IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v12y2022i4p109-d866664.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Communication Study of Young Adults and Online Dependency during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Patrícia Silveira

    (Faculty of Design Technology and Communication (IADE), Universidade Europeia, 1600-604 Lisboa, Portugal
    Communication and Society Research Center, University of Minho, 4710-457 Braga, Portugal)

  • Ricardo Morais

    (Faculty of Design Technology and Communication (IADE), Universidade Europeia, 1600-604 Lisboa, Portugal
    LabCom—Communication and Arts, University of Beira Interior, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal)

  • Simone Petrella

    (Communication and Society Research Center, University of Minho, 4710-457 Braga, Portugal
    Faculty of Philosophy and Social Science, Catholic University, 4710-297 Braga, Portugal
    Centre for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies, Catholic University, 4710-297 Braga, Portugal)

Abstract

People use digital media and the Internet daily. The time that young people spend connected to digital devices will increase as technology advances, which could have severe health risks and behavioral dependence implications. In the context of the current pandemic, in which socializing, studying, and working is changing, this question has become particularly relevant. Therefore, we propose to investigate the perceptions of young university adults—understood as generation Z—regarding their digital media practices, particularly during the pandemic, and to study the consequences of a permanent connection to these formats on the development of an addiction to the Internet. Our quantitative method approach applied questionnaires to a sample of 407 young university adults studying in Portugal. Through this survey, we could target a specific user group, quantify their consumption, and measure their online experiences. The results point to an increase in dependence on the Internet during confinement. While it is true that carrying out academic work is one of the reasons for this growth, it is noteworthy that the respondents sought the online world in a significan way to pass the time and escape their routine. In addition, they confess to experiencing some consequences of excessive use, such as sleep disturbances and adverse emotional reactions—such as instabilities, depression, and nervousness—when not online. We conclude that the pandemic has intensified online dependence. However, above all that, it is necessary to look at the mental and general health consequences that this excessive use has brought, which may not be visible or manifested by the youth in the short term, and may come to have consequences in the long term.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrícia Silveira & Ricardo Morais & Simone Petrella, 2022. "A Communication Study of Young Adults and Online Dependency during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-24, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:109-:d:866664
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/4/109/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/4/109/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Talwar, Shalini & Dhir, Amandeep & Kaur, Puneet & Zafar, Nida & Alrasheedy, Melfi, 2019. "Why do people share fake news? Associations between the dark side of social media use and fake news sharing behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 72-82.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun Kyung Kang & Jin Kwon & Kwanghyun Kim, 2023. "A Study on the Relationship between Internet Overdependence and Anger Response among Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderating Effect on Negative Emotions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-9, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuchen Lu, 2024. "Uncovering the Barriers to Foreign Residents' Enrollment in Japan's National Health Insurance: An Econometric Analysis Using Pooled Cross-Sectional Data," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-026, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    2. Jabeen, Fauzia & Tandon, Anushree & Azad, Nasreen & Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Pereira, Vijay, 2023. "The dark side of social media platforms: A situation-organism-behaviour-consequence approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    3. Rocío Lavigne-Cervan & Borja Costa-López & Rocío Juárez-Ruiz de Mier & Marta Sánchez-Muñoz de León & Marta Real-Fernández & Ignasi Navarro-Soria, 2021. "Implications of the Online Teaching Model Derived from the COVID-19 Lockdown Situation for Anxiety and Executive Functioning in Spanish Children and Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-15, October.
    4. Fei Qin & Yiqing Song & George P Nassis & Lina Zhao & Yanan Dong & Cuicui Zhao & Yiwei Feng & Jiexiu Zhao, 2020. "Physical Activity, Screen Time, and Emotional Well-Being during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Zehra Ece Serman & Julian Sims, 2023. "Source Credibility Theory: SME Hospitality Sector Blog Posting During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 2317-2334, December.
    6. Talwar, Manish & Talwar, Shalini & Kaur, Puneet & Tripathy, Naliniprava & Dhir, Amandeep, 2021. "Has financial attitude impacted the trading activity of retail investors during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    7. Na-Hye Kim & Jung-Min Lee & Eunhye Yoo, 2022. "How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Changed Adolescent Health: Physical Activity, Sleep, Obesity, and Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, July.
    8. Xinqiao Liu & Yifan Zhang & Wenjuan Gao & Xiaojie Cao, 2023. "Developmental trajectories of depression, anxiety, and stress among college students: a piecewise growth mixture model analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    9. Gina Voss & Andreia F. Paiva & Alice Delerue Matos, 2021. "A Study of the Association between the Stringency of Covid-19 Government Measures and Depression in Older Adults across Europe and Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-12, July.
    10. Liu, Hongfei & Liu, Wentong & Yoganathan, Vignesh & Osburg, Victoria-Sophie, 2021. "COVID-19 information overload and generation Z's social media discontinuance intention during the pandemic lockdown," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    11. Mateusz Ciski & Krzysztof Rząsa, 2023. "Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression in the Investigation of Local COVID-19 Anomalies Based on Population Age Structure in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-23, May.
    12. Luqman, Adeel & Talwar, Shalini & Masood, Ayesha & Dhir, Amandeep, 2021. "Does enterprise social media use promote employee creativity and well-being?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 40-54.
    13. Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Laato, Samuli & Talukder, Shamim & Sutinen, Erkki, 2020. "Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: An affordance and cognitive load perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Andrea Alexander & Stephen Fung & Martin Eichler & Nadja Lehwald-Tywuschik & Vasuki Uthayakumar & Sami-Alexander Safi & Christian Vay & Hany Ashmawy & Sinan Kalmuk & Alexander Rehders & Sascha Vaghiri, 2022. "Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-10, March.
    15. José Pais-Ribeiro & Alexandra Ferreira-Valente & Margarida Jarego & Elisabet Sánchez-Rodríguez & Jordi Miró, 2022. "COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: Psychosocial and Health-Related Factors Associated with Psychological Discomfort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Alessandro Germani & Livia Buratta & Elisa Delvecchio & Claudia Mazzeschi, 2020. "Emerging Adults and COVID-19: The Role of Individualism-Collectivism on Perceived Risks and Psychological Maladjustment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Joanna Baj-Korpak & Kamil Zaworski & Ewa Szymczuk & Andrei Shpakou, 2022. "Physical Activity and Mental Health of Medical Students from Poland and Belarus-Countries with Different Restrictive Approaches during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Gülsen Erden & Asil Ali Özdoğru & Sami Çoksan & Hale Ögel-Balaban & Yakup Azak & İlkiz Altınoğlu-Dikmeer & Aysun Ergül-Topçu & Yeşim Yasak & Gözde Kıral-Uçar & Seda Oktay & Pelin Karaca-Dinç & Ezgi Di, 2022. "Social Contact, Academic Satisfaction, COVID-19 Knowledge, and Subjective Well-being Among Students at Turkish Universities: a Nine-University Sample," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2017-2039, August.
    19. Mevlut Okan Aydin & Guven Ozkaya & Ilker Mustafa Kafa & Shafiul Haque & Zuleyha Alper, 2023. "Hopelessness among Medical Students Caused Due to COVID-19 Pandemic Linked Educational Hiatus: A Case Study of Bursa Uludag University, Türkiye," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, February.
    20. Gregory Knell & Michael C. Robertson & Erin E. Dooley & Katie Burford & Karla S. Mendez, 2020. "Health Behavior Changes During COVID-19 Pandemic and Subsequent “Stay-at-Home” Orders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-16, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:109-:d:866664. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.