Mobile Phone Addiction: Smartphone Usage among Digital Natives With Disabilities In Indonesia

Abstract

The development of ICT has led to significant changes in human behavior. This technology is not only usable by able-bodied people, but a variety of inclusive innovations in information and communication tools also makes it accessible to those with physical or cognitive limitations. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach to describe patterns of utilization by the disabled as well as reconsider the definition of “disability” in this era of advanced information and communication technology. The author examines the phenomenon of smartphone addiction and incorporates the theoretical concepts of alienation and repressive desublimation into its analysis of research findings. The results show that the digital natives who are blind interpret smartphones equipped with a wide range of inclusive applications as tools that can improve their quality of life through mediating self-capacity development. The use of ICT greatly facilitates blind people’s capacity for group communication and accessing a variety of information, which thereby increases their dependency toward smartphones. Therefore, although the enhancement of media socialization by the use of smartphones is a positive development, this phenomenon has also led to widespread technology addiction. Keywords—smartphone addiction, internet addiction, digital natives, disabilities