Impact of Mobile Gaming on Users: Addiction and Health Effects

Abstract
Advancement in information communication
technology (ICT) has led to the invention and
development of various kind of mobile phones and
computers entry into the market every year. Several
brands characterized by Android, and the operating
system has risen competition in market spreading its
importance globally and easing communication and
advancing research. The users have explored the use
of these devices to include leisure, entertainment,
online communication, online and offline
businesses, to store, manipulate, analyze data and
internet banking. However, the usage of mobile
phones across gender and age has taken a different
direction. Mobile devices are now accessible across
the globe and with a large number of users being
business people and students. Several Android
phones have been also introduced into the market
basically for gaming whose target users are children
and people with great interest in mobile gaming.
Incorporation of mobile games into the mobile
phones has indeed lead to addiction, faced out the
feeling of loneliness and consumed much time that
could be spent doing other constructive things. The
popular addictive mobile games are angry birds,
candy crush saga, mortal combats5, and mortal
combat. This study aims to examine the most
popular mobile games that consume much of the
time of the users across the age and gender as well
as the effect of mobile games on the health of the
users. Whether there is a relationship between
mobile gaming and the health of the users. Primary
data were collected from 32 respondents whose age
ranges from 15 to 34 through a random survey. The
selection was done randomly for both male and
female respondents. The findings show mobile
phone was accessible to every respondent and
therefore were accessible to mobile games. It also
revealed that women are the major users of the
mobile phone on gaming, and in particular, candy
crush saga. Mobile games have addiction effect to
the users as a result of many users taking much of
their time in gaming. The findings also indicate that
mobile games resolve the problem of feeling
loneliness.
Research design
The sample of respondents was collected randomly
and the questionnaire was issued. Data was
collected and coded into the Statistical Package for
Social Science. Frequency and descriptive statistics
were used to analyze the effect of mobile gaming to
the users. It was also used to assess the relationship
between the usage of the mobile phone on gaming
across gender and the time.
Introduction
The mobile phone was initially made to be used by
adults basically for business purposes and it has
become a powerful device used across all scales of
economy. A mobile phone is a device used for
wireless communication, entertainment and
research (K. 2013), and it has become a basic
device used across the globe for communication
through its use continues to advance due to
technological development and revolution (Mikael
Gajecki 2014). Research study on mobile gaming
revealed that women are major users of mobile
phones for mobile gaming (Aoki 2011) and mobile

games are integrated majorly to behavioral
addiction (Kritika M. 2013). Further studies (Takao
2009) say that the addictive mobile gaming is
becoming problematic on the phone usage and it is
impacting negatively to family relationships while
(San Francisco 2012) Argue that however many
mobile games have addiction effect, it was designed
with strategies of training and education where
through mobile gaming, children are introduced to
the world of technology. Researchers have over
time been tirelessly trying to base their studies on
how mobile gaming has impacted positively or
negatively to behavioral change. (Böhmer 2011)
Reveal that, along with the positive effects, there
are negative aspects to the users which include
addiction and increase of fraud cases among others.
The study reveals that there is a relationship
between psychological characteristics and mobile
gaming addiction (Hong 2012).
Data analysis
Data were coded in IBM SPSS. Frequency statistics
and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the
effect of the use of mobile gaming on behavioral
change and as well analyze the attitude of the
respondents across the gender on the effect of
mobile gaming on their health. The correlation
coefficient was used to determine the relationship
between the use of mobile and the addiction effect.
Results and discussion
All the 32 respondents have the mobile phone as
shown in table I below.
This is a clear indication that a mobile phone is an
access device to a larger percentage of the
population across the globe.
Correlation analysis was conducted between the two
variables, the behavioral change and in, particular,
addiction and the use of the mobile.
Table II below shows that the correlation within the
two variables is 1 and .0426 with one another. This
is a significant correlation at 5% and at 1%.
Therefore, behavioral change and addiction are
dependent on the use of mobile phone.
Table II: Relationship between Mobile gaming
and addiction
Mobile User
Addiction
Phone usage
Pearson
correlation
Significant(2-
tailed test)
Size (N)
1
34
.0426***
.003
34
Current grade
Pearson
correlation
Significant(2-
tailed test)
Size (N)
.0426***
.003
34
1
34
***Correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed)
Hypothesis test: Is there a significant relationship
between mobile gaming and addiction?
Table I: Shows Percentage of respondents who
own mobile phone
Freque
ncy
Percen
t
Valid
Percent
Cumulativ
e Percent
Vali
d
YE
S 32 100.0 100.0 100.0

H0: There is no significant relationship between
mobile gaming and addiction.
H1: There is a significant relationship between
mobile gaming and addiction.
Table III: Statistical test computation
Respons
es
A B A-B (A-B)^2 (A-
B)^2/B
Yes 2
2
10.6
7
11.3
3
128.37 12.3
No 8 10.6
7
-2.67 7.13 0.67
No Idea 2 10.6
7
-8.67 75.17 7.4
Total 3
2
32 -0.01 20.07
B stands for expected value and A is the observed
value
A=32/3=10.67 X2 = ∑∑( A−B)2
B =20.55 hence
H1
X2 = Table value =(r-1) =3-1=2 2 at 0.05=5.991
(H0)
Conclusion: our calculated value is 20.07 which is
greater than table value 5.991. We, therefore, reject
the null hypothesis (H0) and accept alternative
hypothesis (H1). We, therefore, conclude that there
is a significant relationship between mobile gaming
and addiction
32 respondents were surveyed, of which 16(50%)
and 16(50%) were male and female respectively.
Table IV: shows the relationship between age
against gender
Age
Total
15-
19
19
-
24
25-
29
30-
34
Gen
der
Male Count 5 7 3 1 16
% within
Gender 31.
3%
43.
8
%
18.
8%
6.3
%
100.0
%
% within
Age 55.
6%
46.
7
%
50.
0%
50.
0% 50.0%
Femal
e
Count 4 8 3 1 16
% within
Gender 25.
0%
50.
0
%
18.
8%
6.3
%
100.0
%
% within
Age 44.
4%
53.
3
%
50.
0%
50.
0% 50.0%
Total Count 9 15 6 2 32
% within
Gender 28.
1%
46.
9
%
18.
8%
6.3
%
100.0
%
% within
Age
10
0.0
%
10
0.0
%
10
0.0
%
10
0.0
%
100.0
%
9(28.1%) of total population aged (15-19) of which
5(31.3%) and 4(25.0%) were female. 15(46.9%)
aged (19-24) of which 7(43.8%) and 8(50.0%) were
female. Similarly, 6(18.8%) aged (25-29) of which
3(18.8%) were male and 3(18.8%) were female and
finally 2(6.3%) aged (30 -34) years.