FOMO Presence among Students of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Tuzla – (Non)Dangerous Phenomenon?

The present paper discusses the phenomenon of excessive use of smartphones focusing on social networks – primarily Facebook and Instagram. Subjects in focus were students of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Tuzla from all study fields, undergraduates and postgraduates. Paper is theoretically focused on the phenomenon, recognized by recent academic literature, as FOMO or "fear of missing out)" and also partially investigates nomophobia ("NO MObilePHonePhoBIA) as a new subtype of "addiction" (whether it is an addiction or not, the academic community is still divided). It also includes a theoretical introduction and description of FOMO syndrome and nomophobia in developed democracies with available statistics and data on recent research that focuses – mainly – on young people (not older than 35 years). Based on the available research, FOMO was defined and also indicators that can be interpreted or related to nomophobia. A considerable number of indicators were found which confirm the possible wide existence of FOMO and nomophobia among students of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Tuzla. The empirical part consists of a theoretical analysis of the phenomenon in modern democratic societies (with a focus on the younger population) and a comparison with the data obtained from an online survey in which 110 students participated. Quantitative indicators point to a justified assumption of the existence of FOMO phenomena and nomophobia among students of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Tuzla. 25% of them feel a sudden need to check their smartphones if they haven’t done so in the last hour; 21% say that it never happens to them that they don’t check social networks for more than an hour. 46% of students would not be able to abstain from social media and a similar percentage said they have problems related to sleep. A significant number of respondents admit that they spend too much time on social media, but, as they subjectively assess, they do not feel that it’s a "digital addiction" but a habit.

Development and Validation of the Digital Addiction Scale for Teenagers (DAST)

We present the development and validation of the Digital Addiction Scale for Teenagers (DAST), describing the pilot study ( N = 40 students) and main study ( N = 4493) with Estonian students aged 11–19, in spring 2020. Our aim was to create a scale suitable for psychoeducational assessment of teenagers’ behaviour and feelings towards digital devices. We used the mixed research framework . Half of the study sample was collected before the coronavirus crisis (Sample I: 1972 students) and the rest during a distance-learning period (Sample II: 2521 students). We found that factor structure in both subsamples were similar. The DAST shows a negative relationship with emotional school engagement and life satisfaction and positive correlations with school burnout, learning difficulties and screen time. We discuss potential uses of the scale for assessing health-related digital competences.

The risks and threats of digital educational technologies and products

Modern research is paying much attention to the issue of digital addiction of students in recent times since it can lead students to pay less attention to their academics. This article intends to discuss the possible threats and risks of the formation of digital dependence among teenagers from the use of gadgets. As a research method, the questionnaire method was used. The participants consisted of 13 specialists and 508 teenagers aged 11 to 14, studying in the 5th-8th grades of secondary schools. From the study, digital education increased the time spent of digital devices and technology. The authors also found that when students are learning with digital devices, they waste time on non-educational contents. The authors of the article propose psychological and pedagogical measures aimed at preventing digital addiction of students. Keywords: students, digital educational technologies, digital products, Internet addiction, prevention, gadget, typology of threats and risks.

When Does a Lot Become Too Much? A Q Methodological Investigation of UK Student Perceptions of Digital Addiction

Despite the benefits of the internet and other digital technology, the online world has been associated with a negative impact on university student wellbeing. Many university students report symptoms of pathological internet use. Internationally, further research is needed to understand what student users of technology perceive to be problematic internet and/or digital use. The current study explores the range of perceptions that university students hold about ‘digital addiction’. We recruited 33 participants from a UK university into a Q-methodology study. Participants sorted, ranked, and commented on fifty-two statements representing the concourse of ‘things written or said about digital addiction’. The statements were identified from a comprehensive search of a wide variety of sources (e.g., newspapers, academic articles, blogs, and YouTube). Principal Component Analysis was used to identify four distinct viewpoints of ‘digital addiction’: (I) digital addiction is differentiated by the negative consequences experienced by addicted individuals; (II) digital addiction comes from our fascination with the online world; (III) digital addiction is an attempt to escape real world problems and impacts on mental health and relationships; (IV) digital addiction is defined by the amount of time we spend online. All four viewpoints share the perception that people do not realize they are digitally addicted because using and having digital devices on you at all times has become the social norm. There was also overall agreement that that those with ‘addictive personalities’ were more likely to be ‘digitally addicted’. Despite these similarities, complexity and contradictions within the viewpoints surrounding what digital addiction is and how it might be defined are apparent. The information found in this study provides important suggestions of how we might frame prevention and early intervention messages to engage students and ensure they develop the skills necessary to successfully manage their digital lives.

Identification of Factors Contributing to Online Game Addiction among Adolescents

Nowadays, there are growing views of potentially addictive behaviors such as digital addiction, especially Online Game Addiction (OGA). This study argues that all types of addictions are related to common components, such as salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse, and problems. Despite the plethora of online game consequences, there is no standard or benchmark used to classify between addicted and non-addicted users. Therefore, this study is organized to identify the factors that contribute to OGA and examine the level of OGA especially among adolescents by utilizing the Online Game Addiction Scale (OGAS). Using the same scale, the adolescents were classified into addicted and non-addicted categories. Driven by previous studies of conventional game addiction, this study adopted all the distinct common components to measure seven underlying criteria related to OGA. The dimensional structure of the scale was analyzed based on the samples of adolescents among students of higher learning institutions (HLI) in Northern Malaysia. Data were collected from 389 participants who responded to an online survey. Based on OGAS, 35 percent of the participants were found to be addicted to online games. In addition, the findings demonstrated good concurrent validity as shown by the coherent associations between the time spent on playing games and the category of the games. This study contributes to the identification of factors that influence OGA among adolescents, which are significant in preventing the occurrence of other behavioral issues such as insecure cyber and emotional behaviors.

Digital Addiction and the Academic Performance Among Universities' Students

Digital addiction has been called digital dependency and digital compulsivity. By any name, it is a compulsive behaviour that completely dominates the addict’s life. Digital addicts make the digital technology a priority more important than family, friends, and work. The digital technology becomes the organizing principle of addicts’ lives. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between Digital Addiction (DA) and academic performance among college students in public and private university. This study also identified the differences in digital addiction in terms of gender. The statistical techniques frequency and percentage are used to identify the patterns of using the Internet; t-test and one-way ANOVA is used to examine the differences in DA in terms of demographic factors. Pearson correlation technique will also be used to determine the relationship between DA and academic performance. This study helps to determine the level of digital addiction among college student and how its impacts their academic performance.