The Use of Technological Devices: A Descriptive
Study of Students in University
Yufi Adriani
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Faculty of Psychology
Jakarta, Indonesia
yufi.adriani@uinjkt.ac.id
Abstract—In the globalization era of 21st century, the most
prominent technology development is the technology of
communication and information. The development and
modernity of the technology of communication and information
creates various changes in technology, starting from computer
which then changed into gadget form of laptop or notebook,
house phone, mobile phone, laptop and iPad. The development
of device connected to Internet becomes more needed in daily
life, both in socialization and education activity since it
significantly affects people’s life. Advanced and various
technology media can be accessed through Internet by everyone
and anywhere. Advanced technology and information causes
faster distribution of information. Information can be accepted
from one place to another place in almost the same time at
different places. The information technology tools that can be
used are computer, smartphone, mobile phone and other
gadgets that have Internet connection. For people, especially
students who belong to the teenagers group, Internet social
media is a primary need, which makes the users will always
access social media without any absent day.
Keywords—technological devices, Internet use, college
students, Islamic University
I. INTRODUCTION
As we know, many students or teenagers around 20
years old use Internet in their learning process both at school
and at home. Therefore, it can be assumed that there is an
effect caused by the use of Internet in the learning process.
Internet has an effect that can disrupt the development of
children, health, behavior changes, etc. However, Internet also
can ease communication, making the learning process
becomes more interactive, etc. Internet is very useful,
however it also gives several obstacles in its use in term of the
learning process for teacher and student.
A. Positive and Negative Impacts of the Use of Internet
In the recent technology era, Internet is a primary need for
children in the age of primary school, middle school,
university, businessman, and other people who really need
Internet through the use of gadgets including smartphone,
computer, laptop, etc. In addition, it is easy for someone to
own gadget because gadget has various price, ranging from
prices, which, can be afforded by the middle to lower class
society, thus it is common for many students to access
Internet. Nowadays, most of the students have depended their
life on the use of internet due to several reasons, such as to
assist them in doing their task, looking for information,
looking for reading sources, following the advancement, etc.
However, they do not realize that the dependence on the
Internet, which, they consider as their study assistance or as
their way to follow the advancement can become obstacle for
Cahaya Asyifa
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Faculty of Psychology
Jakarta, Indonesia
asyifa.cahaya@gmail.com
their study if they do not use it wisely and in accordance with
the actual function. The tendency of the Internet misuse can
be seen from the students who will never detach themselves
from gadgets including smartphone and/or tablet/iPad. It is a
common thing to find students who always hold tablet or
smartphone, even during the learning process. In recent era,
technology indeed becomes more sophisticated, all
information and things related to upgrade, even about the
world, can be accessed only through smartphone or tablet and
therefore, thus it is very risky to be misused. The misuse of
gadgets will spoil the students to do their task. It also tends to
limit their creativity.
The use of the Internet as free media facility in
expressing oneself in, which the responsibility and supervision
are managed by themselves, certainly becomes a concern if
the modern information technology is not used wisely.
Internet has many positive convenience benefits, which cannot
be imagined by the old people. However, the negative impacts
are horrible because if it is not used wisely and is not
controlled well, it will become a factor, which can affect
someone’s behavior.
According to several experts, the most felt impacts due
to the development and advancement of the technology is in
the social aspect, which shows the social behavior of an
interdependence situation, which is a must to guarantee the
human existence. Such reality, indeed, cause many changes in
the students who use Internet, especially in their social
behavior since there are social beings. The first thing needs to
be paid attention to the fact that human is intrinsically a social
being. Since they were born, they need socialization with
other people to fulfill their biological need, food, drink and
etc. If such behavior of the students who use the internet is left
controlled for a long time, it will not overcome the possibility
that it will form a new social behavior for the students which
is ignorance behavior towards their school social environment,
both the interaction between the students, teachers and
surrounding environment.
B. The Use of Information in Smartphone
Smartphone is defined as the ability of Wireless Mobile
Device (WMD) which has similar function with computer by
offering features such as personal digital assistant (PDA),
internet access, email, and Global Positioning System (GPS)
[1]. Smartphone is mobile phone which has similar ability and
function as computer. There is no agreement yet in the
industry of what makes the phone becomes smart. For some
people, smartphone is a working phone which uses all
software operation system providing standard and basic
connection for the application developer. For the others,
smartphone is only a phone providing sophisticated feature
The 7th International Conference on Cyber and IT Service Management (CITSM 2019)
KICT, IIUM – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 30-31, 2019)
Jakarta Convention Center – Jakarta, Indonesia (November 4-6, 2019)

such as e-mail, internet and e-book or the existence of keypad
(both as the existing one or connected from the outside). In
other words, smartphone is a small computer which has
phone’s capability[2].
In terms of its features, most of smartphones fully support
complete personal setting. The other function is the provision
of QWERTY (i.e the first six keys on the top of the letter row
of the keyboard) keypad, touchscreen, navigation software
and hardware, ability in reading business document, music
player, photo surfing and watching video clip, internet surfing,
or only safe access to open company e-mail such as what is
offered by BlackBerry. The most frequently found feature in
smartphone is its ability in saving contact lists as many as
possible which is different from the usual mobile phone which
has maximum limitation in saving contact list[2].
According to the research by Google (2015) and TNS
Australia, as much as 50% of smartphone users in Indonesia
consider this device as their primary telecommunication
device, including for accessing internet. This penetration
number ranks first in Asia. The three most installed
applications in smartphone are instant messenger (such as
whatsapp or Line), social media, and search engine. The most
popular websites used in Indonesia are online shopping,
entertainment and travel website. This data is similar to the
survey conducted in India. Financial application is only
popular in Taiwan and Korea, while restaurant application is
only popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Meanwhile in
Singapore, the popular site is only travel site [3]. Survey
stated that in education, internet is mostly used in three
aspects, which are 55.30% to read article, 49.67% to watch
tutorial video and 21.3% to share education article or
video[4].
II. METHODS
A. Participants and Procedure
For data collection, we conducted a survey with
convenience samples of college students who was studying
Psychology at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. This study
included a total of 49 college students (5 males, 44 females).
The majority of participants were within the age 20-21 years old
(85,7%) while a small proportion of them was 18-19 years old
(4,1%) and 22-23 years old (10,2%). Most of them attended
global high school (73,5%) while 2 participants attended
vocational high school, and 11 participants attended Madrasah
Aliyah (MA), SMA Islam Terpadu or Pesantren which were the
equivalent of high school but with additional Islamic
curriculums.
B. Measures
The survey questionnaire contained eight questions
specifically designed to investigate the following research
questions:
• What technological devices are frequently used
by college students?
• Which college courses do college students
consider being supported the most by
technological devices?
• How many hours in a day do college students
spend to use technological devices?
• How many years of experience do college
students have been using technological devices?
• What do college students use technological
devices for (e.g online social networks, study,
etc) ?
• Which contents do they prefer to access on
Internet (i.e their preferred contents to access on
each media platforms) ?
• How do they feel toward using technological
devices in general (e.g “I enjoy using
technological devices)
• How do they feel toward using technological
devices only for trivial fun (e.g “I don’t think it is
a good idea to use gadgets just for the trivial fun)
III. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Findings of the study are presented in relation to each
research questionts.
A. Question 1: What technological devices are
frequently used by college students?
Results show that smartphone (n=49), laptop (n=48), and
television (n=30) were the top three technological devices
most frequently used by college students (Fig.1) This
imply that all participants stated that their most used
technological device was smartphone, then followed by
laptop, as the second most used technological device by
college students, which only has one participant who
stated other devices.
Fig. 1 Technological devices frequently used by college student
B. Question 2: Which college courses do college
students consider being supported the most by
technological devices?
Results show that 30 out of 49 participants agreed that
Psikologi Sufistik is the most supported course by
technological devices (22,2%). Followed by Psikologi
Perkembangan Anak & Remaja (9,6%) being the second
most supported college course by technological devices.
The third college course, which participants considered
being supported by technological devices is
 The 7th International Conference on Cyber and IT Service Management (CITSM 2019)
Psikodiagnostik: Nonproyektif (11%). Table 1 show all
the college courses mentioned by participants.
C. Question 3: How many hours in a day do college
students spend to use technological devices?
49 answers were collected and result show that 38,8%
(n=19) participants spend 7-8 hours in a day to use their
technological devices. Only small portion of participants
spend 3-4 hours in a day to use their technological
devices as is shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2 HOURS SPEND USING TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES
Usage
(Hours/day) Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
3-4 Hours 7 14,3
5-6 Hours 13 26,5
7-8 Hours 19 38,8
9-10 Hours 10 20,4
Total 49 100,0
D. Questions 4: How many years of experience do
college students have been using technological
devices?
Regarding of the years of experience college students
have on using technological devices, majority of
participants answered 9-10 years long (n=28, 57,1%).
26,5% participants (n=13) stated that they have been
using technological devices for 11-12 years long while
14,3% participants mentioned that they have been using
the technological devices for 5-8 years long. Only 1
participant mentioned that he/she has been using the
technological devices for more than 12 years long.
E. Question 5: What do college students use
technological devices for?
Result show (Fig.2) chat or messenger is what most
participants use their technological devices for (n=46). 36
participants use their technological devices for online
social network while only 2 participants mention that
they use their technological devices for studying.
TABLE 1 COURSES SUPPORTED BY TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICE
College Courses
Peminatan Psikologi Perkembangan: Anak & Remaja
Peminatan PIO: Psikologi Konsumen
Mikrokonseling
Psikologi Sufistik
Psikodiagnostik: Intelegensi, Minat, & Bakat
Psikodiagnostik: Non-proyektif
Psikometri lanjutan
Peminatan Psikologi Sosial: Psikologi Lintas Budaya
Kode Etik
Peminatan Psikologi Klinis: Modifikasi Perilaku
Peminatan Psikologi Pendidikan: BK di Sekolah
Psikologi Abnormal
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F. Question 6: Which contents do they prefer to access
on Internet?
For this question, we asked participants to mention
each media platforms they frequently use and then follow
by saying what contents do they prefer to access on those
media platforms. Results show the top 3 most frequent
used media platforms are Whatsapp (n=39), Youtube
(n=30), Instagram (n-29).
1) Preferred contents on Whatsapp:
Results show that 39 participants who mentioned
Whatsapp as their frequently used media platforms
answered that they prefer to use Whatsapp for family and
peer-to-peer chats (i.e communicate with their family
member or classmates.
14,3 2) Preferred contents on Youtube:
Meanwhile on Youtube, participants are shown to
40,8
have more variety on which contents do they prefer to
79,6 access. It seems that out of 30 participants who
mentioned Youtube as their most frequent used media
100,0 platforms gave more than one type of contents they
prefer to watch, since the total answers are more than the
number of participants (n=59). 15 participants are shown
to prefer watching tutorial videos on Youtube, such as
cooking or makeup tutorials. All answers given by
participants can be seen in Fig. 3.
3) Preferred contents on Instagram:
On Instagram, 14 participants prefer to see their
friends’ life updates. While 7 participants prefer to see
any lifestyle inspiration (e.g places to eat, hangout, etc).
6 participants prefer to use Instagram as a life
documentation and sharing platform.
G. Question 7: How do they feel toward using
technological devices in general?
On this question, participants can choose between 4
possible answers, such as strongly disagree, disagree,
agree, or strongly agree. Results show that 63,3% (n=31)
participants feel strongly agree that using technological
devices bring them enjoyment.
H. Question 8: How do they feel toward using
technological devices only for trivial fun?
Same as the previous question, participants can choose
between 4 possible answers, such as strongly disagree,
disagree, agree, or strongly agree. Result show that 55,1%
participants strongly agree that it is not a good idea to
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
13 9,6 13,1
5 3,7 18,2
10 7,4 28,3
30 22,2 58,6
11 8,1 69,7
9 6,7 78,8
3 2,2 81,8
6 4,4 87,9
7 5,2 94,9
3 2,2 98,0
1 ,7 99,0
1 ,7 100,0
 The 7th International Conference on Cyber and IT Service Management (CITSM 2019)
KICT, IIUM – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 30-31, 2019)
Jakarta Convention Center – Jakarta, Indonesia (November 4-6, 2019)
only use technological devices just for trivial fun or
nonlearning purposes.
Fig. 3 Media platforms college students frequently use.
Fig. 2 Technological Devices Uses among College Students
IV. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
As stated previously, majority of college students use
their technological devices (mostly smartphone) to
communicate with their families or classmates. This
result supports previous study [5] that also proved that
most of college students use their smartphone to
communicate with their friends.
Study show that this ability to communicate with
friends easily given by smartphone could give the
advantage to be able to communicate with fellow
classmates and even professor, which allowed them to be
fully productive. Smartphones give students the
opportunity to learn even when they are not inside
classroom while still having instruction from professor
and fellow classmates [6].
Study found that technological devices is very
convenient and make learning more fun. Many tasks can
be done by smartphones, such as taking photos of lecture
materials, and even listening to lecture. It also
environmentally friendly, as students don’t have to
depend on paper-based college textbooks since all the
materials are digital [7].
However, another study show that while technology
devices have made life easier in many respects,
especially the way we interact with others, it also has the
potential to reduce the quality of face-to-face interaction
[8]. It proved that the use of smartphone negatively
affects the quality of time spent with friends, which also
impacting the well-being of individuals. This show that
while technology devices can be useful in many respects,
especially in information gathering, and helping spread
relevant information, ironically they can also negatively
affect the quality of time spent with others that is a key
determinant of individual well-being.
Study also show how smartphones among college
students could also be a distraction, since students can be
easily distracted by other media platforms such as online
social networks, or video and entertainment apps that is
not relevant with learning materials [7].
Our study show that while college students spend 7-8
hours using technological devices they mostly use them
to communicate with their friend and access online social
networks media platforms, such as Whatsapp, and
watching videos on Youtube rather than actually using
them for studying. This result implies that college
students still not maximizing their technological devices
as learning aids.
However, we realized that this study is not the
representation of college students in a whole, as the
subjects in this study were so small. So, we hope that
there will be further studies that could give the more
representative results on the use of technological devices
among college students. For college students, we advise
them to be wiser in using their technological devices, and
incorporate them more in learning activities, and also to
spend more time having a face-to-face interaction with
their friend and families, rather than via Whataspp, so
they could bring them more positive impact rather than
negative ones.
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KICT, IIUM – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 30-31, 2019)
Jakarta Convention Center – Jakarta, Indonesia (November 4-6, 2019)

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