Investigation of Smartphone Addiction of Middle School and High School Students

ABSTRACT

Addiction is the state of being addicted to any activity, substance, object or behavior in a way that excludes other activities of one's life or causes physical, mental or social harm to oneself and others. In addition to many and various types of addiction, it seems that an important type of addiction is technology addiction. Today, the dizzying development of technological developments and their inclusion in every aspect of our lives has made it necessary for us to rethink the concepts of far and near. With the rapid development in mobile phone technology, the standard mobile phones used in the past to call someone or send a message to someone have been replaced by state-of-the-art smartphones that make our daily lives much easier. However, on the other hand, it is seen that addiction to smartphones, which have become an integral part of life, is on the rise, and this goes back to pre-school periods. In this context, the aim of the research was determined to examine whether the smartphone usage level of students studying in secondary and high schools affiliated to the National Education Directorate of Tunceli province Hozat district in the 2022-2023 academic year varies significantly according to some demographic characteristics of the students. Within the scope of quantitative research, the data of the research designed in the general survey model were collected by applying the "Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Form (ATBÖ-SF)", developed by Kwon et al. and adapted to Turkish by Noyan et al., face to face between May and June 2023. The scale, for which validity and reliability studies were conducted, was found to be suitable for the use of parametric tests, and in addition to test analyzes such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, T Test and One-Way Variance Analysis were used to determine the significance of the difference using statistical data analysis techniques. As a result of the analysis, the average smartphone addiction level being below 3 was interpreted as the students not having smartphone addiction, but the measurements being just below the average indicating a risk factor, while the difference between the dependent and independent variables was not significant (p<.005). According to the research findings, the smartphone addiction level of students at the lower limit of addiction carries a risk factor, in this respect the findings are warning, and it is recommended that parents, society, and especially schools and relevant institutions and organizations take precautions against the apparent danger.