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A new method to measure and decrease the online social networking addiction
Author(s) -
Esmaeili Rad Mahsa,
Ahmadi Farid
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/appy.12330
Subject(s) - addiction , psychology , social anxiety , social media , anxiety , distraction , social support , smartphone addiction , applied psychology , clinical psychology , medical education , computer science , medicine , psychiatry , social psychology , world wide web , neuroscience
The online social networking addiction is a type of technology addiction that can lead to distraction, depression, anxiety, and lower academic performance. In this research, an android mobile application was designed based on the previous literature as well as authors' previous works to measure and decrease social networking addiction level. Methods This research is a randomized controlled trial. Participants were the students in Urmia University of Technology. The mobile application was designed and sent to 100 (35 males and 65 females) students randomly as an intervention group and was sent to 100 (38 males and 62 females) students randomly as a control group. In order to evaluate the efficacy of treatment, data were collected before and after 2‐week treatment. Results The results indicated that the designed mobile application can measure the online social networking addiction level with online social networking addiction scale, it can also decrease the online social networking addiction, depression, anxiety level, and the time spent on online social networks, and it can improve the sleep quality and life satisfaction level. Discussion Therefore, the designed mobile application can be used as an appropriate instrument to measure and decrease the online social networking addiction level of college students.