Smartphone Usage and Addiction: Australian and Korean Students Study

This discussion post presents a comparative analysis of smartphone usage between Australian and Korean students, examining usage hours, social media engagement, and the use of various smartphone applications. The study reveals that Korean students spend significantly more time on their smartphones compared to their Australian counterparts, potentially leading to higher rates of smartphone addiction. While both groups exhibit similar social media usage, Korean students demonstrate a greater tendency to use their phones for gaming, video consumption, and online shopping. The analysis further explores the impact of smartphone usage on academic performance, revealing that while Korean students spend more time on their phones, they do not necessarily experience a negative impact on their class concentration as much as Australian students. Overall, the research highlights the ambiguous nature of wireless technology and the potential for both positive and negative outcomes associated with smartphone usage, emphasizing the importance of self-regulation and responsible mobile phone use.

Discussion
The main aim of the study has been to compare the usage of Smartphone within the
Australian and Korean students while studying where the use and addiction of Smartphone has
been examined. As per the usage of Smartphone within the Australian and Korean students, it
has been evidenced that mean score of the hours spent has been analysed. The estimated score of
the usage of smart phone per day has been found to be 6.52 hours for the Korean students and
4.72 hours for the Australian students. Within the recent years, it has been seen that most of the
population makes use of smart phones because of its wider range of the applications (Rosen,
Carrier & Cheever, 2013). This can also bring certain limitations for the Korean Students as
they are found to make much more use of smart phones as compared with the Australian
students. This can cause psychological addiction; reduced efficiency in work and also can result
in social nuisance as well. However, on the other hand, it has also been evidenced from the
results that Korean students spent time within social media for 2.36 hours whereas; Australian
students spent 2.35 hours which is somewhat similar with the Korean students.
According to Lau, (2017), social media within the recent time has become an
indispensable part within the daily life of the individuals nevertheless; it has also been argued
that multitasking of social media and its usage has also influenced the academic performance
within the university students. Watching videos; playing games and listening to music has also
been found to be for longer duration within the Korean students as compared with the Australian
students that is 2.30; 1.27 and 2.79 hours for Korean students whereas; 1.42; 0.58 and 2.35 for
Australian students. On the other hand, the Korean students also make use of smart phones for
booking online tickets for travelling and uses e-bay as well (David et al., 2015). This seems to
be useful for the students which are also higher as compared with Australia that is 0.38 for Korea
and 0.29 for Australia. Thus, mobiles are considered to be a break through advance regarding
human communication. However, according to DSCOUT (2016), as per the available choices
through smart phones, students who are deficient within self-regulation or consists of
propensity for its addiction might face certain challenges for management of these choices in a
strategic manner.
According to the result of smart phone addiction, mean scores has been calculated for the
Korean and Australian students. It has been evidenced that Korean students tend to miss their
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planned work on a higher rate that is 3.12 as compared with the Australians that is 2.52. This,
is because the Korean students make a higher usage of smart phones than the Australians (Kesari
et al., 2013). However, on the contrast, Korean students do not get impacted in their studies
through the use of mobile phones as their mean score seems to be lower for class concentration
that is 3.13 as compared with the Australian students that is 3.23. As evidenced by Soomro, Zai
& Hina, (2019), this results in not being negatively affected by the smart phones in the study. On
the other hand, Korean students were found to score a higher mean for being dependant within
the smart phones that is 4.07 as compared with the Australian students that is 3.44. Thus, this
makes the Australian students much more flexible with the usage of their smart phones as
compared with the Korean students. According to the total score of both the students, the Korean
students were seen to score higher that is 31.62 than the Australian students that is 28.61. Hence,
through the above discussion, it can be said that wireless technologies seems to be ambiguous for
the recent days and the smart phones has been prodigious output based on technology which can
have both positive and negative outcome (Mahapatra, 2019).
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References
David, P., Jung-Hyun, K., Brickman, J., S., Ran, W., & Curtis, C. M. (2015). Mobile phone
distraction while studying. New Media & Society, 17(10), 1661-1679.
doi:10.1177/1461444814531692
DSCOUT (2016). Putting a finger on our phone obsession. Mobile touches: a study on humans
and their tech. https://blog.dscout.com/mobile-touches
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5680647/psycholigcal illness…
Kesari KK, Siddiqui MH, Meena R, Verma HN, Kumar S. Cell phone radiation exposure on
brain and associated biological systems. Indian J Exp Biol. 2013;51:187–200.
Lau, W.W.F. (2017). Effects of social media usage and social media multitasking on the
academic performance of university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 286-
291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.043
Mahapatra, S. (2019). Smartphone addiction and associated consequences: role of loneliness and
self-regulation. Behaviour & Information Technology, 38(8), 833-844.
Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L. M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). Facebook and texting made me do it:
Media-induced task-switching while studying. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3),
948-958. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.001
Soomro, K. A., Zai, S. A. Y., & Hina, Q. A. (2019). Investigating the impact of university
students’ smartphone addiction on their satisfaction with classroom
connectedness. Education and Information Technologies, 24(6), 3523-3535.
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