THE STUDENT VOICE: THE STUDENTS OWN VIEWS ON SMARTPHONE USAGE AND IMPACT ON THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

The majority of Irish children (90%) will have a smartphone by the time they are 12 years of age [1]. This rise in smartphone usage has meant that mobile technology has become an integral part of our daily lives from a young age. Indeed mobile technologies are so ingrained in the life of college students, that they impact on the manner in which they communicate, socialise, find information, access college resources and spend their time [2] [3]. While students now have greater access to a variety of academic resources, "digital technology can also be a distraction for students from their college work and study" [4]. With the pervasiveness of mobile technologies, college students are increasingly encouraged to multitask, dividing their attention between competing activities such as; texting, gaming, socialisation, web browsing, study and/or absorbing lecture content [5]. However, while the current generation are more frequent media multitaskers than previous generations [6], studies by Ophir et al. (2012) cited in [7] show that today's students are misled into believing that they are effective multitaskers as they 'juggle' socialisation, communication and web browsing without allowing sufficient time and attention for course work and study. Given that we have "limited resources available to attend to, process, encode, and store information for later retrieval" [8], it is not surprising that studies demonstrate evidence of negative correlation between the effects of technological multitasking on learning and academic performance (Wood et al. (2010) cited in [9]). Furthermore, [1] demonstrates a positive correlation between an increase in the amount of technology screen time and isolation/depression. A study in 2017, also showed an increase in Irish students seeking "help with depression, anxiety, relationships problems and academic issues has reached unprecedented levels... a 40 per cent increase in demand for counselling over the last 10 years, with waiting lists for counselling services at many colleges" [10]. While researchers continue to study how smartphone usage impacts on students' learning, academic efforts and mental health issues, this study focuses on students' perceptions (through self-reflection) on what impact smartphone usage has on their academic study and work.