Positive and negative impacts of dependency on electronic gadgets
Question:
Discuss about the Growing Dependence of Humans on Electronic Machines and Gadgets.
The purpose of the following research paper is to find out the relation and impact of the growing dependency of the human beings on the electronic machines and gadgets and how does it affect their mental health and wellbeing as well as physical health. Without the technology, life becomes crippled in the twenty first century (Hill, 2017). Electronic gadgets are a part of the technological revolution. Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. are the mostly used gadgets in everyday life (Gani, 2017). However, experts also say that, the growing dependency on the gadgets have both positive and negative impacts on the mental and physical health of the people. The gadgets are making life easier but the social interactions are reduced due to these gadgets and people’s health is affected too (Rahmah, 2015).
The problem statement of this research paper focuses on the impact of the growing dependency of the people on the electronic machines and gadgets and its effect on the well being of the people and on the children.
The research that will be undertaken for this paper will be quantitative research. Primary and secondary data will be collected and those will be analyzed quantitatively to get a scientifically relevant solution.
This paper aims to find out how much people have become dependent on the electronic gadgets and how it affects their well being. This study would be helpful for future research on a relevant topic and would also help in finding out more ways to improve quality of life through the adoption of the positive impacts of electronic gadgets.
The objectives of the research paper are:
- To critically analyze the impact of digital tools on the human beings
- To evaluate the dependency of the children on the electronic gadgets and its impact on them
- To find out and examine the negative impact of the gadgets on human health
- To assess the addiction of people towards the electronic gadgets
- What is the overall impact of the electronic gadgets on the daily life of people?
- How the children are dependent on the electronic gadgets and what are the impacts on them?
- What are the negative impacts of the dependency on the electronic gadgets on the human health?
The term “gadget” means the portable electronic devices, which are part of one or more of the following categories: gaming consoles, MP3 player’s mobile phones or various other wireless enabled devices (Lee, 2005). It has been found that globally the smartphone users have crossed the mark of one billion users in the year 2012 (Emarketer, 2014). Thus, the penetration of mobile phones will increase from 61.1% to 69.4% between 2013 and 2017 (Abu-Tair & Abu-Shanab, 2014). Already electronic gadgets have turned out to be in extensive use by people of all age groups, but in case of young generation electronic gadgets and technology has a substantial stake in their educational as well as social lives. They are exposed to various electronic gadgets or devices since childhood like video games, computer, Internet, cell phones and various other forms of technology (Nakel & Naval, 2015).
Effects of dependency on children and adults
In past few decades, the relationship of human beings with information and communication technologies has turned out to be quite intimate. For example, Smartphones have become an inseparable companion of humans with a huge list of apps, smart appliances, wearable’s, which allows generation, storage as well as collection of large volumes of data regarding each and every aspect of life. There are large number of people who are using electronic gadgets or life hacks due to social, health related or economic reasons or just because of sheer curiosity and personal enjoyment (Sharon, 2016).
A rise in the dependence on electronic gadgets is casting negative impact on several talents, for example, mathematical intuitions. It also makes people lazy. For example, it has been seen that the quality of handwriting of human beings has seen a decline due to heavy usage of computer keyboards. People have become highly dependent on cell phones instead of their personal memory to store the telephone numbers as well as other information. Although these gadgets and devices prove to be very useful, they are simultaneously triggering an alarm because humans are losing analytical capability as well as professional intuition (Means & Mubarak, 2012).
Large number of children is seen to be hooked to television, computers, tablets or mobile phones watching favourite shows or playing games instead of playing outdoors. In the past two decades the frequency of watching television has grown twice. Obesity is considered to be a major issue, which is found gripping children who use more electronic gadgets. These kids avoid all kinds of physical activity and prefer spending their time with electronic gadgets. A child using more of electronic gadgets, will not be using their skills and knowing their capabilities (Deepak, 2016).
Although technology has had positive effects on society, it is also casting severe negative impacts as well on human health. Electronic gadgets cause physical strains as excessive texting as well as swiping in case of smartphones and tablets results in inflated tendons, index fingers, and in thumb joints, pain in wrist, weakness of the grip over a prolonged usage of these devices. Excessive use of handheld devices like tables, cell phones or gaming consoles results in poor postures (Greenlifetsyle, 2014).
The artificial light from the mobile phones or tablets hinders the pineal glands and it stops producing melatonin, a hormone, which stabilises the human body’s circadian rhythm or commonly known as 24-hour biological clock. Increase in stress, depression in men and women as well as sleeping disorders are common. Addiction to video games causes repetitive strain injuries and its prolonged use causes sedentary lifestyle, resulting in obesity. Moreover, radiations by some gadgets might increase the risk of cancer (Greenlifetsyle, 2014).
Ways to improve quality of life through the adoption of positive impacts of electronic gadgets
Electronic Device Addiction can be called as a kind of behavioural addiction in which man-made machines interactions are involved. In this decade, there has been huge evolution in the field of mobile phones, emerging as smart phones as well as they are incorporated with social media and is the leading addictive electronic gadget (Subba et al., 2013). Mobile phone addiction has been described by psycho analysts as award seeking behaviour. Mainly the young population is seen to be pre-occupied with electronic gadgets mainly the mobile phones (Griffiths, 2015).
Research methodology refers to the systematic plan for conducting the research (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2017). In this research study, the researcher needs to address the research questions by collecting the data and evaluating them by using a scientific approach. Hence, research approach, design, data collection and analysis process are the subject matter of research methodology. In the current study, the researcher will choose the interpretivism philosophy as the topic deals with a social phenomenon (Potrac, Jones & Nelson, 2014).
Research design focuses on the overall strategy of the research. There are two major types of research design: exploratory and explanatory. Exploratory research design is the process that deals with a problem, which was not explored earlier. This process studies the problem in details, establishes the priorities, develops the definitions and improves the final designs. On the other hand, explanatory research design addresses a known issue in a more detailed manner to explain other aspects (Creswell, 2014). In this paper, the researcher will choose explanatory method of research as the topic has been explored before. The case study approach will be applied to address the topic. Case study approach is helpful to evaluate the bigger picture through a small sample (Zainal, 2017). It helps in taking a sample for the data collection and analysis and evaluating the problem based on that.
Since the research is based on the digital tool addiction, hence, according to the researcher, the customers of an electronics store would be the best population for survey. This group of customers consists of new and existing customers. The customer base of Best Buy would be helpful as it is an electronics store and the trend of electronics goods purchase might provide some insight for the research.
A sample size of 50 people will be chosen through simple random sampling. These 50 people will be chosen from the customer base of Best Buy Australia. Simple random sampling is a probability sampling where each customer has the equal probability of being chosen. As the customer base is homogenous in terms of nature, hence this sampling method will be used. This helps in minimizing the systematic bias (Rossi, Wright & Anderson, 2013).
A survey questionnaire will be prepared by the researcher himself and will be handed out to 50 random customers during the billing. The questionnaire would contain 5 close ended questions and 3 open ended interview questions. The questions will be well designed and based on level of usage of electronic gadgets.
Creations based on observations are called constructs. The indicators and dimensions of digital tools addiction are the constructs of this paper. Developing the methods for measuring the data and reaching to a conclusion is the operationalization process. In this case, ordinal measurement levels will be used to find out the ranking of the variables. Qualitative measurement is possible in ordinal measurement (Covin & Miller, 2014).
The researcher will be collecting both the primary and secondary data for this research study. Primary data is the one, which is collected directly from the field of study and secondary data is the one that is collected from already published sources (Beer & Faulkner, 2014). In this research study, the researcher will conduct a survey, focusing on the digital tools addiction and its impacts on the adults and children.
For the secondary data, the researcher will look for the data on health problems, mental issues, and the usage of electronic goods in daily lives. For that, the official websites of WHO and other international health organizations and various health and technology journals will be explored by the researcher. The official sales data of Best Buy Australia will also be taken to get an idea about the sales of electronics goods.
The quantitative data analysis process will be used in this paper. The researcher will analyze the primary data by using scientific methods, such as statistical tools of correlation, regression, and frequency calculation. This minimizes any biasness and fluctuation in the observation (Treiman, 2014). The secondary data and the interview responses will be used to validate the results of primary data analysis.
In this research paper, the researcher will perform empirical analysis and hence will do empirical contribution. The effects of a potential moderator variable on the nature of the relationship between the constructs will be examined in this contribution (Burtch, Ghose & Wattal, 2016).
The primary limitation of this research study is the small size of the sample. It is not possible for the researcher to collect interview and survey responses from a huge population, as this would make the study robust, complex and time consuming. The data on the effects on children could also be ambiguous as the children might not be able answer the survey questions accurately.
Technology is producing large number of electronic gadgets and devices to make our lives easier and better. Invention of new technology leads to higher level of dependence of younger generation on these gadgets resulting in addiction amongst them. This is a behavioural addiction, which brings about negative impacts on human health. There can be issues like headaches, depression, obesity and anxiety due prolonged use of gadgets and this affects the lifestyle. Thus, it becomes all the more necessary to analyse the real time impact of growing dependency on electronic gadgets.
References
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