Technology Addiction among UiTM Puncak Alam and UNNES Semarang Students

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. Keywords: Covid-19,Psychological Well-being,Technology Addiction, Technology Usage, University Students

WHERE HAVE YOUR TIME AND SPACE GONE? AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION, SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, AND THE MODERN PANOPTICON

Little attention has been paid to why individuals are addicted to Internet-related experiences. This research identifies a key driver of technology addiction by combining three perspectives: behavioural science, economics, and psychoanalysis. Behavioural science reveals that technology addiction is produced by well-designed technology that fulfils humans’ fundamental needs. Capital economy analysis, called surveillance capitalism, offers a new interpretation of the data-driven economy, in which Internet technology enterprises collect feedback from users’ experiences and use said feedback to improve their products. The data accumulation logic facilitates automatic thinking and the modification of users’ behaviours to make a profit for the enterprises. Psychoanalysis clarifies the relationship between surveillance power and behavioural changes in society. The Panopticon, a central observation tower with a circle of prison cells, achieved an automatic function of power to control individuals’ performances and minds. Technology addiction is a symptom of the modern Panopticon because a common mechanism works between the Panopticon and surveillance capitalism, occupying individuals’ time and space and executing the automatic function of the surveillance power that facilitates behavioural modification. We conclude that depriving individuals of both time and space is a key driver of technology addiction that threatens sovereignty in a data-driven economy. We also provide three solutions to technology addiction: acknowledgement of the benefits and risks of technology use, acceptance of the complexity underlying technology-related issues, and protection of individual sovereignty. Keywords: Technology addiction; Surveillance capitalism; Panopticon

Formation of school student’s vocabulary skills through innovative technologies

The aim of this research is to determine the attitudes of elementary school 4th graders regarding electronic books developed through innovative technologies in the development of vocabulary. Qualitative research methods were used in accordance with the purpose of the research. The data of the research were collected by the semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The study involved 20 elementary school 4th graders studying in Almaty, Kazakhstan in the 2019-2020 academic year. As a result of the research, it was concluded that students have a moderate tendency to read electronic books and have a tendency to prefer electronic books as much as printed books. In addition, students found electronic books to be easily accessible, easy to learn and advantageous with their ability to be easy to learn, while they found themselves disadvantaged in terms of easy concentration, eye strain and technology addiction. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended to improve electronic books through innovative technologies and to carry out studies on increasing the use of electronic books by students. Keywords: Electronic book, innovative technologies, student feedback, technology-based learning

Meditation Apps and the Promise of Attention by Design

This article demonstrates how meditation apps, such as Headspace and Calm, are imbricated within public discourse about technology addiction, exploring the consequences of this discourse on contemporary mental life. Based on ethnographic research with designers and users of meditation apps, I identify a promise put forth by meditation app companies that I call attention by design: a discursive strategy that frames attention as an antidote to technology addiction, which is ostensibly made possible when design is done right. I argue that attention by design is a promise unfulfilled. Meditation app companies construct attention as socially valuable by endlessly pointing out its purported opposite, technology addiction. Attention by design is promissory in that it keeps promising even when it doesn’t deliver what it promises, compelling the user to return to a practice that represents socially desirable traits that can never be fully acquired—and that often recede further from reach as the person becomes distracted by other obligations and communication mediated through the smartphone. Despite this broken promise, users believe they are becoming more attentive. The promissory attention designed into meditation apps reflects a new form of governmentality, in which users receive a mental nudge to reinterpret similarly designed experiences as different.

Studying problems, not problematic usage: Do mobile checking habits increase procrastination and decrease well-being?

Most prior research on the effects of mobile and social media on well-being has worked from either the “technology addiction” or “screen time” approach. Yet these frameworks struggle with considerable conceptual and methodological limitations. The present study discusses and tests an established but understudied alternative, the technology habit approach. Instead of conflating mobile usage with problems (i.e., addictive/problematic usage) or ignoring users’ psychological engagement with mobiles (i.e., screen time), this approach investigates how person-level (habit strength) and day-level aspects of mobile habits (perceived interruptions and the urge to check) contribute to a key problem outcome, procrastination, as well as affective well-being and meaningfulness. In a five-day diary study with N = 532 student smartphone users providing N = 2,331 diary entries, mobile checking habit strength, perceived interruptions, and the urge to check together explained small to moderate amounts of procrastination. Procrastination, in turn, was linked to lower affective well-being and meaningfulness. Yet mobile habits showed only very small or no direct associations with affective well-being and meaningfulness. By separating habitual mobile connectivity from problem outcomes and well-being measures, this research demonstrates a promising alternative to the study of digital well-being.