Investigating the impact of university students' smartphone addiction on their satisfaction with classroom connectedness

This survey study was designed to examine Pakistani university students' addiction levels of their smartphone use and to investigate the impact of smartphone addiction on their satisfaction with classroom connectedness. The data were gathered from 438 students at two universities. The participants came from both genders (258 male and 160 female) and included both undergraduate and graduate students. The findings of this study indicated that university students were highly addicted to the use of smartphones. The findings suggested significant differences in the levels of students' addiction to smartphones between undergraduate and graduate students. However, this study did not reveal significant differences in the students' addiction levels to the smartphones in respect of their gender or the academic disciplines they study. The simple linear regression analysis showed that smartphone addiction has a negative impact on the students' satisfaction with classroom connectedness. The results suggest that students' addiction to the smartphone prevents firm student-to-student connections in the class. Furthermore, smartphone addiction negatively affects the establishment of a cooperative and supportive learning environment. The findings of this research offer some significant implications for both researchers and practitioners in the field.