GADGET ADDICTION

Introduction

Technology and gadgets nowadays have been imbedded in our daily lives.

These are basically helping us to make our lives easier. Every day we use these

gadgets for communication, entertainment and etc. When it comes to technology,

these are very important as the human race moves forward to new revolutions and

help in accessing and gaining information with a simple click.

Devices that we have are considered as “super computers” as we can now

access almost everything with a tap and the needed information is already there.

Every year gadgets are being improved and they evolve over time. However with

great power comes with a great consequence not only to our social lives but in our

mental and physical lives. Before framing the cons of gadgets, we know that we

want our lives to become easier. By the use of gadgets accessing things that are

needed to be done in person can now be done online such as online banking,

online shopping, online, watching movies with your friends can now be done online

through the streaming services having a sync option.

But if gadgets have so much benefits, what makes it addicting and bad? Well

according to an article by P. Patwa from Entrepreneur India, overusing your gadget

can cause eye strains, hearing problems, and causing harm to your spine.
The Problem

As people overuse their gadgets and become too dependent on it, it causes

a lot of harm not only mentally but physically. With that being said the problem now

at hand is, How Can We Manage Gadget Addiction?

Methodology

In this research article, it aims to find out ways to manage gadget addiction.

But before focusing on the gadget addiction itself, let us find out the causes and

the differences of gadget addiction from different ages from 13-18. This allows to

figure out why ages have different addiction times or different gadget addiction

causes. To do that, we conducted a survey to people in the age bracket to further

understand gadget addiction with further proof. Tackling the problem this way

allows further understanding and thorough research about gadget addiction.

Results

Would you survive Yes No

without any gadget?

13-14 50% 50%

15-16 72.73% 27.28%

17-18 30.78% 69.23%

18%
<5hrs
>5hrs
82%

Hours spent on gadgets

13% 2-3hrs
37% <5hrs
25%
>5hrs
1-2hrs
25%

Hours spent on gadgets

9% 2-3hrs
23%
23% <5hrs
>5hrs

45% 1-2hrs
 Most used apps among ages 13-18

Twitter
15%
Facebook
3% 34% Messenger
3% Tiktok
8% Educational
Games
Netflix
15% 6%
Instagram
10% 6%
Youtube

The data was conducted in only one day and was able to gather 30

participants for the survey. According to the participants, people from age 13-14

says that 50% will not be able to survive without gadgets meanwhile another 50%

will be able to survive without gadgets. To the participants 15-16, 72.72% of the

participants could survive without any gadgets meanwhile the other 27.28% will not

be able to survive without it. Finally, participant’s ages 17-18 could not 69.23%

could not survive without any gadgets and the remaining 30.77% could survive

without any gadgets. We can conclude for the first question that majority of the

participants could survive without the use of gadgets but there is still a huge

amount of people saying that they could not live without gadgets.

To the second question, ages 13-14 says that most of them spent more than

5 hours on their gadgets meanwhile 18% says they only spend less than 5 hours.

Most in the age of 15-16 says that they are able to spend 2-3 hours only on their
gadgets however we can still see that 25% still spends an amount of less than 5

hours and more than 5 hours with 13% spending 1-2 hours. In ages 17-18, the

majority uses their gadgets for more than 5 hours. 23% of the participants only

spent less than five hours while the other only uses 2-3 hours, and lastly the 9% on

only 1-2 hours.

Finally, in the last question which pertains to their mostly used apps in their

gadget, it is clear that most of the participants spends a lot of time in Twitter as it

garnered 34%. In second place we have YouTube as the 2 nd most used apps with

15% and Educational placing third with the percentage of 15%.

Discussion

When conducting the survey, it is observed that a lot of people are more

abundant in social media apps such as Twitter and as they look for entertainment

they go to YouTube and some go to educational apps to finish and pass

assignments. In the gathered data, it is also observed that there are people that are

playing games or using entertainment sites such as Netflix and YouTube. Now with

this information, how can people be addicted to their gadgets? It comes with a lot

of factors but it is understood that the gadgets are used for educational purposes.

But since social media app, Twitter ranked first, it is clear that it is not only for

academic purposes. The participants uses social media apps to communicate and

connect with their friends but it comes with a price. Too much of screen time can

cause a lot of damage not only physically but mentally. The average screen time

should be at least 2-3 hours with breaks in between 20 minutes. But as observed,
most of the teenagers spend more than 5 hours a day during social media,

entertainment and education.

With that being said, how can we manage gadget addiction? Most of the

people can’t really escape their gadgets because even education or schooling is

through online so instead of avoiding the gadget use, how do we manage it in a

way where we reduce the physical and mental risks inflicted to ourselves and to

others.

First is keeping the use of gadgets to the minimum. Only use it if it is really

necessary especially for educational purposes and contacting purposes or as much

as possible, do not overuse it. By allocating only 2-3 hours of everyday with breaks

you can help to lessening your own screen time. Second is keeping yourself busy

whenever you feel the urge to use your phone unnecessarily. For example, you can

engage in hobbies that can help you in keeping your mind off the social media

world and focus on yourself by meditating or journaling. Third, is turning off

notifications. Only keep notifications that are very important like school related

announcements and friends in messaging apps. However, keep this to a minimum

and only check if really needed. Fourth is setting limits to viewing times. There are

settings on the smartphone that allows you to have a “downtime” where it prevents

you from accessing apps such as Facebook, YouTube and other social media

related apps and you can only open apps such as Google, Safari and you can

customize this to what you prefer. With this, these are things that what can be

done so that instead of completely avoiding screen time, we can help lessening it.
Conclusion

Gadget addiction is very rampant nowadays and as we find ways to limit our

screen time we must understand the factors that are behind gadget addiction. This

overuse of gadgets can cause so much damage that influences your life and health

as a whole. There are a lot of advantages to gadgets but there is so much more to

it than what meets the eye. Without doubt we really cannot avoid using gadgets as

we use them for mostly everything in our lives especially during the pandemic as

the classes are now online and now that there are places that are on lockdown, one

of their ways in getting food online is through food delivery to their houses so they

really depend a lot on their gadgets. So instead of avoiding gadgets, how do we

manage gadget addiction into turning it into something that we only use for the

most important things? The significance of the results is that we now know what

causes the addiction or a part of the addiction giving us an idea of what we should

be focusing on in which based on the results is the overuse of social media as they

use it for more than 5 hours. The ways in which you can manage it is through

Keeping Use to Minimum, Keeping Yourself Busy, Turning off Notifications, and

Setting Viewing Limits on Your Phone. By following these steps, you can fully

manage your gadget addiction with a mix of being responsible and being aware of

the effects or consequences of gadget addiction.

C. Knorr, (Feb 2019). The Scientific Reason Why Kids Cannot Stop Using Gadgets.
www.smartparenting.com.ph/parenting/big-kids/gadgets-addiction-science-
a1666-20190216

The Manila Times, (Aug 2019). Gadget addiction bane to education.

S. Behera, BSc (Hons), MSc,. (Aug 2014). Gadget Addiction – Are You Addicted to
Your Smartphone/Tablet?
www.online-therapy.com/blog/gadget-addiction-smartphone-tablet/

S. Aprianus, (Nov 2019). Indonesian children suffering from gadget addiction.

YourDOST, (Feb 2017). Here’s How You Can Prevent Gadget Addiction In Your
Child.
yourdost.com/blog/2017/02/prevent-gadget-addiction-in-
children.html?q=/blog/2017/02/prevent-gadget-addiction-in-children.html&

P. Patwa, (June 2019). From Eyes, Elbow to Spine and Sperm Count, Your Gadget
Addiction Is Causing Irreversible Damages.
www.entrepreneur.com/article/336075

A. Indrakanti, M. Chutake, S. Prouty, V. Sundaranatha, V. Koverkathu, (2018).

A. Khaliq, (Oct. 2017). Addiction of Gadgets Could Lead to Digital Dementia.