Examining smartphone addiction in students: A Districtschools example

Addiction is the state of being addicted to any activity, substance, object or behavior in a way that excludes other activities of one's life or causes physical, mental or social harm to one self and others. In addition to many and various types of addiction, it seems that an important type of addiction is technology addiction. Today, the dizzying development of technological developments and their inclusion in every aspect of our lives has made it necessary for us to rethink the concepts of far and near. With the rapid development in mobile phone technology, the standard mobile phones used in the past to call someone or send a message to some one have been replaced by state-of-the-art smart phones that make our daily lives much easier. However, on the other hand, it is seen that addiction to smartphones, which have become an integral part of life, is on the rise, and this goes back to pre-school periods. In this context, the aim of the research was determined to examine whether the smart phone usage level of student sstudying in secondary and high school saffiliated to the National Education Directorate of Tunceli province Hozat district in the 2022-2023 academic year varies significantly according to some demographic characteristics of the students. Within the scope of quantitative research, the data of the research designed in the general survey model were collected by applying the "Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Form (ATBÖ-SF)", developed by Kwon et al. and adapted to Turkish by Noyan et al., face to face between May and June 2023. The scale, for which validity and reliability studies were conducted, was found to be suitable for the use of parametrictests, and in addition to test analyzes such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, T Test and One-Way Variance Analysis were used to determine the significance of the difference using statistical data analysis techniques. As a result of the analysis, the average smart phone addiction level being below 3 was interpreted as the students not having smart phone addiction, but the measurements being just below the average indicating a risk factor, while the difference between the dependent and independent variables was not significant (p<.005). According to the research findings, the smart phone addiction level of students at the lower limit of addiction carries a risk factor, in this respect the findings are warning, and it is recommended that parents, society, and especially schools and relevant institutions and organization stake precautions against the apparent danger