Andrew Saville

4-7-15
English 1102
Smartphone Use by College Students

The goal of this survey was to see how we as college students use smartphones and
how smartphones affect students lives. The study focused on college students
attending NC State University and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The
survey was conducted using SurveyMonkey.com and email invitations were sent to
900 students at random. Of those 900 students, 96 students took the survey.
One of the 96 students who took the survey aged 17 or younger (1.04%). 52 of the
students were ages 18-20 (54.17%). 23 of the students aged 21-24 (23.96%). 12 of
the students aged 21-24 (12.50%). 8 of the students aged 30 or older (8.33%). This
age breakdown was about as I expected.
50 of the students were female (52.08%) and the other 46 were male (47.92%). This
gave a pretty equal and realistic comparison among genders.
One of the students taking the survey was American Indian (1.04%). 14 of the
students were Asian (14.58%). 17 of the students were African American (17.71%).
Two of the students were Hispanic (2.08%). 62 of the students were Caucasian
(64.58%). One student was other (Hmong, 1.04%) and one student preferred not to
answer (1.04%). This gave a pretty realistic ethnicity representation.
There was a very wide range of varying majors; Engineering was the most popular
major however, as it made up 21 of the 96 students (21.88%). Since UNCC and NC
State are two of the states top engineering schools, this was pretty expected.
However the rest of the majors varied too much to draw any comparisons about
smartphone use among majors.
Everyone who took the survey had a mobile phone. Four (4.17%) of the respondents
had a regular cell phone (not a smartphone). The other 92 (95.83%) students had
smartphones. Of those 92 who had smartphones: 34 had an Android (35.42%), 55
had an iPhone (57.29%), and 3 had Windows Mobile (3.13%). The ratio of people
who had smartphones to those who didnt was about what I expected. IPhone
definitely seemed to be the phone of choice since it accounted for over half the
peoples phones. IPhone also seemed to be much more popular among the younger
generation (18-20), where it accounted for almost 66% of the students phones.
Ten of the students said their phone had a cracked screen while the other 86
students phones didnt have a cracked screen. This question was basically just a
fun question to see what the response would be. I see a lot of cracked phone
screens around campus, including mine. The number of people who said their
screen was cracked was actually much lower than I expected.
The next question students were asked was After putting your phone down or in
your pocket, how long do you usually go before picking it back up again? 8 of the
students said less than 5 minutes. 24 said 5-10 minutes. 19 said 10-20 minutes. 13
said 20-30 minutes. 30 said 30 minutes or more.

Andrew Saville
4-7-15
English 1102
Next, students were asked to rate how strongly they agreed with a series of
questions. They were given the option to select Strongly Agree, Agree,
Disagree or Strongly Disagree. 78.13% of students either Agreed or Strongly
Agreed that they feel uncomfortable without their smartphones, reflecting the
growing dependence society has with their phones. 76.04% of students said they
either Agree or Strongly Agree that smartphones can cause unneeded social
stress (ex. Social Media). This shows that smartphones can have a bad effect on
students self-esteems, since they are constantly competing with others on social
media sites. Smartphones allow social media to follow students everywhere they go,
not just when they are at home on their computer. However 84.38% of students said
they believe smartphones are good for society. This could be related to the growing
dependence on smartphones or the fact that students are able to communicate with
others in many different ways, no matter where they are. Another reason
smartphones could be viewed as good for society is the easy access to answers to
any question students may have, whether it be directions, restaurant choices, or
general knowledge. Lastly, 68.75% of students Said they either Disagree or
Strongly Disagree that they would rather use their smartphone over their laptop,
computer, or tablet. This shows that even with the growing dependence of
smartphones, smartphones still have a ways to go before replacing the
dependability of larger technology.
In the final question, students were asked how often they use their smartphone to
do a series of tasks. 80.21% of students said they use their phone to text message
multiple times daily while 33.33% of students said they use their phone to make
phone calls multiple times daily. This shows how text messaging is taking over as
the preferred method of communication. 76.04% of students said they use their
phone to check their email multiple times daily. 57.29% of students said they use
their phone to check Moodle at least a few times a week. However, 63.54% of
students said they rarely or never use their smartphone to do homework, 86.50%
percent of students said they rarely or never use their phone to take notes in class,
and 92.63% of students said they rarely or never use their smartphone to record
lectures. This shows that overall, smartphones arent very beneficial in the
classroom. Lastly, 61.46% of students said they use their phone to listen to music at
least daily, echoing and contributing to the growing dependence of smartphones to
students
In conclusion, this survey was very successful in drawing several conclusions. For
one, smartphones are definitely a major part of students lives and most students
would have a difficult time being away from them. Next, smartphones do more good
than bad in most students personal lives, but arent very beneficial to their
educational lives. Finally, smartphones still have a long way to go before they
replace the use of other forms of technology such as computers or tablets.

Here is a link to the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V9YZ75Z

Andrew Saville
4-7-15
English 1102
Once the survey is completed, a results summary can be viewed at the end.