The Impact of Phubbing on Generation Z Social Interaction

Aulia Nur Rois and Diah Ajeng Purwani

Departement of Communication Science, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Phubbing, Social Interaction, Generation Z, Smartphone, Media Depedency Theory.

Abstract: The invention of smartphones as a form of advancement in communication and information technology gave

rise to a behaviour called phubbing. Phubbing is a smartphone- focused attitude that ignores the interlocutor.

This study aims to know in-depth the impact of phubbing in social interaction on generation Z. The type of

research used is descriptive studies with qualitative approaches. Data collection methods are conducted by

interviewing, observation, and documentation. The informant in this study is a student of the Communication

Science class of 2018. This study uses the theory of Media Dependence (Media Dependency). This theory sees

the audience's dependence on the media, where the audience has different degrees of dependence ranging from

individuals, groups, and even cultures. The higher the dependence on the media, the greater the influence of

such communication. The results showed that impacts of phubbing in generation Z social interactions include:

Miss Communications, decreased value in the message conveyed by the communicator, decreased quality in

relationships, social exclusion, becoming a topic among students, decreased empathy towards the interlocutor,

losing information during the ongoing coversation, and wasting time during the assignment completion.

1 INTRODUCTION

The use of smartphone has positive and negative

impacts. Positive impacts encompass facilitating

communication, improving social relation, and

removing stress due to its wifi feature. This feature can

facilitate someone to acquire information. Its negative

impact causes a person to experience changes in social

interaction behaviors and verbal communication

disorders both directly and indirectly (Mariati &

Sema, 2019). Another negative impact that occurs is

the raising of phubbing phenomenon.

Phubbing is currently occurring in every social

layer, including students. Phubbing phenomenon is a

tendency to play around with smartphone rather than

establishing direct interactions with the surrounding

people. Phubbing is taken from the words phone and

snubbing, used to indicate an attitude that harms the

interlocutor by excessive smartphone usage (Hanika,

2015). The harming is essentially in the context of the

feeling of being disrespected because the interlocutor

frequently looks at the smartphone. Phubbing can also

be interpreted as a behaviour that ignores other people

during social interactions as the person is focused

more on his cell phone (Ratnasary & Oktaviani,

2020).

Phubbing can be caused by the anxiety of not

accessing smartphone in a long time. This condition is

usually referred to as nomophobia (no mobile phone

phobia) (Hanika, 2015). Robert Kaunt (in Sparks,

2013:261) states that individuals who excessively use

their smartphones will have short attention span. At

this level, they unable to understand the delivered

information comprehensively because technologies

such as smartphone causes disorders. The long term

effect of excessive smartphone use is they would

experience health disorders (Hanika, 2015).

Smartphone usage can affect transactional processes.

The dynamic and reciprocal communication quality is

felt to have decreased, especially during the face-to-

face interaction (Mariati & Sema, 2019).

A person with phubbing behaviour uses

smartphone as the escape to avoid discomfort in a

crowd. For instance, in a lift or during traveling alone

in public transports. At present, phubbing behaviour is

getting worse, young people are not only doing

phubbing because they are in public transports, they

do it at any time and to everyone, either towards the

elder people or their peers

Phubbing is considered as inappropriate behaviour

that can harm emotional intimacy in human interaction

(T’ng et al., 2018). Smartphone that is meant to be a

communication device actually causes disruptions in

106

Rois, A. and Purwani, D.

The Impact of Phubbing on Generation Z Social Interaction.

DOI: 10.5220/0010805300003348

In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH 2021), pages 106-110

ISBN: 978-989-758-603-3; ISSN: 2685-273X

direct communication whereas Indonesian people

have eastern culture, namely having characteristics

that still follow values, norms, and ethics in a

relationship that is based on mutual respect when

being involved in a conversation (Hanika, 2015).

Smartphone usage is certainly substantiated by

internet usage. The internet is mostly used by young

population and Indonesia is one of the countries with

the highest young population amidst world countries

(Purwani, 2021). This condition shows that the current

young generation have the potential to conduct

phubbing. Most of the young generation have relied

their lives on electronic gadgets, including

smartphone. They use it for various needs, such as the

supporting device to do assignments, finding

knowledge, finding reading sources, and following

updates (Ratnasary & Oktaviani, 2020). Especially,

generation Z that is characterized as very familiar with

technologies, and phubbing is born due to

technological advances. This generation gets i-

generation as their nickname. By year of birth,

generation Z born between 1996-2010 (Putra, 2016).

Phubbing behaviour will threaten the social

interaction of generation Z if it happens continuously.

Thus, it is very important to know profoundly the

impact of phubbing behaviour on students as the

future young generation of the nation, including

Communication Science students who become the

subject of this study. In practice, Communication

Science students study various forms of

communications and how to interact properly. They

would certainly attempt to achieve effective

communication. However, in reality, the researcher

discovered phubbing behaviour among

Communication Science students. In addition, most of

them have not been aware of the term of this

phenomenon despite many of them have realized the

occurrence of phubbing behaviour. Based on this gap,

the researcher was interested to raise the phubbing

theme into the study with Communication Science

students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta in the

class of 2018-2019 as the subject. The subject is

selected because the class is having lectures and

becoming the organizer in department annual events, so

they are potentially meeting in person and interacting

face-to-face.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Media Dependency Theory

Stanley and Davis (2010) reveal that Media

Dependency Theory is a theory of media system

dependency. The assumption of this theory is the more

someone depends his needs to be fulfilled by media

usage, the more important the role of media in the life

of the person (Hidayatullah, 2017). This theory was

proposed and developed by Sandra Ball Rokeach and

Melvin DeFleur in 1975 (Musfialdy, 2020).

According to McQuail (2010), this theory assumes

that an individual is an active person in determining

the media option to use (Hadi, 2020). Grant et al.

(1991) reveals that in this theory, individuals actively

choose media they use, hear, watch, and read. The

bigger expectation of individuals for information that

can help them to reach their purpose, the stronger their

dependency on such media. As long as they are not

disappointed by the media, which means that

individuals have to rely on specific media to fulfil their

needs (Hadi, 2020).

According to this theory, media realize their

capability to create dependency towards audiences

and capable to reach goals through several stages,

namely:

a. Individuals are interested with the media that

have diverse contents to fulfil their needs.

b. The higher intensity, the stronger cognitive

and affective boosts .

c. Cognitive and affective boosts activate a

higher engagement level that allows reception

and memorization process towards

information.

d. A bigger involvement allows the increase of

media effects towards individuals at cognitive,

affective, and behavioural levels in a long term

(Musfialdy, 2020).

There are three effects of Dependency Media Theory,

namely:

a. Cognitive effect is the effect occurs in

audiences when the information is informative

for them. Cognitive effect can remove

ambiguity and attitude formation.

b. Affective effect is higher than cognitive effect.

Audiences are not only being informed

regarding an information, it is more than that,

this includes sharing the feeling of joy, upset,

anger, fear, and others.

c. Behavioural effect is the effect occurs in

audiences in the form of behavior

Behavioural effect might activate, move, or

alleviate an issue (Musfialdy, 2020).

The Impact of Phubbing on Generation Z Social Interaction

107

3 METHOD

This study used a method with a qualitative approach

because it was oriented towards cases and contexts.

While descriptive study was used to generate

descriptions regarding reality to provide

comprehensions about the reality (Pawito, 2007). This

method is aimed to explain phenomena profusely. The

collected data are words, images, and not numbers.

The data are originated from interview scripts, field

records, photos, videotapes, personal documents,

notes or memos, and other official documents

(Moleong, 2007).

In this study, Communication Science students of

UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta in the class of 2018-

2019 were used as the subject. The object of this study

was the impact of phubbing in the social interaction of

generation Z, particularly students of Communication

Science of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta in the

class of 2018-2019. The data collecting methods used

were interview, observation, and documentation.

The data analysis method used was the Miles and

Huberman Punch’s model of interactive analysis

technique. This analysis technique is principally

consisting of three components, namely data

reduction, data presentation and withdrawal as well as

conclusion testing (Pawito, 2007). The type of data

validity used was source triangulation. Source

triangulation is the researcher’s effort to access more

varied sources to acquire data related to the same

issue. In this technique, the researcher attempts to test

data obtained from one source (to be compared) with

the data from other sources (Pawito, 2007). The

researcher conducted the source triangulation with an

academician, namely Mr. Mufid Salim, S.Ikom.,

M.B.A as a lecturer of Communication Science

Department of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan.

4 RESULT

4.1

Phubbing among Communication

Science Students

From the results of the conducted observations, the

researcher often found phubbing behaviour among

Communication Science students of UIN Sunan

Kalijaga. Then, the researcher profoundly analysed

the issue related to the reason why Communication

Science students who study communication theories

and social interaction are instead often get focused on

their smartphones rather than interact directly with

interlocutors. Thus, effective communications are not

manifested. The researcher tried to conduct the initial

survey by giving several questions to some informants

regarding the phubbing phenomenon. The results

indicate that most of Communication Science

Students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga have yet to know the

phubbing term although they often met and committed

phubbing. As indicated by the interview with an

informant as follows.

“Often. When the lecturer is boring. Probably like

when the lecturer is monotonous and the materials are

not appealing. Looking at other people’s status,

scrolling around. In my opinion, phubbing is when

you stuck on the phone during a conversation or when

there is another person talking. If you focus on the

surrounding, you can’t focus on your phone, so you

have to choose between the phone or talking with the

people around the environment.”.

The interview results with the informant are

relevant to Robert Kaunt’s study (in Sparks,

2013:261) that states that individuals who excessively

use their smartphones will have short attention span.

At this level, they can not understand the delivered

information comprehensivelybecause technologies

like smartphone causes some disturbances (Hanika,

2015).

The other informant who encountered the same

issue also expressed that some peers in the

Communication Science department often conduct

phubbing. The phubbing behaviour that occurs in

students of Communication Science does not

completely hinder their social interactions The

occurring phubbing behaviour in Communication

Science students does not completely inhibit their

social interactions. This is because field results

indicated that Communication Science students still

apply some communication etiquettes during the

direct interaction with interlocutors. The conducted

phubbings were not fully abandoning the ongoing

conversation. They only checked their smartphones if

there are notifications.

4.2 The Causative Factors of Phubbing

The causative factors of phubbing explained by

(Karadaǧ et al., 2015) in their study encompass

smartphone addiction, internet addiction, game

addiction, and social media addiction. Interview

results with one informant indicated that many of his

friends in Communication Science Department

conduct phubbing because they are focused on social

media. The interview result with one informant related

to phubbing behaviour due to social media addiction:

“For instance, during the class at the campus, if

the person is watching live streaming of this versus

AICOSH 2021 - The Annual International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH) “Life After Pandemic: Perspectives,

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that, he will even reject the class list of presence, he’d

be like ‘later, later’, something like that. I saw people

taking selfies and fooling around. It doesn’t matter

whether there is a lecturer or not. Creating stories,

are those categorized as phubbing? There’s a lot of

them. Many of my friends are like that during

lectures. There are many phenomenon of phubbing.

Mostly due to gamers, social media, things like that”.

Researcher’s findings related to factors causing

phubbing in the environment of Communication

Science students encompass: phubbing actors who

currently in a bad mood condition, students who are

busy with their organizations, tedious lecturers during

class lectures, students who are sleepy during the

class, phubbing actors who do not understand the

ongoing conversation topic, topics that are not

appealing for phubbing actors, and phubbing actors

who are not close to the interlocutor.

As the following informant exposure:

“If this semester also follows the organization and

others. So connecting with outsiders is also a lot

through smartphones. Not only scrolling , like we

contact someone, continue to other communities.

Mostly Whatsapp. I'm also a public relations officer

so there's a lot to be contacted”.

4.3 The Impact of Phubbing in Social

Interactions of Communication

Science Students

The field study showed that social interactions that

occurred indirectly are ineffective and less intense.

Miscommunications were often happened due to

much focused on smartphone. Such an action might

also cause upsets because you have to repeat what has

already been told. This expressed by an informant as

follows.

“it’s like a miscommunication. We have

explained, we have talked a lot, and he just went

‘hah’,’what’?. So we have to repeat ourselves again,

it’s not as optimal as we said the first time because we

have to repeat what we are saying. We are getting very

excited during the first talk then the second time the

interlocutor just responded like ‘hah, what’s that’, and

I was like ‘oh my, do I have to repeat myself again’.

There must be a decrease of value in the message”.

A study showed that continuous phubbing

behaviour might affect social relationships (Amelia et

al., 2019). Including the study conducted by Roberts

and David (2016) in which phubbing behaviour can

improve conflicts that indirectly might affect the

satisfaction towards the relationship and cause one’s

depression (Amelia et al., 2019).

From the results of field interviews, the researcher

analysed that phubbing is highly influencing social

interactions happen directly. Phubbing also affects the

quality of social relationships amidst Communication

Science students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga. Phubbing

does not only affect direct social interaction, but also

affect social life of the phubbing actor. These are the

impacts of phubbing occurring among

Communication Science students:

1. Miscommunications

2. Decreased value in the message

conveyed by the communicator

3. Decreased quality in friendship

4. Social exclusion

5. Becoming a topic among students

6. Decreased empathy towards the interlocutor

7. Losing information during the ongoing

conversation

8. Wasting time during the assignment

completion

Phubbing also affects the value of the delivered

message because communicators have to repeat their

messages when someone is phubbing. Phubbing also

decreases the quality of friendship. This condition is

caused by the upset towards phubbing actors because

they often ignored the conversation during the direct

social interaction.

Besides affecting social interactions, phubbing

also causes social exclusion towards phubbing actors.

When a social exclusion occurs, the phubbing actor

becomes the topic among Communication Science

students. Phubbing also makes someone to lose

empathy towards the interlocutor due to much focused

on the smartphone. Phubbing also makes someone to

lose information because he ignores the interlocutor

when being in a forum. Being too focused with

smartphone wastes the time, so it could delay the work

that can be completed at that time.

5 DISCUSSION

According to the results of study, observation, and

data collecting on Communication Science students of

UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, it can be concluded

that based on research problems, the impact of

phubbing causes social interactions that happen

directly to be ineffective and makes many

miscommunications.

Future studies about phubbing would be more

appealing if being focused towards other aspects, such

The Impact of Phubbing on Generation Z Social Interaction

109

as causative factors of phubbing or solutions to reduce

phubbing behaviour. From the perspective of research

subject, it will be more developed if a wider

community is used, such as housewives.

The researcher’s recommendation for generation Z

is to be wise in using technological advances, such as

smartphone. And not to forget that we are social

creatures that require each other. It would be better if

social relationships in the real life are established

properly despite that we could have many friends

online through smartphone. Do not consider that

phubbing behaviour is a normal action in the era of

sophisticated technological advances because this

assumption will become a norm in the community.

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