The usage of cell phones and the feeling to them in modern Japanese college students.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how and to what extent modern people's life is affected by cell phones, which have been rapidly penetrating into the people's individual life. Surveys were conducted by questionnaires to Japanese college students (288 females and 54 males, ages 18 to 21) about their dependency on cell phones and habits of using them. The result was analyzed by the KJ method extracting the typical feelings about cell phones. Forty typical feelings were rated by 5 levels and analyzed in relation to the using years and the frequency per day. About 20% of the students used cell phones more than 30 times a day and for more than 3 hours in average per day. A decisive point concerning the users' dependency on cell phones seemed to exist between the daily use of 30 times and 40 times. At the same time, female students appeared more dependent on cell phones. Those feelings were classified into 6 groups; being 'dependent' on cell phones, regarding cell phones as 'important', 'necessary', 'convenient', just a 'method' of communication, and 'troublesome'. The percentages of those who felt cell phones as convenient, a method, important and necessary were high both in males and females. The dependence on cell phones seemed to be affirmative in both sexes, but males consistently felt cell phones as methods, whereas females tended to be more dependent on them from psychological reasons. Consequently, there were observed some differences between males and females in their use and feelings to cell phones.