“Negative Effects of Mobile Technology regards to Mental Health of an OLFU SHS

Grade 12 Students”

A Research Paper Presented to

Faculty of Senior High School Department
Our Lady of Fatima University, Quezon City

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for Practical
Research 2

Arnonobal, Bea Bianca C.

Alisasis, Elaine Marie B.
Pepe, Nicole Marisse C.
Camacho, Grant David
Enriquez, Keanu Andrew B.
Pangilinan, Joshua B.
Villareal, Karleil Jefrimari L.

Mr. Mark Roland Abello

2021
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Background of the study

Digital technology is a thing where most people rely on nowadays. Considering today's
generation where almost everything is rationalizing, these technologies brought changes in
order to help with making everyday lives easier. Being exposed to these can bring changes to
people's health, especially in the mental and emotional health of the people.

Technology has brought a positive impact to today's generation. However, it also made
negative impacts on people's lives. Technology is very reliable especially in the time of
pandemic where everyone is caged inside their houses and is prohibited from going outside and
interacting with people. Technology helps people in contacting and checking out the people
they love even with great distance, it connects people all over the world. But in the time of the
pandemic where people are focused on their mobile phones, it isn't healthy anymore.

In today's world, mobile technologies are very common. Some of these are utilized
almost everywhere we go on every continent. Every year, gadgets firms come up with new
devices. People buy such items even if they already have one at home. The providers are
always competing for more customers by running high-budget marketing campaigns and
introducing incremental advances.

But some forms of technology have generated good improvements in the world, there is
also evidence of mobile technology's harmful consequences and overuse. Eye strain and
difficulties focusing on crucial tasks may be caused by social media and mobile devices, which
can lead to mental, psychological, and physical problems. They may also play a role in more
significant health issues including depression. Overuse of mobile technology may have a
greater impact on students who are still developing.
 The primary findings of the study included links between frequent mobile phone use
and mental health outcomes such as depressive symptoms and sleep issues. Mobile phone use
before the night has been linked to shorter sleep duration and lower sleep quality, for example.
"Problematic use" (dependence) was linked to a number of unfavorable effects. Finally, links
between mobile phone use and negative mental health outcomes have been discovered in
research that adopts a psychological or behavioral approach to the exposure. More high-quality
studies, however, are required to draw accurate conclusions about the processes and causal
orientations of connections.

The emergence of the smartphone, with its variety of capabilities, higher memory
capacity and speed, and continual internet connectivity, has increased the amount of time spent
using the phone, implying near-ubiquitous usage. This rapid development, combined with
altered exposure patterns, has prompted concerns about the potential health repercussions of
the exposure. The mobile phone communicates by emitting radio signals, and exposure to
radiofrequency electromagnetic fields has been hypothesized to be hazardous to one's health.
There are currently few signs that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields associated with
mobile phones have any significant health consequences.

The purpose of this study was to research the common negative effects of mobile
phones regarding the mental health of an ordinary OLFU SHS Grade 12 student. What are the
common causes of this phenomenon and how do we prevent the event of its severity. Mobile
phones are the most frequently used device in our current generation, it has been proven that
many young people are into using this device daily rather than engaging themselves in some
more physical activities. Mobile phones have been serving their purpose ever since the 1980s
or the ones we called as a first-generation cellular system that has been widespread across the
whole United States. According to research, the mobile phone industry inside our country has
emerged within the timeline of the 1990's PILTEL was established by the Philippine Long
Distance Company (PLDT), providing the first mobile service in the country in 1991. Ever
since then, the use of mobile phones all over the world evolved into a multipurpose and
easy-to-handle device that does almost what it is being told. Our reliance on these devices has
caused many branches of emotional drought and drama. Problems and many other implications
occurred when we are fully invested with the use of these devices, and most of the time we are
allotting ourselves to spend hours and hours indulging ourselves surfing the internet. This
reliance on mobile phones can cause potential negative effects on an individual's mental health.
According to The Guardian researcher Bradley Busch "Their brains work differently to those
adults: they are more susceptible to peer pressure and have less self-control. Within these risks,
procrastination and face-to-face communication issues may occur out of the blue, without the
required controlled viewing time for mobile devices the risks and other issues will remain as an
unsettled business regarding the psychological problems that it brings.
Research Objectives
The main objective of this research is...
● The researchers aim to look into the risks involved with the usage of digital
technologies and how it is bringing changes to our health.
● The researchers will focus on the negative sides of the topic investigating the
various factors on how engaging with digital technology affect the mental health
status of our participants.
● The researchers aim to help to maintain the average use of technologies and
correct those negative impacts on mental wellness that are associated with these
technologies.

Conceptual Framework
Theoretical Framework
This study is supported by the theory of the various negative impacts of technology on
adolescents, the researchers presume that utilizing digital technologies does not have any
benefits in health and could lead to a negative change to different aspects of an individual’s
wellbeing. As stated by an article, the appearance of a smartphone has radically changed the
lives of adolescents starting from their social life up to their mental well-being. (Jean M.
Twenge, 2017) and another article proved, these past decades caused an enlargement in terms
of using these kinds of technologies among children and young people, determining that there
might be an association between poor state of mental health and behavior when utilizing
smartphones. (Sohn et al. 2019)

Along with the support of the theory of addiction of (Gorsuch & Butler, 1976) which
discloses the physiological effect of a person might obtain when they have an addiction. Other
forms of negative effects of overusing may affect the person’s mental health also radiation will
result in a possible health condition. When parents are not really supervising their children,
they are only in charge of their behavior through the internal norms that they have instilled in
them, and such internal standards are lacking in non socialized teenagers. Parents who do not
socialize with their children have little or no influence on whether or not their children develop
a mobile phone addiction in the first place.

Scope and Delimitation

The focus of this study is to determine the Negative effects of Mobile Technology
regards to Mental Health of OLFU SHS Grade 12 students. The study was conducted during
the school year 2021-2022.

The participants of this study were selected and narrowed down into a group of Senior
High School Grade 12 Students who were currently enrolled in Our Lady of Fatima University,
and in order to collect the data needed, they should be exposed to utilizing these mobile
devices and technology
Significance of the Study
This study will be undertaken to determine the Negative Effects of Mobile Technology
regards to Mental Health of OLFU SHS Students. This part of the research contains the
beneficiaries of the study.

The Students
In this study, students will be able to familiarize or identify the importance of having
knowledge regarding the negative effects of mobile technology mainly in parts of a person’s
mental health.

The Teachers
The teachers can also benefit from this study. For them, they have a particular set of
skills and standards that they can use to assess the needs of their and lecture about what could
happen when we overuse our digital gadgets.

The Parents
The parents will be able to demonstrate the significance of having a broad knowledge
about the negative impacts of mobile technology and what are the significant factors we can
use to reduce risks that we can attain from the overuse of gadgets.

Future Researchers
This research will result in the increase of grade 12 students’ awareness regarding the
effects of mobile technology on their mental health. It will enable them to create a concrete
action plan on how they can avoid future mental instability and foster a more personal
approach in dealing with the people around them, hence, a healthier social life.

Future researchers the data and the analytical report may be used as references for future
research on this topic.
Definition of Terms
For a better understanding of this study, the following terms are defined in the context
of this research.

Depression. Depression is classified as a mood disorder. It may be described as

feelings of sadness, loss, or anger that interfere with a person’s everyday activities. (Valencia
Higuera, 2021)

Digital technology. Digital technology enables the storage of massive amounts of

information in relatively small spaces. Large amounts of media, such as photos, music, videos,
contact information, and other documents can be carried around on small devices like mobile
phones. (Paul Goodman, 2021)

Electromagnetic field. An electromagnetic field is a physical field extending

throughout space that delivers electric and magnetic effects. (Christopher Baird, 2021)

Mental Health. Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional

well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. (Adam Felman, 2020)

Mental illness. Mental illness refers to the disturbance in a person's thinking, feeling,
or behavior (or a combination of these) that reflect a problem in mental function (Amy Morin,
LCSW, 2021)

Pandemic. A pandemic is an outbreak of global proportions. It happens when an

infection due to a bacterium or virus becomes capable of spreading widely and rapidly. (Adam
Felman, 2020)

Procrastination. Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last
minute, or past their deadline. (Kendra Cherry, 2020)
 Ubiquitous. The word ubiquitous means existing or being everywhere constantly or at
the same time. Something that is ubiquitous is widespread or has omnipresence. (Kevin Miller,
2021)

Radiofrequency. RF radiation is a form of electromagnetic energy with frequencies

that range from a few kilohertz up to the gigahertz range. It can be produced by a variety of
sources. These include consumer devices and RF transmitting facilities used for radio and
television broadcasting, land-mobile telecommunications, etc. (Robert F. Cleveland Jr, 1994)