Smartphone Data Analysis for Nomophobic Behavior Among University Students During Lockdown in India

Smartphones are ubiquitous platforms and the most prevalent digital media devices use by university students for various activities. The lockdowns due to COVID-19 and online education are making students use smartphones frequently and for longer durations leading them to feel nomophobic. The objective of this study is to identify the prevalence of nomophobia among university students during lockdowns in India using unsupervised machine learning. This study is conducted on 111 undergraduate students (mean age: 19.93 years, S.D.: 0.69) in an Indian university volunteered. Their perception about their smartphone using a questionnaire and their smartphone usage pattern using a purpose-built android application has been studied. It has been found that 12.6% of the students were suffering from severe nomophobia and another 78.4% of them were suffering from moderate nomophobia. The average daily smartphone usage and the average daily nighttime smartphone usage of the students were 8.17 hours (S.D.: 2.73) and 5.38 hours (S.D.: 2.03), respectively. The average daily phone unlock frequency was 132.64 (S.D.: 64.01). Nomophobic behavior was found be associated with daily smartphone usage and daily nighttime smartphone usage of the students using Pearson's correlation. An analysis of smartphone dependence and usage pattern using unsupervised machine learning revealed that 18.9% of the students were at a high risk of smartphone addiction.