Dependence of Teenage and Adult Population over the Smartphone and Internet Services In a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Today digital devices and internet has become an integral part of our life. The information is available at the swipe of the finger. The vast spectrums of services are now offered by digital devices and internet such as communication, banking, education, shopping etc. People are now becoming more and more dependent on digital devices and internet which are used as transactive memory. Aims and Objectives: 1. To study the dependence of subjects on digital devices 2. To compare these effects across different variables. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in a tertiary health care hospital. The sample frame consisted of a) Medical students as teenagers and b) staff of a tertiary health care centre as adult population. All study participants   were permanent residents of the semi-urban area. Final sample size consisted of 245 medical students and 245 staff members of a tertiary health care centre. Results: Students use more internet and are more comfortable with digital devices than adults. Almost 75% of study participants prefer internet for seeking information while 60 % of participants were of the opinion that digital devices are extension of brain capacity. Conclusions: Both teenager and adult population are dependent on digital devices and internet, but the dependency of teenagers is much more than that of the adults