Abstract

The majority of people has already adapted to the unpredictably fast advancements in smartphones’ (SPs) and social-networking sites’ (SNS) technologies by using them on everyday basis (Jena, 2015). Always at hand, SPs are the most preferred way of connecting to SNS and if we add up the addictive nature of both SPs and SNS, young people tend to use them noticeably more than other age groups (Babdi-Akashe, Zamani, Abedini, Akbari & Hedayati, 2014, p. 94). Yet, little is known about the long-term effects of this newborn symbiosis on the quality of mental health. Thus, this research study focuses on exploring how the time undergraduate students spend on using SPs for connecting to SNS affects the quality of their mental health in regards to the following three dependent variables: 1. social interaction, 2. mental health, and 3. levels of technology induced stress (technostress), sleep deprivation, and loss of productivity. Hence, an online survey was distributed and the results were collected from 113 RIT Croatia and VERN students. The results revealed that those who spend more time using SPs for connecting to SNS tend to prefer virtual social interaction over real-life social interaction. In addition, they tend to suffer from sleep deprivation and loss of productivity as well. However, there was no significant effect of the independent variable on the incidence of symptoms or emotions related to the low quality of mental health. Thus, the results of this study support the previous research in this area and provide evidence for further research.

Publication Date

10-5-2017

Document Type

Master's Project

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Service Leadership and Innovation (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Service Systems (CET)

Advisor

Jennifer Matic

Campus

RIT Croatia

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