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ORAL PRESENTATION – RESEARCH EDUCATION

Koh Teng Chun (12), Law Shao Yu (13),

Lee Yuan (14), Leong Zhiming (15) &

Justin Lim (16)

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Contents

Introduction Methodology Survey Results and brief Analysis Interview Results and brief Analysis Conclusion

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Introduction

Our aim was to identify the fundamental reason of the health effects experienced by RI Year 1 Smartphone users.

Why? With cause comes effectsSmartphones becoming major trend in the

worldWe were curious about the effects of this

new trend on the health of RI year 1 students

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Introduction

RI year 1 students are seen as hardworking and tech savvy

Therefore, most of the students own smartphones and a lot of them use these gadgets in their work.

Health effects of such widespread use would be present and this is what we w

Methodology – Social Survey The ordered survey questionnaire was

created and administered. A total of 20 respondents were surveyed.

The survy consisted of 10 questions, with additional dempographic questions in front.

Date of conducting survey: 3 to 5 August

Methodology – Social Survey The objectives of the survey were as follows:

To assess the extent of addiction of Year 1 RI students to smartphone applications.

To evaluate various methods to curb the addiction and other health problems of smartphone usage.

To assess how many students know of the existence of health applications or how many students use them.

To spread awareness among the respondents regarding health smartphone applications and their benefits.

Methodology – Social Survey Their responses were tabulated and

were then analysed. There were:

1 student from 1B1 student from 1C3 students from 1J1 student from 1M14 students from 1P

Methodology - Interview

We located the gaps in the information procured in the survey and then sought to cover the gaps in our interview.

We interviewed School Counsellor, Ms Jaime Ng, to seek a more professional view on effects on student’s health due to smartphone usage.

The interview was conducted on 5th September 2011.

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Demographics

The students come from many classes, backgrounds and own different models of smartphones.

This classification is very important in telling us about the trends and patterns and also about what we did not expect.

The following slides show the demographics:

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Demographics - Class

Class No. of

Respondents

% of Respondents

1B 1 5

1C 1 5

1J 3 15

1M 1 5

1P 14 70

Total 20 100

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Demographics - Model of Smartphone

Model No. Of Respondents % of Respondents

Apple 5 25

Blackberry 2 10

LG 2 10

Nokia 1 5

Samsung 5 25

Sony Ericsson 5 25

Total 20 100

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Demographics - Average Monthly Income

Income(in $) No. Of Respondents % of Respondents

Unknown 4 20

0-4999 2 10

5000-9999 8 40

10000-14999 4 20

<14999 2 10

Total 20 100

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Type of Smartphone Usage

How Year 1 pupils make use of their smartphones:

Enter

tainm

ent (

e.g.

mus

ic, g

ames

)

Family

-relat

ed a

ctivi

ties

Social

-net

workin

g pu

rpos

es (e

.g. F

aceb

ook,

Twitt

er)

Wor

k-re

lated

act

ivitie

s (e

.g. c

heck

ing e

mail

)

Other

s0

2

4

6

8

10

1 (Always)

2

3

4

5 (Never)

Activities

No

. o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Fig 2. Frequency of the different types of usage of smartphones

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Type of Smartphone Usage

Respondents indicated that they did not stick to one form of smartphone usage particularly frequently

Some forms of entertainment like games and music were very popular

Respondents also use their smartphone for work-related purposes like email, which shows that one of the main original purposes of smartphones are still in use

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Health Effects

To investigate the direct health effects (physical and psychological) caused by the usage of smartphones

Split into 2 categories: Physical health effects (negative and

positive) of smartphone usagePsychological health effects (negative and

positive) of smartphone usage Results in the following slides:

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Physical Health Effects

Stress Eyesight Problems Muscle Ache No problems0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Negative direct health effects

No

. o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Fig 3. Negative direct health effects of smartphone usage

Very few negative ailments at all, as seen by the fact that 17 respondents felt that there were no problems at all.

Not expected at all. May be due to many outside factors and

factors that we did not see before (e.g. most of the effects are long-term effects)

Downlo

ad e

xerc

ise tr

ackin

g ap

plica

tions

Downlo

ad e

xerc

ise tu

toria

l app

licat

ions

Downlo

ad a

pplic

ation

s to

mak

e m

edica

l app

ointm

ents

I do

not u

se m

y sm

artp

hone

for h

ealth

pur

pose

s

Other

s0

4

8

12

16

Positive direct health effects

No

. o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Also just as unexpected: there were not many positive health effects either

Respondents did not use their smartphones for health purposes, so smartphones have failed in improving people’s health.

Fig 4. Positive direct health effects of smartphone usage

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Psychological Effects - Negative

Mor

e st

ress

ed o

ut

Mor

e fru

stra

ted/

irrita

ted

Mor

e wor

ries

None

Other

s0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Negative psychological effects on worklife

No

. o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Fig 6. Negative psychological effects of smartphones on work life

Also few negative psychological effects as 11 out of 20 respondents selected none to negative effects

Negative psychological effects such as stress and worries may be caused by the constant compulsion for students to check their e-mail and also go to Facebook for updates.

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Psychological Effects - Positive

Less stress Less frustration/irritated Less worries None Others0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Positive psychological effects on worklife

No

. o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Fig 7. Positive psychological effects of smartphones on work life

Surprisingly many positive psychological effects. (As seen from more students choosing ‘Less stressed’ than ‘None’. )

Positive psychological effects can be due to the fact that students can use their smartphones to do work while waiting and travelling to save time, so they would not have as much work when they return home.

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Discussion

The results showed that students generally did not experience any negative effects of smartphone usage.

RI year 1 students are young and thus will tend to feel less of the impact of any negative health problems.

Busy school life → no time to be on smartphones

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Discussion

There were few positive effects too. Those health-promoting applications on

smartphones are more suited for adults. Also, the stressed that can be reduced

from our work load is still minimal as there is a limited amount of work one can do on a smartphone. Most of our school work still cannot be done using smartphones.

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Limitations

The classes of our respondents were not well distributed, with over half our respondents coming from our class, 1P. This contributed to a lot of similar responses and therefore, may have changed our results slightly.

Background

Second part of our data collection. Patch up gaps in the survey and gain

more insight about the results of the survey from the view point of an experienced adult.

Interviewee: Ms. Jaime Ng Sook Wai – Youth guidance counsellor for Year 1 – 4.

What we found out… Some of the negative psychological effects

experienced by addicts are anxiety, stress, becoming irritable, sensitive and depression. They may also become slightly antisocial.

They are trapped in the virtual world – think it is better than the real world and thus stay there and become addicted and continue thinking about it even when they are not using the device.

Contradiction Trapped in the virtual world and thus

think it is better than the real world – why would they think these effects come from their ‘virtual heaven’?

Results from the survey may be inaccurate.

What we found out…

Benefits – ability to access information, ability to de-stress, make the mind more nimble.

Prevention – cannot completely ban smartphone usage – must replace it with a meaningful, productive, enjoyable activity.