Assessment of mobile phone use pattern among undergraduates in the University of Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

An assessment of mobile phone use pattern by undergraduates was carried out. The survey research design was used in this study whose population consists of undergraduate students of the University of Calabar, Nigeria in the 2014 /2015 academic session. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection.. The data derived from the instrument were analysed using descriptive statistics, (simple percentage %). The finding on the average time spent on the Mobile Phone daily showed that 33.5% of the respondents spend an average of 2 to 3 hours on their Phones daily, 28.6 % spend 3 hours and above, 23 % spend an average 1 to 2 hours daily, 9. 6% spend 30 minutes to 1 hour daily and 5.3 spend less than 30 minutes on their mobile phones daily. Similarly, 38.8 % of the students used the Mobile Phone always. 27 % uses it most often, 20.5 % uses it often and 13.7 % uses it sometimes. It was found that Short Message Service (SMS) is the most frequently used Mobile Phone Application by undergraduate students (29.5%), followed by the Social Media (20.8%), then Google search (18.6%) and E-Mail Service (10.6%). It further revealed that 26.7 % of the students uses the Mobile Phone during lecture to chat with friends on the Social Media Network, ( 35.6 %), sending SMS, (22.3 %), make and receive calls during lecture ( 14.8 %), those engaged in reading and sending mails (10.4 %). Some listen to Music while lecture is on were (5.2 %), some respondents play game during lecture (6.9%) and others uses their Mobile Phones to record lectures directly as the teaching progresses (2.5 %). The finding on the challenges encountered by undergraduate students in he course of using their Mobile Devices showed that, less time for sleep ranked highest (30.4%), followed by the cost of buying air time (22.7 %), reduced time spent on academic work (16.1 %), wrong usage of Mobile Phone Applications for criminal activities (14.7 %), distraction during lection (9.3 %) and facilitating delinquent behaviours (6.8). From the finding of this study, it has become imperative to introduce ICT education as one of the General Studies programme for undergraduates in Nigerian University. As part of the course contents, students would be taught both the negative and the positive sides of the mobile devices at their disposal and when, and how to make ultimate use of their phones.

Keywords: Assessment, Mobile, Phone,. Use ,Pattern, Undergraduates, University