Nomofobia en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

Nomophobia is a current problem that consists of depending on the cell phone to perform all kinds of activities, which causes the user to create anxiety at the time of not having the phone at hand, not having battery or mobile data, this terminology is unknown in Ecuadorian society, however, this phenomenon affects a large percentage of young people because they are the ones who use technology. The objective of this research is to determine the level of nomophobia that exists in university students of the Technical University of Ambato, the mixed study is exploratory and descriptive, which was developed with 299 students aged 18 to 26 years and older, to analyze the variable was applied the test (NMP-Q) of Yildirim and Correia with 20 items divided into 4 dimensions and focus groups. In addition, the quantitative study shows that nomophobia negatively affects students because they present a level of nomophobia between moderate and severe, in relation to the sociodemographic data it is evident that there is a slight difference between men and women, on the other hand, it is observed that younger students are the main victims of nomophobia due to the context of society. In the qualitative study it is identified that the cell phone is considered as a fundamental part of their life, even replaced with the affection of a mother, this problem has generated adverse effects on students such as anxiety, stress, depression, social isolation, etc