Impacts of Addiction to Technology on Families

Technology has caused changes in the world of the twenty-first century. The rapid advancement of technology is becoming a global concern (Young, 2004). In today’s environment, technology has revolutionized and facilitated communication methods. For contact, the family makes use of Facebook, Skype, emails/Gmail, text messages, and Whatsapp. These technological apps promote communication while also influencing face-to-face communication among families (Sorensen, 2015). Mobile phones, television, and computers are three of the most common forms of technology that have an impact on family connection relationships. Because of television programs, a family can spend hours without speaking to one other. The research on media influence shows that approximately those of age group 8-18 years often use more than 7 hours watching (Taylor, 2016). According to publications by the Maine’s cooperative Extension University, Parents can control the television watching.

Technology is becoming a challenge to family dynamics. According to an article by Williamson, technology has negative impacts on the family. He further states that the millennial are so much addicted to technology and cannot do without it (Williamson, 2017). Statistics indicates that approximately 3,700 message texts are sent and received by teenagers. Najar, 2016 describes the lack of communication in families as “electric silence.” This term refers to the changes in technology which diminishes the mode of communication among family members (Najar, 2016). Lack of communication often occurs during dinner time when most of the members concentrate on their phones and quit talking.

The use of cell phones is common to everyone both parents and teens. Parents often use mobile phones to check on their children safety especially in schools. They use text messages, however, full of guilt of doing it too much. According to Nielsen statistics, 2011, children of today are the most mobile video downloaders and viewers (Nielsen, 2011). He further states that kids of the age twelve to seventeen age groups are the most mobile subscribers and spends more than 7 hours watching mobile videos. The general generation spends averagely 4 hours on mobile videos. The act of spending a lot of time on watching video games, television, and the internet is known as ”screen time.” Research indicates that those kids who spend more of their time in watching videos translate to poor performance in school (Lewin, 2010). Parents can control the problem of poor performance. They should limit the time children spend in watching and in turn encourage their children to be active in school.

Rosen, 2010 states that approximately forty-six percent are likely to suffer from mental disorders due to technology (Rosen, 2010). According to a study conducted in 2011, sixty-one percent carry their phones to sleep with the majority having their cell phones on their arm while sleeping. They could also have frequent wake ups to go through their phones (Rosen, 2012). Rose further states that many people will turn narcissistic because of social media and mobile phones. Nelson, 2011 reports that more than half of teens are receptive to their phone than the old people.

However different authors and statistics reveal different impacts of technology to the current generation. They all clearly explain that addiction to technology results in reduced family relationships and communication. The above-indicated research findings and articles show similarities to my group hypothesis. My team hypothesized that addiction to technology had negative impacts on interpersonal relationships and gender plays a significant role. Therefore this paper will look at the difference in gender use of technology.

Methods

Participants

Participants in the survey were those from Facebook, Skype, and Twitter. The rest of the respondents were family, college students, staff, and friends. The study area was Penn state. The participants were of age group 18-65. The study included both male and female. The survey included ten male and ten female. The respondents were given candy as compensation.

Materials/Measures

The survey method of our study was used to conduct and construct the questionnaire. The survey contained 16 questions based on technology and interpersonal relationship. However, the questions were pre-tested with ten students. The questions after the pilot testing were modified. The questions were both close-ended and open-ended. The close-ended were yes or no, true or false, on a scale of 1-7.

Procedure

First, we recruited participants by putting a status on Facebook asking if they would help with a psychology project for school. We explained to the respondents what was happening and asked if we could call them on the phone. We also recruited participants through Penn State Abington and our family.

Next, we called respondents over the phone that we recruited from social media and asked them 16 questions while writing down their answers after asking questions; we told participants where they can receive candy for their compensation. The people we recruited from Penn State Abington just filled out the questionnaire, and again were compensated with candy.

There was no limitation on gender, race, and age as long the respondent qualified to be the age group of 18-65 year. After data collection, the data were coded and analyzed to justify the hypotheses. To obtain average use of data for the study, we used the simple scale. We obtained gratification on the use of technology using the ordinal scale.

Results

We hypothesized that excessive use of technology had a negative impact on interpersonal relationships and that gender plays a role in this. We predicted that females use technology more for personal use such as shopping, texting, talking on the phone, and internet use and that male use technology for personal pleasure such as pornography, videos/games, and music. To test this, we conducted a survey that had questions about technology and interpersonal relationships and analyzed our data using Chi Square. We calculated a P Value to determine whether or not our hypothesis was correct. We compared the expected results to the observed results with Chi Square. (See attached tables.)

Gender and Number of use

Gender and Use of Technology at Movies

Gender and Use of Technology at Funerals

Gender and Lack of Communication

Gender and Use of Technology at Family Events

Gender and Right Away

Discussion

Given our hypothesis, which predicted that excessive use of technology had a negative effect and that female use technology more for personal use and that males use technology for personal pleasure, we found out that our results were consistent with our hypothesis. Males have a positive view on technology, especially Face Timing; because they got to ”meet” family members they never met before and got to stay in touch with their friends from different states after they moved away. Females felt negative towards this. This study also hypothesized that there would be a lack of communication and lots of negativity towards technology on family events and funeral events. Our study found this to be consistent for females, but not for males.

This study had a few limitations to consider in the future. One limitation is that we had a small sample of people who are located in Penn estate only, therefore, in the future; we would use a larger sample size in a large region. Another limitation is that our questions considered technology and interpersonal relationship. Therefore, in future, we would use more in-depth questions instead of a lot of scale questions, true or false questions, and yes and no questions. The data collected cannot be used to a high data comparison. However the age limit was not favorable to all population that is considered to be aggressive of the technology, it was fun to see answers to these questions. Most of these people were in their 20’s, but it was a good age range because we got some in there 60’s. Some of the respondents provided detailed information that was interesting and a little complex. Open-ended questions allow for more probing thereby giving in-depth information, in future the questions should be more of open structured questions.

References

Najar, J. (2016). The Digitally Compulsive Family. BookWhirl Publishing.

Williamson, K. (2017). Quality Time - 5 Ways Technology Has Negatively Affected Families. Retrieved fro http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/family-tech/tech-effects-on-family/5-ways-technology-has-negatively-affected-families.htm

Rosen, L. D. (2012). IDisorder: Understanding our obsession with technology and overcoming its hold on us. Macmillan.

Rosen, L. D. (2010). Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the way they learn.

Macmillan.

Wright, C. (2001). Children and technology: Issues, challenges, and opportunities.

Childhood Education, 78(1), 37-37.

Young, K. S. (2004). Internet addiction: A new clinical phenomenon and its consequences. American behavioral scientist, 48(4), 402-415.

Taylor J., (2013) Is Technology Creating a Family Divide? Technology and families don’t always play nice together. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201303/is-technology-creating-family-divide

Lewin, T. (2010). If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re probably online. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?_r=0

Nielsen, (2011). Kids today how the class of 2011 engages with media. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2011/kids-today-how-the-class-of-2011-engages-with-media.html

Sorensen B. (2015). How Does Technology Affect Family Communication? Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/243280-how-does-technology-affect-family-communication/