Abstract
The presence of smartphones in the lives of the population in general, and of youth in particular, is evident, and is derived from elements such as the diversity of prices as well as the ease of access of all the resources that can be reached through the internet. With the use of a descriptive approach using a quantitative poll, the objective of the present study was to discover the opinions of university students in Spain and Colombia about smartphone use, as well as the consequences of its use, and if this use could derive into so-called problematic smartphone use (PSU). For gathering the information, the Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale (MPPUSA) was utilized, with a sample size n = 4009. The main result reached was that the model obtained is structured around six factors that determined the elements in light of PSU. The initial conclusion found was that the model applied can be utilized with Colombian students, with young Spanish women and students in the macro area of Social Sciences, the ones who had problematic behavior with the devices, as compared to the Health Sciences students who did not have it.
Highlights
It is a known fact that the present society is digital and that the so-called Information and Communication Technologies coexist with us systematically, allowing for the interactions with fellow humans to occur at anytime and anywhere [1]
It should be mentioned that within the scientific community, there is no clear definition of this behavioral disorder, as we have found authors who discuss the problematic use of the device [3,17,18,19], while others prefer to talk about addiction [1,2,20,21,22]
After utilizing the Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale (MPPUSA), the results obtained provided us with a profile of a young Spanish and Colombian university student who has a problematic behavior with the mobile device as a function of 6 factors relative to the tolerance towards the time spent using the device, its regard as a means of escape or the disconnection to the world that surrounds them, linked to the anxiety that could be caused if they do not use it, just as the results reached by [17], who showed that the university students with whom the same instrument was utilized, felt better when they utilized the smartphone to evade or avoid situations they found themselves in
Summary
It is a known fact that the present society is digital and that the so-called Information and Communication Technologies (from here on ICT) coexist with us systematically, allowing for the interactions with fellow humans to occur at anytime and anywhere [1]. All of this is thanks to the universalization of the internet in general, and the tools which we can use through it, as these tools provide abundant means for socializing with others, perform consultations of any kind, search for knowledge, entertain ourselves, etc. As indicated by many studies [8,9,10,11,12], these devices allow accessing a great variety of content presented in different formats, messaging services and social networks, allowing for the development of different skills and competencies beyond the digital, allowing access to other technological resources, etc., which makes them even more attractive
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