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Investigating Daily Mobile Device Use Among University Students in
Indonesia
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ICITDA 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 325 (2018) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/325/1/012004
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Investigating Daily Mobile Device Use Among University
Students in Indonesia
Ahmad R Pratama1,2
1
Department of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University, NY 11794
USA
2
Department of Informatics, Universitas Islam Indonesia, Sleman, DIY 55584
Indonesia
E-mail: ahmad.pratama@stonybrook.edu; ahmad.rafie@uii.ac.id
Abstract. This study investigates daily mobile device use among Indonesian university students
by using survey data collected in the first quarter of 2016. The data show that 55.49% of the
students spend more than five hours a day on their mobile devices. OLS regression analysis
shows that female students, owners of the most expensive smartphone or tablet, and those who
access social media apps and play mobile games frequently are more likely to spend more time
on their mobile devices each day. Contrary to that, those who consider themselves as laggards
are less likely to do so. The findings in this study help better understand how university students
in Indonesia use their mobile device and lay a foundation as part of a larger research agenda
about the relationship between mobile technology and education in Indonesia.
1. Background
Mobile devices have been around since the 1970s, marked by the first handheld mobile phone produced
by Motorola in 1973. After few decades used solely as a communication device, for both voice-based
and text-based communication, mobile phones received a major upgrade in its ability to resemble a
portable personal computer with a mobile operating system, also known as smartphones. While Japanese
NTT DoCoMo was among the first to release smartphones and relatively successful in achieving mass
adoption within a country, it was not until the next generation of smartphone, marked by the release of
Apple iPhone and Google Android OS in 2007 and 2008 respectively that smartphone became a
worldwide phenomenon. With the release of iPad and multiple variants of Android counterpart in the
2010s, tablets were the latest addition to the lineup of mobile devices. The trend shows that personal
computing devices are becoming more and more mobile oriented.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the statistics of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption
are more than promising. Within the past three years, Internet penetration went up significantly from
15% in 2014 to 51% in 2017, placing Indonesia as the country with the highest growth in Internet user,
more than five times of the global average between 2016 and 2017 [1-4]. The number of mobile
connections in Indonesia already outnumbered the total population by 2014 (112%). In this regard,
Indonesia is ahead of many developed countries like the US, France, Australia, Japan, or South Korea
and this is interesting, given that digital divide has been widely accepted as a worldwide problem
between developing and developed countries for the past decade [5]. Also, considering that Indonesia is
the fourth most populous country in the world with roughly 260 million population, this number in
growth and rate means a lot as it translates to a huge number of people. These statistics do not necessarily
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ICITDA 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 325 (2018) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/325/1/012004
1234567890‘’“”
represent the quality of technology use in any way, but they show that Indonesian people are thriving
regarding technology adoption, especially in the mobile frontline.
The relationship between mobile devices and educational attainment has been investigated by
researchers for a while. Some studies indicate mobile device use can help improve education [6-9] and
emphasize the opportunity of transforming education with the use of mobile learning [10-11]. Some
other, however, suggest a problematic relationship between them. In many cases, it is mostly due to
addiction [12-16]. The same addiction problem has also been pointed out by researchers in terms of
Internet access, also known as pathological Internet use [17-19]. Nonetheless, it is also important to note
that the relationship between ICT, in which mobile device plays an important role nowadays, and
education is a two-way effect. A higher participation rate in post-elementary education increases ICT
utilization, which in turn helps promote better education outcomes [20].
In terms of Indonesia, particularly university student population, previous research in an Indonesian
university shows that more than 95% of the students own smartphones by 2016 [21]. This number is
significantly higher than the ownership rate of overall population in Indonesia (21%) or even in the
United States (72%), which is one of the highest in the world in the same year [22]. It is also worth to
note that mobile device ownership is growing rapidly among university students all over the world, as
suggested by many studies [23-25]. In terms of the time-spent accessing internet from mobile device, a
global survey of internet users aged 16-64 in the second half of 2016 shows that Indonesian users spend
235 minutes each day in average. This number is significantly higher than U.S. users who spend 122
minutes each day in average. Only users in Thailand (254 minutes) and Brazil (236 minutes) spend more
time using mobile internet than Indonesian users [4].
While accessing the Internet might be one of the main activities people do on their mobile device, it
is not the only activity. In fact, most people spend more time on the apps instead of mobile browser on
their smartphones. A market research shows that U.S. consumers time-spent on mobile devices have
crossed five hours (300 minutes) a day by the end of 2016 [26]. Unfortunately, there is no comparable
data for Indonesian consumers yet. To fill that gap and to lay a foundation for a larger research agenda
about the relationship between mobile technology and education in Indonesia, this study aims to
investigate daily mobile device use among Indonesian university students in terms of time spent on
mobile device and factors influencing it.
2. Data and Methodology
An online survey was conducted in a private university in Indonesia within the first quarter of 2016. A
total of 182 undergraduate students (78 females, 42.86% and 104 males, 57.14%) participated in the
study. They came from 7 different majors, categorized further into science, technology, engineering,
math, and medicine (STEMM) and social sciences. They ranged from 19 to 25 years of age (Mean =
21.42, SD = 1.53). Participants were also categorized based on year in college (26 1st year, 14.29%, 30
2nd year, 16.48%, 58 3rd year, 31.87%, 39 4th year, 21.43%, and 29 other in their 5th year or above,
15.93%), place of origin (116 Java, 63.74% and 66 outside Java, 36.26%), self-perceived ICT adoption
level representing their attitude toward ICT in three simplified scale (38 early adopters, 20.88%, 123
majorities, 67.58%, and 21 laggards, 11.54%), and socioeconomic status (SES) measured by the
purchase price of their devices. Those who own the most expensive smartphones or tablets (i.e., priced
at IDR 5 million or above) are considered as high SES (35 high SES, 19.23% and 147 middle-to-low
SES, 80.77%). Students were also categorized based on their use of educational apps, social media apps,
and mobile gaming apps on their mobile device. For these last three categories, regular users are defined
as those who use at least one app in each category at least once a week. Data analysis includes both
descriptive and inferential statistics in the form of OLS regression.
For the dependent variable in this study, students were asked to self-report their daily mobile device
use in hours. Table 1 provides information on students with daily mobile device use of five hours or
more, categorized by gender, age, major, year in college, place of origin, socioeconomic status, attitude
toward ICT, educational apps use, social media apps use, and mobile gaming apps use. All ten
independent variables are included as predictors in the initial OLS regression model. Stepwise deletion
method is used to get the final model with only significant predictors included.
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ICITDA 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 325 (2018) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/325/1/012004
1234567890‘’“”
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of students with daily mobile device use of 5 hours or more per day
≥ 5 hours Base
Freq % from Base Freq % from Total
Gender: Male 49 47.12 104 57.14
Female 52 66.67 78 42.86
Age: ≤ 20 28 57.14 49 26.92
21 26 52.00 50 27.47
22 26 60.47 43 23.63
≥ 23 21 52.50 40 21.98
Major: STEMM 57 50.89 112 61.54
Social Sciences 44 62.86 70 38.46
Year in College: 1st year 13 50.00 26 14.29
2nd year 18 60.00 30 16.48
3rd year 33 56.90 58 31.87
4th year 21 53.85 39 21.43
≥ 5th year 16 55.17 29 15.93
Place of Origin: Java 65 56.03 116 63.74
Non-Java 36 54.55 66 36.26
SES: High 29 82.86 35 19.23
Middle to Low 72 48.98 147 80.77
Attitude toward ICT: Early Adopter 24 63.16 38 20.88
Majority 70 56.91 123 67.58
Laggard 7 33.33 21 11.54
Educational Apps: Regular User 87 56.13 155 85.16
Non-Regular User 14 51.85 27 14.84
Social Media Apps: Regular User 101 57.06 177 97.25
Non-Regular User 0 0.00 5 2.75
Mobile Gaming: Regular User 40 65.57 61 33.52
Non-Regular User 61 50.41 121 66.48
All Samples 101 55.49 182 100.00
3. Results and Discussions
Based on the descriptive statistics in Table 1, the percentage of students who spend 5 hours or more a
day on their mobile device is 55.49% for all samples, and they range from 50% to 60% in all groups
when categorized based on age, major, year in college, place of origin, and educational apps use.
However, it is not the case when these students are categorized based on gender, SES, attitude toward
ICT, social media use, and mobile gaming use where the percentage is as low as 0% in one group (i.e.,
non-regular user of social media apps) and as high as 82.86% in another (i.e. students with high SES).
Significant differences in the percentage of students who spend 5 hours or more a day in these categories
are confirmed by applying independent group t-test and chi-square test accordingly.
Regardless of the difference, all ten independent variables are included in the original model upon
running the multivariate analysis with OLS regression. After stepwise deletion method, only five
predictors are found to be significant as shown in Table 2. These five significant predictors are gender
(Pr < .05), negative attitude toward ICT (Pr < .05), high SES (Pr < .001), regular use of social media
apps (Pr < .001), and regular use of mobile gaming apps (Pr < .05). Unsurprisingly, these five are also
the ones with a significant difference in the percentage of students who spend 5 hours or more on their
mobile device per day. The final model uses robust standard errors due to an indication of
heteroscedasticity problem in the original model based on Breusch–Pagan test while Ramsey RESET
test is used to confirm no omitted-variable bias. VIF value indicates no multicollinearity issue.
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ICITDA 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 325 (2018) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/325/1/012004
1234567890‘’“”
Of those five significant predictors, regular use of social media has the strongest effect of all. Holding
everything else constant, those who use the apps at least once a week are likely to spend 3.01 hours
(about 181 minutes) more on their mobile device per day than those who don’t. The second strongest
predictor is high SES. Holding everything else constant, those who own the most expensive smartphone
or tablet are likely to spend .663 hours (about 40 minutes) more on their mobile device per day than
those who don’t. The next strongest predictor is negative attitude toward ICT. Holding everything else
constant, those who consider themselves as laggards are likely to spend .772 hours (about 46 minutes)
less on their mobile device per day than the majority and/or those who consider themselves as early
adopters. The next predictor is regular use of mobile gaming apps. Holding everything else constant,
those who play mobile games at least once a week are likely to spend .491 hours (about 29 minutes)
more on their mobile device per day than those who don’t. Finally, the last significant predictor is
gender. Holding everything else constant, female students are likely to spend .464 hours (about 28
minutes) more on their mobile device per day than male students.
Some findings in this study align well with the literature. By 2016, people in the United States spend
most of the five hours average spent on mobile device to access social media, entertainment, and games
[26]. In 2008, female students in Greece spent 3.93 hours (236 minutes) in average on their mobile
phone, significantly more than male counterparts who spent 2.75 hours (165 minutes) in average [27].
In this study, age and year in college do not have significant effect toward time-spent on mobile device.
One plausible reason is that the population is the same millennial generation born in the 1990s. The age
factor might have a stronger effect if the comparison was made with much older students, such as
graduate students who were presumably born in the 1980s and later or with much younger ones, such as
high school or middle school students born in 2000s and later. The same is true for the place of origin.
Since these students are still living in the same area, it would be better if the samples were taken from
different geographical location, instead.
Table 2. OLS regression estimates of time spent on mobile device daily (in hours)
Gender .464*
Female .155
(.190)
Attitude Toward ICT -.772*
Laggards -.167
(.353)
Socioeconomic Status (SES) .663***
Owner of the most expensive smartphone/tablet (High SES) .177
(.186)
Social Media 3.010***
Use social media mobile apps at least once a week .333
(.786)
Mobile Gaming .491*
Play mobile games at least once a week .157
(.182)
Constant 1.616*
-
(.778)
R2 .279***
Highest VIF 1.04
Mean VIF 1.03
Ramsey RESET Test .422
Observation 182
Note: The first number reported is the unstandardized coefficient, the second number reported is the
standardized coefficient and the third number reported between parentheses is the robust standard error;
*p < .05. **p < .01 ***p < .001
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ICITDA 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 325 (2018) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/325/1/012004
1234567890‘’“”
4. Conclusion
In this paper, five significant predictors of time-spent on mobile device are found. In descending order
from the strongest, they are 1) regular use of social media apps, 2) socioeconomic status, 3) negative
attitude toward ICT adoption, 4) regular use of mobile gaming apps, and 5) gender. Based on the OLS
regression result, females, students with the most expensive mobile device, students who use social
media apps at least once a week, and students who play mobile game at least once a week are more
likely to spend more time on their mobile device. Meanwhile, students who have negative attitude
toward ICT adoption, or in other words those who consider themselves as laggards are less likely to
spend more time on their mobile device. Furthermore, this study does not find any significant effect of
age, major, year in college, place of origin, and regular use of educational apps to the time spent on
mobile device.
While the findings in this study can provide a good insight into daily mobile device use among
university students in Indonesia, it didn’t capture a difference in the geographical location yet. Better
and bigger samples from several different regions of the country might be able to overcome the
limitation in this study. Also, as it turns out that homogeneity in the generation might be in play, a
comparison with older and younger students or with overall Indonesian population is needed in getting
the big picture of how long Indonesian people spend their time on their mobile device and what factors
influence it.
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