Everyone needs a smartphone during the pandemic, which makes people use online communication more. However, inappropriate and excessive use can cause problems, such as nomophobia. This study aimed to determine the effect of expressive writing therapy in reducing the level of nomophobia. The research method uses a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling with 23 male and female subjects aged 19-21 years who had moderate to high levels of nomophobia-collecting data through observation, interviews, and the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). Expressive writing therapy was given to the experimental group for five sessions through online and offline media. Data analysis using a quantitative approach with the Mann-Whitney statistical test obtained a significance of p = 0.0425 (P <0.05), so it can be concluded that there is a significant difference in nomophobia scores between the control and experimental groups after being given expressive writing therapy. The results of the qualitative analysis showed that the subject experienced nomophobia due to unpleasant past experiences, parenting and environmental demands, loneliness, and work needs. The decrease in nomophobia scores was influenced by various new understandings gained after receiving expressive writing therapy.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has occurred since the end of 2019 until now has caused various changes in people's behavior. One of the significant changes is the existence of social restrictions, where people are asked to stay at home and avoid activities in a crowd. One of the things that many people, especially students, do to fill their activities at home is watching Korean dramas. Over the past few years Korean entertainment fever has occurred in Indonesia, but during the pandemic there has been an increase in people watching Korean dramas. This study aimed to determine the impact of watching Korean dramas on the psychological condition of respondents during the pandemic. This study used a qualitative exploratory method, in which there were five respondents (4 women, 1 man), all of whom were students in Central Java who watched Korean dramas. The data collected from interview and data analysis used was coding and categorization. The results showed that the five respondents experienced an increase in the frequency and duration of watching Korean dramas during the pandemic. They felt various negative thoughts and feelings related to the pandemic. The impact felt by watching Korean dramas is this activity was seen as a distraction from abundance and stressful information about the pandemic, to entertain, to reduce stress, to improve mood, and help them to stay at home. On the other hand, the negative effects were forgetfulness of time, reluctance to do other activities outside of watching drama, extravagant internet quotas, physical impacts, and frequent fantasies. Nonetheless, the respondents rated that watching Korean dramas helped them through the period of social distancing during the pandemic.