Internet, smartphone & social networks: between use and abuse, before addiction

Abstract

The intensive use of digital technology for watching videos on the Internet, communicating trough smartphones and interacting on social networks brings satisfaction and contributes to the psycho-social development of young people, which is why they are so successful. However, when they start at too early an age, the abuse and future addiction might be a risk. Therefore, to prevent schoolchildren’ problems in the future, the present study has the objective of finding out whether any type of technological abuse is occurring in order to identify and intervene in the subjects who are developing it. The sample of the present research is made up of 197 students between 11 and 12 years of age, all of them in the sixth year of Primary Education, who answered a validated questionnaire (Ministerio de Interior, 2014) that analyses the technological use habits of young people. The instrument is organized into multiple-choice questions that provide information on issues such as frequency of use, place of use, internet, social networks, etc. The results obtained show that most of the students who participated in the study use digital technology in a reasonable way. However, one in ten students misuse it. Therefore, it is suggested that educational intervention is needed to prevent these students from falling into dependence and addiction, given the potential negative influences on their personal and academic lives that these habits could have.