• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.181-192
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to observe the influence of internet addiction, interpersonal anxiety and self-control in messenger immersion. Questionnaires regarding internet addiction, interpersonal anxiety and self-control were administered to 600 6th grade elementary school students and 2nd grade middle school students in the province of Seoul, South Korea. A total of 592 questionnaires were collected. As statistical methods, Cronbach's, multiple linear regression analysis and stepwise regression with SPSS 10.0 were used. The main results of the study were as follows - 1) In observing the degree of messenger Immersion by the sex and grade of the adolescent, the results show that the percentage in the top group and the middle group appears higher for school boys than school girls as well as 6th grade school-children rather than for 2nd grade middle school students. 2) A difference was noted between the messenger immersion factor in school-boys' and that in school-girls'.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.501-516
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to explore the fundamental nature and meanings of the experiences of university students with regard to their smartphone usage in order to prevent smartphone addiction and provide guidelines to develop effective interventions. Nine university students who were currently enrolled in an university located in a Korean province participated in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted from June of 2012 to July of 2012, and data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological qualitative method. As a results, five theme and 40 subthemes of experiences of problematic smartphone usage were identified. Those themes include 1) a desperate try to connect with others(exposing oneself without appropriate self-protection, seeking emotional comfort, hurt and mistrust); 2) excessive use of smartphone and loss of self-control(more smartphone usage over computer/over-immersion/excessive usage/habituation, loss of self-control); 3) psychological difficulties(excessive attachment and dependence, separation anxiety, clingingness, reduced patience) ; 4) threats to daily functioning (changes in priorities, regressed independent daily functioning, irregular daily patterns, health problems, interruptions from free messenger, academic difficulties); 5) potential for recovery(conflictual feelings and doubts over smartphone usage, importance of interpersonal(face-to-face) communications, willingness to cut down the use, hope for recovery). This study provided suggestions for the prevention effort against smartphone addiction.