Interdisciplinary Source
As the issue of the effects on learning and the distractions associated with the presence of digital technology have played major role in the growing problem with media multitasking, what often gets overlooked is the impact of digital technology in a social mean. Studies have shown that large amounts of time spent on these devices may increase the amount of stress and anxiety a person has. For instance, in a 2001 article published by International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, Ahmet Akin presents the results of a study he and his fellow researchers from Sakarya University conducted on the relationship between the repeated and frequent use of digital technology in a university classroom and the physiological obstructions such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Akin and his colleagues had three-hundred students from a University in Turkey participate in their study. Numerous students from each year (freshman, sophomore, etc.) participated in the study. Ninety-one percent of students were between seventeen and twenty-four years old. Students were to complete multiple questionnaires, in which Akin used two scientifically approved scales to measure the amounts of stress, depression, and anxiety there are in those who were considered to have an internet addiction. Of those who were considered internet addicts which was approximately thirty-four percent or one-hundred students, forty-five percent showed signs of depression, forty percent showed signs of anxiety, and forty percent showed signs of stress. To make his point clear about the effect of digital technology on psychological obstacles such as stress, Akin emphasizes, “Research on internet addiction and depression demonstrated that the overuse of the internet, which results in a disruption of the normal lives of an individual and the people around him, was associated with an increase in the frequency of depression”(139). That is to say, when Akins points out that internet use causes disruptions in a person’s everyday life, he is trying to demonstrate that the superfluous use of technology or the internet replaces the time that could be spent with family and friends. When one is not as social, this may result in smaller social groups and higher levels of depression and isolation. With this in mind, one can begin to see how this study from Sakarya University clearly demonstrates that when students spend excessive time on their digital technology, students begin to drift away from physical social life. In fact, people will begin to feel more stress and lonely when less time is spent with friends and family. These negative physiological obstructions may also result in academic obstructions.













