Digital Maniac?

It is not rare thing to discuss about internet addiction these years. We have become so internet dependent that each day, after wake up from bed, the first thing first we check is our phone, especially those who owns digital device with the internet. Internet helps to ease our activity but at some point it can make things gone worse. A scholarly explanation on internet addiction is “Internet addiction (IA) is the lack of ability to control Internet use and involvement leading to progressive loss of control. With negative social effects, Internet addicts use the Web as a social and communication tool, once they experience higher levels of pleasure and satisfaction when online than in real life” (Abreu, nd). Thus, we conducted a simple survey that was posted on facebook and get the first hand information of “internet addicts” around us.
Respondent.

With the total of 59 respondents that we got from 17 March until we closed the survey on the 20 of March, 44 responses came from the female and the rest are from the male. The majority of them aged in between 21-25 which is about 38 people, 11 people aged 26-30 and the eldest is 54. About 90% of them which is the majority subscribed to an internet plan and about 43% saying that they spend more than 3 hour on the internet and the rest was between less than one hour, 1-2 hours and 2-3 hours.
Social media, online shopping or?

We have respondents that 77.8% of them chose to go online for their social media while the rest are online shopping, collecting news and information and so on. Although many of them are not really focusing on the social media, 100% of the respondents are the members of social media, in which, 47.5% of them go for Facebook and the rest chose other social medium such as Instagram, Twitter and other social media.

Bringing closer….

The question that we think is a bit important in our life is whether social networks are bringing people closer?” it is not a surprise that 79.7% of them agree with the statement. And next, we ask whether is it appropriate to disclosed personal problem in social media, 19 people not sure about that but, we have 18 strongly disagree and another additional 18 also disagree. From that we can assume that, majority of them not agree that we should disclosed personal problem in public.
Imagine…

Last but not least we have a short answer question which we ask them “What would your life be without the digital device?”, we received so many interesting answers that some might go with the old ways of conducting their life. Like for example, they will read books and they will enjoy communicate with people face to face. Some also said they life would be boring, they will not be aware of what happens around them and some also said that they will find it hard to do their assignments. Different people might have different personality and thus their answer will suit their preference.
In conclusion, we can assume that most of us are internet addict. Those engagement patterns that our respondent shows using the survey clearly stated that they can’t live without the internet. Or perhaps, they should try that “Digital Detox Camp” if there is available near them and then only they can decide whether or not they can live without the internet.

Reference

Abreu CN, Karam RG, Góes DS, Spritzer DT. Internet and videogame addiction: a review. Rev Bras Psiquiatr.2008;30(2):156-67.

Comments

  1. Good evening Nurul and fellow friends,

    Surely from this survey, the “relationship” that we have with our digital device is not shocking. In fact, it is quite unusual to find someone who is not addicted to their digital device. Our age too has never been a question of whether we can be internet addicted or not, although mostly people in the range of 20-30 years of age are found to be vulnerable to internet addiction.

    From this survey too, with 90% of the respondents are subscribing the internet, and 100% of them are social media users, we can see that social media has become such a powerful tool which can exert people’s lives, in which people are willing to spend more than three hours just to go online, and they might not know what to do with their lives if there is no digital device and internet connection.

    I believe because of the attachment that people have with the social media has made them to feel such dependence towards it. As we can see, in social media we communicate almost every minute and mostly in social media we disclose some information about ourselves, or in other words we communicate our thoughts to other people regardless of what the information are. According to a study made by Harvard University’s Psychology Department, people often disclose information about themselves because there is a biological reward to it. “Self-disclosure was strongly associated with increased activation in brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine system, including the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area,” (as cited by Stein, 2014). Moreover, this condition actually is ingrained in every human being and social media is the best platform to do it. So why exactly people communicate their thoughts? Because we are “programmed” in such way. That is why I think people tend to attach strongly to their digital device, because it serves as the best medium for them to communicate.

    Reference:
    1. Stein, E. (2014). Is Social Media Dependence a Mental Health Issue?. The Huffington
    Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/social--mental-health_n_5268108.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nurul and my fellow friends,

    Based on the research, it shows that they are depend on thier digital devices such as smartphone, tablet and etc. I believe that, even it is just 59 of respondent answering the questionnaire, majority of us nowadays rely on our digital devices. This is because it make our life esier to do our daily work and also for entertainment.

    For the question life without digital device, it shows many answer and expectation from different respondents which is impossible for them to do if there is no digital device. This is because we do live without digital device earlier and i think that we can engage more in real life rather than keep connecting using digital device.

    For example, we can spend our time going camping or picnic with our family without any interruption like using samrtphone. Besides, we also can focus more on our academic such as reading books which is better than scrolling Facebook status everytime.

    Thats all from me. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good morning Nurul,

    Based on the survey, the results are really not that surprising. In the world today, everybody can gain access to the Internet and social media easily. It might be weird and surprising if someone we know are not using any social media.

    From this survey, 100% of the respondents are social media users. But is it true that all of the social media users are addicted to the social media? Based on an article, the writer thought that she was somehow addicted to social media and she started to compare her life with others. She saw pictures of other people that seemed to have a better life than she does. So she decided to stop using her social media for a month, and the result now is that she is using social media in moderation (The Huffington Post, 2016).

    However, for me, not everyone are addicted to social media. Why I said so? Some people are staying far away from their loved ones because of their study or their jobs. So, they use social media to connect with their loved ones. Some people may use the social media as a medium to share their knowledge to others, and some may use it to gain new friends.

    It all depends on how you use the social media. If you feel like you cannot live without your social media, or you cannot stop yourself from scrolling your social media every five minutes, maybe you can do the same as the writer did, deactivated yourself for a month from your social media.


    ReplyDelete
  4. Terima kasih Nurul untuk kajian selidik yang telah dilakukan.

    Tidak dapat disangkal lagi bahawa internet hari ini seperti sebahagian daripada kehidupan dan ia sudah seperti keperluan seharian.

    Untuk mentakrif seseorang individu iaitu bergantung kepada internet atau mengalami masalah katagih dalam menggunakan internet adalah sukar, hal ini kerana kita cuba melihat keadaaan pengguna tersebut, jika beliau berada ditempat yang mempunyai rangkai internet sudah pasti beliau lebih kerap melayari internet.

    tetapi jika seseorang individu itu disebukkan dengan perkara yang tidak menggunakan internet sudah pasti, mereka tidak menjadi ketagihan.

    Disamping itu, perkara ini cukup membimbangkan masyarakat hari ini, walaupun internet banyak membantu manusia berkomunikasi, tetapi jika sudah samapai ke tahap ketagihan melayari internet, itu membimbangkan.

    bagaimana dengan kehiduapan sosial mereka? kita juga sedia maklum bahawa rakyat malaysia terkenal dengan sikap berbudi bahawa dan penuh dengan sopan dan santunnya.

    sangat dikhuatiri jika generasi akan datang menjadi generasi yang ketagih melayari internet, biarpun tidak salah tetapi batss dan kawalan perlu ada supaya mereka sedar bahawa kehidupan ini adalah sebuah kehidupan yang memerlukan interaksi antara satu sama lain secara realiti bukan hanya dialam maya.

    ReplyDelete
  5. terima kasih Nurul atas perkongsian yang diberikan.

    internet pada masa kini sangat penting bagi sesetengah individu untuk mencari maklumat, menyampaikan maklumat dan sebagainya. ianya juga sudah menjadi sebahagian daripada keperluah harian bagi mereka.

    internet ada kebaikannya dan juga boleh mendatangkan kemudaratan juika salah daripada segi penggunaannya. sebagai contoh, individu terlalu bergantung denganinternet sehingga tidak boleh hidup tanpa internet. kehidupan sosial mereka hanya melalui internet, tidak lagi dengan masyarakat sekeliling. akibatnya komunikasi mereka dengan masyarakat sudah tidak ada lagi.

    kesimpulannya, bukanlah internet yang merosakkan kita tetapi kita sendiri yang tidak bijak dalam menggunakannya.

    sekian terima kasih

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello everyone.

    According to the research, it shows that not only teenagers or adult who engage with internet, even older people also do the same thing. Yet, the reason why they use it is diverse. In fact, based on the research, there are few purposes why they accessing internet such as to go to online shopping, looking for information and open their social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. As time goes by, some people become an internet addiction. They rely on internet too much. We cannot ignore the fact that internet really helpful and useful in our life. Nevertheless, we should have control over it and do not be too depending.

    Personally, I think “Digital Detox Camp” is a brilliant idea. It will be a good opportunity for internet users to reflect back whether they are addict to internet or not. If yes, they might have to do something about it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Assalamulaikum and hye everyone. Woww this topic is so interesting to discuss because involve real responden that we was collect.

    Ya from the data collection we found that majority of them are using internet to social media. Everyday and everytime we depending on internet to make our life become more entertain.

    From the data that we have, it is show that 100% of them are member of social media. At the same time we have the answer about 79.9% are social network are bringing people closer. This shows people are very depending on social media to make closer with other people in order to make a communication and interaction between them.

    Because of the development in our technology, people tend to rely on internet to get information, intertainment, online shopping and more in their life. I'm also sometimes cannot estimate my time to spend on media social because I can say everytime I will open my social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Wechat to release my stress.

    That's all from me. Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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