Ringxiety and the Mobile Phone Usage Pattern among the Students of a Medical College in South India

Abstract

Aims: Technologies like mobile phones may not always work positively but they may have unforeseen adverse effects. This study was conducted to find the proportion of students who experienced ringxiety (phantom ringing) and other perceived effects, as well as the pattern of the mobile phone usage among college students. Method:A cross-sectional study was carried out at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, south India, among 336 medical students by using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire.Results: Among the total number of students, 335 students possessed mobile phones. Mostly, the persons whom they talked to on their phones were parents for 220 (51%) of the students. 48% (150) talked for less than half hour in a day and 41% (137) were high volume message users. "Ringxiety" was experienced by 34.5% (116) of the students and they were more likely to use their phones at restricted places like classrooms (99%) and libraries (60.3%). A significantly larger proportion of ringxiety sufferers also complained of hampered studies. Conclusion:The pattern of mobile phone use among the medical students appeared to be problematic, as a fairly large proportion suffered from ringxiety, they reported getting very upset and they used their phones at restricted times and places. This problem needs to be recognized, all stakeholders must be made aware of the symptoms and measures must be taken to reduce it.

Phantom phone signals: An investigation into the prevalence and predictors of imagined cell phone signals

“…Prior studies also investigated a number of other possible predictors of PPS, ranging from demographical factors, personality traits such as anxiety and depression , neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and phone use-related measures such as text-message dependency (Drouin et al, 2012), and intensity of mobile device use (Rothberg et al, 2010;Subba et al, 2013). The study by Drouin et al (2012) showed a small but significant relation between PPS and text-message dependency, and a negative relation between PPS and conscientiousness.…”

“…Current insights in this phenomenon are almost entirely anecdotic or based on relatively small or non-generic populations such as students (Drouin, Kaiser, & Miller, 2012;Subba et al, 2013) medical staff (Rothberg et al, 2010), or high-tech company employees (Chen, Wu, Chang, & Lin, 2014). Nevertheless, these few existing studies all suggest that PPS is a prevalent phenomenon experienced by most users of mobile devices.…”

“…The study by Chen et al (2014) did not reveal a direct relation between PPS and anxiety or depression, but did show an association between PPS (more specifically phantom vibrations and phantom ringing) and occupational burnout, suggesting that PPS might at least partly be stress-induced (p. 2311). The two studies that looked at the intensity of mobile device use as a predictor for PPS suggest that people who use their phone more often experience PPS more frequently (Subba et al, 2013), as do people who more often carry their device (pagers or cell phones) with them (Rothberg et al, 2010).…”

Perception of medical students for utility of mobile technology use in medical education

“…[2,11,[13][14][15][16] In the earlier study by Boruff [12] reported that "knowing what resources were available" (55.8%) and "lack of time" (26.3%) were the other most commonly reported barriers to access, among all groups. Other barriers included "understanding how to use the resources" (20.8%), "technology problems" (20.7%), or "complicated installation process" (18.3%).…”

“…The minimum sample size was calculated to be 300, taking into consideration that 40% of the student population of a previous study had self-reported an addiction to mobile phones Subba et al, [16] with an allowable error of 10% and a 95% confidence level.…”