Abstract:

Young adults are immersed in the digital and technological ecosystem, actively consuming digital platforms, which carries ramifications in terms of behavior reformulation both at a personal and social level. The use of technology may have its advantages, at the cognitive and motor levels, for example, and as a learning aid, however, technological advances and the ease of access to these platforms in developed countries tend to significantly increase the time that young people are connected to these devices, which in turn may have profound health implications regarding behavioral dependency. This subject is more relevant considering the historical moment we live in, provoked by the COVID19 pandemic, which forced people into isolation, increasing the use of media to engage with family and peers, to work and to study.

Based on these assumptions, this research has as its object the perceptions of young university adults, studying in Portugal, about their digital media practices, especially during the pandemic, and the consequences of the permanent connection to these new formats for the development of the risk of behavioral dependence expressed through risk factors such as intolerance, irritability and depression, sleep disorders, among others. Methodologically, questionnaire surveys were applied to a sample of 400 young university adults (mean age 19.6 years). The results point to an increased dependence on the Internet during confinement. More than half of the young adults consider that the Internet is indispensable in some occasions of their lives, just as they confess that they feel some of the consequences of excessive use, such as addiction to social networking sites or sleep disorders.

Keywords:

Internet addiction, media uses, digital, media, youth, pandemic.