Running head: SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE

REPORT
ON

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON

STUDENT LIFE

Prepared by
Student Committee, Academic Cell
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Committee members:
Amisha Kothari – 2017A3PS0194P
Anusha Kumar – 2017A3PS0195P
Raghav Bansal – 2017A3PS0196P
Ronak Bhattad – 2017A3PS0200P
Aditya Agrawal – 2017A3PS0201P
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE

Technical Report Writing (BITS F112)

Assignment 2 Declaration

Semester II, 2017-2018

This is to certify that, we, the following undersigned (Name and BITS ID Number) have
worked uniformly on the report attached herewith. Also, we assure that the report is original,
with proper citations wherever required, and the entire group is responsible for any kind of
plagiarism whatsoever.

Section Number: ______ Instructor's Name: _______________________________________

Group Number: __________________Total Number of Members: ____________________

1.
_________________________________________________________________________________

2.
__________________________________________________________________________________

3.
__________________________________________________________________________________

4.
__________________________________________________________________________________

5.
__________________________________________________________________________________
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE i

A Report
On

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE

Prepared for

Prof. Ashoke Kumar Sarkar

Senior Professor and Director
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Prepared by
Student Committee, Academic Cell
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Committee members:
Amisha Kothari – 2017A3PS0194P
Anusha Kumar – 2017A3PS0195P
Raghav Bansal – 2017A3PS0196P
Ronak Bhattad – 2017A3PS0200P
Aditya Agrawal – 2017A3PS0201P
Approved By
Sanjay Mishra
Secretary
Academic Cell
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Date of submission: 12 April’ 2018

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thank the Director of Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Dr.

Ashoke Kumar Sarkar and Dr. Vinay Kumar, Head of Academic Cell who gave us the

opportunity for drafting this report on the Impact of Smartphones on College Students.

We would also like to express our gratitude towards Mr. Sanjay Mishra, Secretary,

Academic Cell, BITS Pilani and Dr. Somdatta Bhattacharya, Member of Teaching Learning

Center without whose guidance and support this report could not have been drafted on time.

With their help, we were able to understand the extent to which smartphones have been

integrated in the students’ lives.

Lastly, we would like to thank students from BITS who helped us with their inputs by

filling the Google Survey Form circulated by Academic Cell. We would also like to take this

opportunity to thank Google (Forms, Docs) and Microsoft (MS Office), as these softwares

helped us in the preparation of this report.

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE iii

ABSTRACT

Smartphones are not just mere electronic devices but are like lifelines for everyone and

specially for college students. This report aims at understanding the importance of

smartphones and to study their impact in a student’s life. To achieve this, Bits pilani students

were surveyed through an online questionnaire and 192 responses were recorded including

college students from first year of all disciplines. Our analysis is further supported by the

secondary data from certain sources which helped us to reach to the conclusion that

smartphones are important in everyone’s life but their impact vary from person to person in

the way and purposes for which they are used. Keeping this in mind certain recommendations

are also given for bringing out more positive impacts of smartphones.
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE iv

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of Illustrations v

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………......1

2. Impact of Smartphones on Student Life……………………………………………...3

2.1 Time spent on Smartphone…………………………………………….………....3

2.2 Purposes…………………………………………………………………….….…4

2.3 Academic Life…………………………………………………………….……....5

2.4 Health…………………………………………………………………………..…6

2.5 Social Life……………………………………………………………………..….8

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…...9

4. Recommendations……………………………………………………………….…..10

5. Appendix………………………………………………………………………….…11

6. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….…...14
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Tables
Table 1: Time spent by students on smartphone

Figures
Figure 1: Different Purposes Students use Smartphones for
Figure 2: Academic Help to Students
Figure 3: Different Health Concerns Among Students with Smartphones
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 1

1.INTRODUCTION

The twenty first century has seen various changes in the field of technology, and the

most striking has been the advent of smartphones. Acting as miniature computers, along with

various other features such as cameras, internet access and instant messaging, smartphones

have almost become a necessity in one’s life.

The report has been drafted by the student committee, Academic Cell on directions of

the Director, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. It aims to find the impact of

Smartphones on student life especially on health and academics and hence give

recommendations to promote rational use of smartphones.

The study was limited in certain aspects. The survey was limited to a small fraction of

students. Primary data was collected from the first year students of Bits Pilani. To enhance

the credibility of the report, data has also been collected from secondary sources which talks

about various aspects on a global basis. Age-group of students has also been limited to 17-24

years. This report does not talk about the degree of addiction of smartphones in the near

future. Only present day data has been presented.

The primary data for the report was collected by a mail questionnaire prepared by the

committee. It mostly focuses on students of the first year of various disciplines. Secondary

data has been collected through various online journals, articles, and studies conducted by

organizations cited later.

The present report analyses data quantitatively through various aids such as graphs,

pie charts, tables, etc.

The qualitative analysis has been done based on the aforementioned results and

personal observations.
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 2

The aim of this report is to study current smartphone habits of students and how they

affect various spheres of their lives. The conclusions will help create awareness among

college students and the recommendations will help them correct themselves as soon as

possible.

The report has been divided into seven major sections. The first section talks about

the usage of smartphone by college students-duration per day, frequency of checking it, time

since they have been using it. The second section describes the major purposes of smartphone

used most by them. Next section gives an idea of the impact, both positive and negative, on

the academic performance of students. The following two sections talk about the influence on

health and social exchange of students. It has been ended through conclusions analyzed from

the data in above mentioned sections, and through recommendations so that the youth of

today can drive its energy to use smartphone more productively.

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 3

2. IMPACT OF SMARTPHONES ON STUDENT LIFE

The following section contains all our data on how students deal with smartphone

which has been collected through various sources and has helped us organize it to interpret it

and draw certain conclusions and recommendations.

2.1 Time spent on Smartphone

One of the easiest way to determine importance of smartphone among students is to

get an idea of how much time they spend on it. Today, almost every student carries a

smartphone with him. More the time a student spends on smartphone, the more likely he is

addicted to it.

According to our survey, we found that 33% Bits students have been using a

smartphone since about 2-3 years, 17.8% less than a year respectively (Refer Table 1). In

addition, on an average, nearly 41.5% of them spend 1-3 hours daily on smartphone and

20.8% spend more than 5 hours (Refer Table 1). On an international view, 15% students

spend 1-3 hours on smartphone per day, 35% students spend 3-5 hours, 48% students spend

more than 5 hours. This also shows that BITS students are way better in terms of using it

properly (Kibona, Mgaya, April, 2015).

Table 1:Time spent by students on smartphone

Time since using Percentage of Duration of Percentage of

smartphone students smartphone students
usage per day

<1 year 17.8% <1 hr. 7.7%

1-3 years 33% 1-3 hrs. 41.5%

3-4 years 18.9% 3-5 hrs. 30.1%

>4 years 30.3% >5 hrs. 20.8%

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 4

Also, we found that 38.7% of Bitsians check their messages and notifications on

smartphone at some regular intervals, less than a third (32.8%) check in free time, 23.7%

check as soon as the notification bell rings and a little 4.8% check once if accounted for per

day. If taken on a global basis, college students spend nearly 5 hours a day on smartphones

and check their phones approximately 85 times a day which is very high and this is increasing

(Gregoire, 2015). This shows that while they are using smartphone, they need to be ‘smart’ in

getting the best of technology and not get enslaved by it.

2.2 Purposes

Smartphones, have made life very simple and fast. Anything from clicking photos,

sending messages or talking to someone very far can be done easily and that’s why their use

among the people has increased tremendously, especially among the students.

PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS
81.1 84.2
80

57.4
42.6

Surfing the Social media Playing games Listening Reading

internet music books

Figure 1 Different purposes students use smartphone for

According to the survey conducted among the BITS Pilani students, it was found that

84.2% students use smartphone for social media, 81.1% use it for surfing the internet,

listening music on smartphone was preferred by 80%students, 57.4% students like reading

books and articles on smartphone, whereas 42.6%people use it for playing games. (Refer

Fig1).
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 5

The Smartphones, provide an alternative channel to deliver education services.

Students can use their smartphone for accessing video tutorials, downloading lecture slides,

participating in various doubt discussion forums, and using study related mobile applications

as study material.

Social networking services are not only changing social exchange methods, but also

have the capability to create strong conversations. Smartphones help to connect with others

by using the mobile applications of various networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter,

WhatsApp etc.

Another popular use of smartphones amongst college students is gaming. There are a

wide range of gaming apps that can be downloaded in a smartphone such as quiz games,

puzzles, racing etc. A report by Flurry Analytics reveals that, India came in second after

the US in online mobile gaming.

One of the most important use of smartphone is browsing the internet to get quick

access to information. News updates from any part of the world can easily be accessed by

smartphones through various mobile apps such as Inshorts, TOI etc.

2.3 Academic life

Smartphones have both positive and negative influence on the academics of student.

As per our survey, 24.7% of the Bitsians believe that smartphones have enhanced their

academic performance. Students use smartphone for various academic purposes like reading

various course books, journals, research papers. Students can easily access the lecture slides

and remain updated with the announcements just by logging on Nalanda. The survey found

that around 58.5% students use video lectures for concept clearing, around 45.7% students

use it as source of doubt clarification (refer Fig 2).

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 6

Figure 2:Academic Help To Students

There are many negative impacts of smartphones on the students which hinder their

academic progress. It is found that students use phones to chat, play games, and surf the

Internet for longer duration. Besides, they are actively engaged in social media like

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, excess of which may result in a significant reduction in

their concentration and study time. In addition, many students misuse their phones towards

unfair practices in exams by using technology.

2.4 Health

The constant use of smartphones can have detrimental effects on health. About 41.6%

of the students who took our survey have been through some sort of physical or mental health

issues in the past. Some of the most prevalent heath concerns are enlisted below.

Figure 3:Different Health Concerns Among Students With Smartphones

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 7

A staggering 65% (see Fig 3) of students who took our survey have experienced eye

strain, making it the most prevalent health issue related to the use of smartphones. According

to a study conducted by Rosemary Paynter optometry, the primary cause of eye strain and

sightedness among millennials is the exposure to blue light emitted by smartphones (Long,

2016).

Lack of concentration is another major issue faced by more than 50.6% of students who

took our survey. A recent survey by BBC revealed that attention span among students is at its

lowest at less than 10 minutes, majorly due to the constant use of smartphones (Izenberg,2015).

As many as 40.2% of respondents in our survey have experienced headache due to

smartphones. Symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, memory loss and fatigue often lead towards

migraine. These are caused by the continuously emitted electromagnetic radiation from

smartphones (“Smartphone causing headache”, n.d.). Up to 40% of students’ experience

headache at least once a week (Straube, Heinen, Ebinger, Kries, 2013).

Excessive use of smartphones often causes sleep deprivation. About 35.6% of

students surveyed by us have faced this problem. A recent study revealed that more than 43%

of teenagers slept less than 7 hours a day due to the blue light emitted by smartphones that

inhibits production of melatonin, the hormone that helps us fall asleep (Twenge, Krizan,

Hisler, n.d.).

About 21.8% of students surveyed have suffered from anxiety and stress due to

dependence on smartphones. According to American Psychological

Association(APA), constant checking of phones for social media and news updates causes

anxiety among teens (“Stress in America”, n.d.). The American college health association

reported that more than 25% of students felt that stress has worsened their grades. It has also
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 8

resulted in irritability, concentration difficulties, depression and feeling of social isolation

(Davey, 2014).

Loss of appetite is another health concern experienced by 8% of our respondents.

Recent studies reported that 67.1% students used their smartphones during meals (Fujiwara,

Nakata, n.d.).

2.5 Social Life

The social life of students is heavily influenced by smartphones. Extensive use of

Smartphones leads to social isolation. A survey revealed that 58% of parents felt that their

child is disconnected from the family due to smartphone addiction (Sifferlin, 2017), which

has also been pointed out during our survey. Around 32% of students admit to having been

less involved with their family. Though 92% of teens who own a smartphone report going

online on social media daily (Lenhart, April 9, 2015). Our survey suggests that 33% of

students feel they are less socially involved in the society. As many as 49% of the students

surveyed felt that they physical activity like playing outdoors is being impacted because of

Smartphones, which has a significant bearing on the physical fitness, confidence and

cognitive development.
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 9

3. CONCLUSION

1. With increased dependency on smartphones, students check their phones regularly,

thus spending many hours on them. The reasons may vary from checking the phones

for academic updates to simple entertainment purposes (e.g. games, surfing the

internet, streaming videos, etc).

2. Smartphones can help students to provide access to research and information sources

faster, helping them in completing assignments and projects. Recent applications like

BITS Compre has helped students faster access to previous year papers. Another

feature of smartphones is to provide students with various common platforms

(discussion forums) which gave them the opportunity to solve doubts, exchange ideas

and connect to large number of experts for any career or personal advice.

3. Reduced physical Activity and fitness. These effects range from mild ones like lack of

concentration, back pain to severe ones such as insomnia, mental stress and nerve

damage.Digital eye strain is not a single problem, it covers a variety of issues such as

fatigue related to eye pain, blurred vision and short sightedness.

4. Students find it difficult to pay attention in lectures because of shortened attention

span. Lack of sleep takes a toll on intellectual abilities and emotional state.

Vulnerability to common cold and flu also increases.

5. While smartphones provide us with opportunities to increase our social skills, people

are in fact becoming more detached from each other, resulting in reduced happiness

and wellbeing and increased levels of stress as well.

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 10

4. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Counseling sessions for students should be arranged to explain their impact on the

academic, health and social life. Prohibiting the use of Smartphones by students

during lecture classes may be considered. The students could be encouraged to use

certain apps that keep locked the phone for certain time for controlled usage.

2. If ban on smartphones is not feasible, we could try integration of smartphones in

classroom teaching, for e.g. usage of platforms such as Socratos which has been

introduced in lectures takes by Prof. Belgamwar. Greater involvement in discussion

forums to exchange ideas and come up with new solutions. Smartphones can be used

as a source for efficient feedback and attendance system.

3. Students should be made aware and sensitized to make wise choice about which of the

apps to use. .

4. More encouragement for outdoor activities and social interaction between students.

Sessions on meditation and yoga should be organized to increase concentration and

physical health of students.

5. Extra-curricular activities could be integrated in the academic framework in the form

of extra credits or non-graded courses.

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 11

5. APPENDIX

Mail Questionnaire

1.How long have you been using a smartphone? (Select one option)

less than a year

about 2-3 years

about 3-4 years

more than 4 years

2.How much time do you usually spend on your phone? (Select one option)

less than an hour

1-3 hours

3-5 hours

more than 5 hours

3.How promptly do you check notifications? (Select one option)

Immediately

In free time

At some regular intervals

Once in a day

4.What purpose(s) do you use your smartphone for? (Choose one or more than one options)

Surfing the internet

SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 12

Social media

Playing games

Listening music

Reading books and articles

Others

5.Rate the influence of smartphone on your academic performance on a scale of 1-3.

1 2 3

Positive influence Negative influence

6.If you rated 1, in what ways is it helpful in your performance? (Choose one or more than

one options).

Increased access to study material

Watching video lectures

Doubt classification through discussion forums

Using educational mobile apps

Others

7.Do you face any physical or mental health problems because of using phone? (Choose one

option).

Yes

No
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 13

8.If yes, then which of the following problems are you facing? (Choose one or more than one

options).

Headache

Eye strain

Anxiety and Stress

Lack of concentration

Sleeplessness

Loss of appetite

9.What all activities have you been less involved since you are using smartphone? (Choose

one or more than options).

Outdoor games

Social activities

Time with family

Introspection

None
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 14

6.BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Long, J. (September 8, 2016). Visited-April 7, 2018. Viewing distance and eyestrain

symptoms with prolonged viewing of smartphones. Retrieved from:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cxo.12453

2. Izenberg, I. (August 31, 2015). Visited-April 7, 2018. The Eight-Minute Lecture

Keeps Students Engaged. Retrieved from:

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/the-eight-minute-lecture-

keeps-students-engaged/

3. “Smartphone Causing Your Headache – Cell Phone Radiation Induced Headaches”

Retrieved from:https://www.rfsafe.com/smartphone-causing-headache-cell-phone-

radiation-induced-headaches/

4. Straube, Heinen, Ebinger, Kries (November 29, 2013). Visited-April 7, 2018.

Headache in School Children: Prevalence and Risk Factors. Retrieved from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3865491/

5. Twenge, Krizan, Hisler, (n.d.). Visited-April 7, 2018. Decreases in self-reported sleep

duration among U.S. adolescents 2009–2015 and association with new media screen

time. Retrieved from:

http://www.sleep-journal.com/article/S1389-9457(17)30350-7/fulltext

6. “Stress in America”, (n.d.). Visited- April 7, 2018. Retrieved from:

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2016/coping-with-change.PDF
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 15

7. Davey, (December, 2014). Visited-April 7, 2018. Assessment of Smartphone

Addiction in Indian Adolescents: A Mixed Method Study by Systematic-review and

Meta-Analysis Approach. Retrieved from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336980/

8. Fujiwara, Nakata, (n.d.). Visited-April 7, 2018. Smartphone usage during meals is a

potential risk for weight gain in post-adolescent female students. Retrieved from:

http://www.oatext.com/pdf/IFNM-3-162.pdf

9. Sifferlin, (February 23, 2017). Visited- April 7, 2018. Smartphones are Really

Stressing Out Americans. Retrieved from:

http://time.com/4680067/stress-smartphones-anxiety/

10. Lenhart (April 9, 2015). Visited- April 7, 2018. Teens, Social Media and Technology

Overview 2015. Retrieved from:

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015

11. Kibona, Mgaya(April, 2015). Visited- April 7, 2018. Smartphones’ Effects on

Academic Performance of Higher Learning Students. Retrieved from:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1203/16b911f8e69ec4b79efdc5b6bda9fbf23ec6.pdf
SMARTPHONES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT LIFE 16