Conceptualizing and evaluating Levels of Smartphone Dependency for Uses and Gratifications among University Youth in Pakistan

Abstract

Internet access and social media are available on the new palm-top which is a smartphone and can be taken anywhere. This mobility has raised questions in context of the smartphone dependency for various uses and gratifications. The time spent on smartphones is the simplistic explanation for smartphone dependency. The diverse uses and gratifications demand more interpretations for smartphone dependency contextualizing uses and gratifications. The current study fills the gap by conceptualizing the low, moderate, and high levels of smartphone dependency based on uses and gratifications. For this, a survey is conducted of university students by using a purposive sampling technique. The data is analyzed by using SPSS version 25. The mean values are compared and it is found that the high dependency on the smartphone is for business, communication, educational, and social interaction-related gratifications. This implies that the smartphone is empowering youth and smartphones should be used for industry and academia linkages.