Technology Addiction among UiTM Puncak Alam and UNNES Semarang Students

Abstract

Technology addiction has become an alarming disorder that has increasingly caught the attention of researchers, mental health counsellors and doctors. Unfortunately, those who are having the disorder do not realize that they are going through the phase of pleasurable, addictive experience of appealing themselves by long hours of social networking, gaming, and internet browsing; and affecting their psychological well-being. The symptoms of depression, anxiety, loneliness, avoidance of work and procrastination may be overlooked and hence be left untreated. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors contributing to technology addiction among UiTM Puncak Alam and UNNES, Semarang students applying SPSS v. 23. Data were collected from 656 undergraduate students of the two universities who participated in the survey: 317 and 339 questionnaires were collected from UiTM Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia and UNNES, Semarang, Indonesia students respectively. The results show technology usage influenced technology addiction but psychological well-being did not affect technology addiction. Additionally, UiTM Puncak Alam students are more technology addicted compared to UNNES Semarang students. This distressing condition could become worse during the current Covid-19 pandemic period and prolonged movement control order (MCO) for students, regardless whether they stay at home or on campus. Implications of the findings are further discussed.