Rajarata Uni does interesting research on tech addiction

• They add that Sri Lanka hadn’t carried out any research on technology addiction and the repercussions of such practices. They add that out of a world population of 8.1 billion, 5.65 billion are phone users while 5.44 billion are internet users

Dr. Karalliyadda

Dr.Bandara

K.B.C. Gunaratne

Two lecturers attached to the agriculture faculty of the Rajarata University, along with a very enthusiastic undergraduate of the same university, have successfully completed a research on technology addiction especially among youth, and have presented guidelines and points to ponder on as a solution. 

 The trio who were engaged in the research are senior lecturer Dr. S.M.C.B Karalliyadda, Dr. A.M.K.R. Bandara and K.B.C. Gunaratne, a final year student of the faculty. 
They did this research also taking into account the phone usage habits of final year students at this institute and in areas like phubbing (is a term that describes the act of ignoring or snubbing someone by focusing on using a mobile phone, particularly during face-to-face interactions) and social wellbeing. 
Normal lives ruined
In a press release, the trio maintain that technology users can fall prey to addiction in areas like smart phone usage, the internet and engaging in social media. They underscore how normal lives can be ruined by addiction to excessive and questionable use of technology.
They add that Sri Lanka hadn’t carried out any research on technology addiction and the repercussions of such practices. They add that out of a world population of 8.1 billion, 5.65 billion are phone users while 5.44 billion are internet users. 
There are 5.07 billion social media users. 
They have also come to know that during each passing second, 3.4 million emails and 4595 SMS are sent while 60,000 posts are published on Facebook. 
These researchers have found out that excessive addiction to technology could have similar repercussions as using narcotics. 
One key factor they wish to highlight from their research about excessive social media usage is that users tend to live in dream worlds and possess fake personalities. Such people find it very hard to converse with real people in the real world. There have been occasions when they withdraw from society and get depressed because they cannot realise their dreams which are often designed for them by other users who dominate social media. 
They warn that the repercussions can be terrible when the internet and  mobile phones start controlling your life. 
Their research confirms that most excessive users of social media maintain a digital personality. Such internet users cannot maintain their personalities in real societies and a good many of them have no self-belief. They prefer to have the least connection with the real world. Their research has also found out that when users spend time logged on to social media during work hours, it reduces productivity. 
Excessive addiction to technology, specifically social media, has also led to a number of suicides and led to incidents of bad behaviour.