CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

This chapter includes the related literature and studies. The researchers went

through deep searching and intensive reading of materials from different sources that

will contribute great relevance and significance to the study. Reviews of related

literatures will be utilized to familiarize and to relate the study.

State of the Art

Cognitive ability/skill and intelligence are closely related to each other. Cognitive

skill can help a student achieve good academic performance. Memory, a cognitive skill,

is one of the essentials to obtain good academic performance. According to H. Wilmer,

L. Sherman, and J. Chein (2017) there is a scant relationship between smartphone

habits and a person's memory and knowledge capability. People highly depend on their

devices to store information for them. This statement is influenced by Sparrow et al.

(2011) where the researchers asked the participants to type newly acquired facts in a

computer, half of the participants enumerated their facts and left it for future reference

while the remaining half believed that their information may be erased any time soon. A

recall task was given later on and those who kept their information for future use

performed poorly in comparison to the other half of the participants. In addition to the

dependency on their devices, according to Thornton et al. (2014), even the mere

presence of a smartphone is enough to distract a person from doing certain tasks if one

actively uses a smartphone consistently. Although the constant use of smartphones can

cause dependency, in can also help students academically. According to Rung et al.
(2014), students use smartphones and social media for their learning activities. In

relation to social media use for learning activities, T. Alloway and R. Alloway stated that

the use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube helped

the students focus on their tasks and ignore distractions. Also, SNS helped students to

be exploratory when it comes to finding information online.

Smartphone Addiction

The term addiction has been mostly associated with drugs, alcohol, gambling etc.

Technology addiction has been recognized since the mid-1990s as a new kind of social

problem as the media started paying increasing attention to the idea of computer of

internet addiction (Shaw & Black, 2008). Technological addiction, defined by Griffiths

(1995) as a non-substance addiction that involves human-machine interaction, is a

subset of behavioral addiction that shares similarities with the five core components of

addiction including salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and

relapse. As mobile communication has blended into daily routines, users have been

increasing their reliance on these personal devices. Along with various benefits,

concerns about addictive and improper use of mobile phones are growing because of its

accompanied risks (Leung, 2008).

Smartphone addiction is defined as excessive or obsessive use of smartphones,

which will interfere with the daily lives of users and cause negative consequences,

although it is not officially considered a disorder (Lee, Ahn, Choi, & Choi, 2014). When

people are addicted to their smartphones, they are actually dependent on the

functionality they allow their phones to do (Kuss & Griffiths, 2017). Students may turn to
smartphone use to cope with stress, depression, anxiety, strained relationships,

loneliness, and bad academic achievement.

Al-Barashdi, Bouazza, Jabur, and Al-Zubaidi (2016) conducted a study to explore

the reasons for smartphone addiction and recommended solutions to university

students. Results specified two types of reasons: one reason related to student and

another reason related to the Smartphone manufacturers. Firstly, students tend to use

smartphones extensively to entertain themselves and escape from academic pressure.

They also tend to use smartphones to accomplish their academic work and to create

social relationships through the Internet. Secondly, Smartphone manufacturers aim their

advertisements to the younger audience. They continuously update their smartphone

versions and applications to attract more young people. The researchers suggested to

enhance awareness on Smartphone addiction risks and to increase social interaction

within and outside the family.

Smartphone Addiction and Academic Performance

Students and their smartphones have become inseparable even in learning

contexts (Judd, 2014). Whether learning in class, studying outside class, or engaging in

homework either alone or as a member of a team, most students tend to smartphone

multitask (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Junco, 2012). Though smartphones facilitate

access to educational resources and collaboration (Chan, Walker, & Gleaves, 2015),

studies have indicated that technology related distractions are negatively related to

homework effort and environment (Xu, 2015). Aljomaa, Qudah, Albursan, Bakhiet, and

Abduljabbar (2016) state that smartphone addicts tend to neglect work and study,
isolate themselves from friends and family and remain attached to the smartphone.

Students who tend to use their smartphones during time of learning are linked to having

reduced academic achievements (Froese et al., 2012). Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever

(2013) have identified a connection between smartphone multitasking and the decline in

the academic performance.

Gaps Bridged by the Study

The effect of average time of use and level of smartphone addiction to the Grade

12 SRSTHS students, thus the better type of learning still remains a problem. Through

the related studies and literature, it was observed that the students may not fully utilize

smartphones for learning motive but utilize it for entertainment purposes (Singh &

Samah, 2018). There are no studies conducted concerning smartphone addiction in

Santa Rosa Science and Technology Highschool. There are only few studies performed

that used smartphone addiction proneness scale to relate to academic performance of

students. Therefore, the current study will examine the impact of smartphone addiction

on the academic performance of the Grade 12 Santa Rosa Science and Technology

High School students. The researchers will also find out if there is no difference in the

result whatever the type of teaching method that will be used. From the use of written

evaluation, gap-bridged is present in the study.

Synthesis