research blog

The article I have chosen to write about this week is “The Psychological Impact of Technology From a Global Perspective: A Study of Technological Sophistication and Technophobia in University Students From Twenty-Three Countries.” This discusses a study which is very similar to my own future paper. In the study, first year university students from around the world were asked survey questions to gauge their level of familiarity with technology (ranging from computers to answering machines) as well as questions to gauge their levels of technophobia. Most pertinent to me, is that the results are divided by country, with an extensive discussion about the findings in United States universities.

The United States was found to be saturated with technological devices, with nearly a dozen in each household and early exposure through the school system starting at the elementary level. Surprisingly, despite having the largest exposure to technology of the countries studied, the United States showed a lower middling level of technophobia (although, on a case study level, familiarity with technology had a negative relation with technophobia). This anxiety, according to this study, is largely due to disproportionately high media coverage of “negative events.” The secondary reason is that, although children may be exposed to computers in school, they may not be actually using them or are guided by technophobic teachers and are made to “feel victimized by the computer.” The section on the United States concludes by saying “it appears that Americans may be technophobic because of the perceived adverse effects of technology.”

Conversely, Hungary’s government pushes the idea of technology being a part of life, and the low exposure to technology is not reflected by how commonly accepted it is. Also, Israel has notably low level of technophobia, and this is influenced by a cultural accepting of technology being “natural.”

This study falls perfectly in line with my future paper – as the age group covered here is close to the age group I plan on studying. I hope to delve deeper into the “perceived adverse effects of technology” and look more closely at the “negative events” of the media coverage.

Journal Title

Computers in human behavior    ISSN  0747-5632   CODEN CHBEEQ 

Source

1995, vol. 11, n^o1, pp. 95-133 (3 p. 1/2)