can be used in the fields of information and education. Methods: This is an applied and descriptive study. The statistical population of the study was 360 students of Abadan School of Medical Sciences who were selected by stratified and simple random sampling. In order to collect data, a researcher- made questionnaire by Abdolreza Yazdi was used with 82% reliability. SPSS software version 26 was used for data analysis. Results: The findings indicated that the most important motivation for students to use mobile smart phones is sending photos and images, chatting (texting), and watching movies. Also, after laptops, mobile smart phones are the most widely used for access to internet, news, reading books and electronic articles, as well as searching information for academic research. Instant access to information from anywhere, continuous information exchange, the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously and fast information retrieval were also introduced as the most popular advantages of mobile smart phones. Conclusion: Considering that smart phones have played a significant role in daily life; it is necessary to use the various capabilities of these smart devices to advance our goals and solve everyday problems in order to create a life as comfortable and better as possible.