Exploring the factors of excessive smartphone use by undergraduate students

Abstract

There is an exponential increase of apprehension in the uptake, affordances and the excessive use of smartphones by multiple categories of users and the impact on the society. The research evaluates excessive use within a user community in a developing country landscape. It is estimated that many young people spend too much time on their phones and the projections suggest even higher numbers with disturbing estimations. The unravelling of contexts surrounding the excessive use of digital devices such as smartphones and the elements that lead to it are mostly unexplored. Consequently, the study illuminated the fundamental mechanisms that influence excessive use of smartphones by learners using perspectives from the Incentive-sensitization Theory (IST) to add scope and breadth. A total of 110 undergraduate students participated in the study. The fundamental results showed that the increase in the volume of activities such as online games, virtual world games and social media was responsible for excessive use. The findings provided an understanding of the relationship between depression-like behaviour and anxiety and shed new light on the influence of excessive use, smartphone stress and depression-related symptoms on students. The study outlined the implications of the results for prevention and regulation.