Reducing Phone Snubbing Phubbing Behavior Among Th - Copy
Reducing Phone Snubbing Phubbing Behavior Among Th - Copy
2796
AT-TURATS
P-ISSN: 1978-418x | E-ISSN: 2502-8359
Homepage: https://jurnaliainpontianak.or.id/index.php/atturats/
Dandi Kurniawan
STAI Darul Qur’an (STAIDA) Payakumbuh
[email protected]
Rizka Widiyanti
STAI Darul Qur’an (STAIDA) Payakumbuh
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
The phubbing phenomenon among the younger generation is currently in a very worrying
phase. This phenomenon can be found anywhere and at any time, regardless of place and
time. Phubbing, or phone snubbing, is a behavior change when interacting socially by
ignoring the surrounding environment caused by excessive use of smartphones. The
younger generation is the most vulnerable to contracting phubbing because of the
emergence and spread of smartphone technology along with the birth of this generation.
In response to this problem, the Islamic education system can be a solution to reducing
that behavior. In this research, the author tries to explore the causes of phubbing
behavior among the younger generation and what solutions the Islamic education system
offers to overcome this problem. A qualitative technique and a descriptive research
design are used in this study. This research’s data comes from observations of scientific
journals and online articles related to the problems above. The research results are: 1)
The phubbing phenomenon among the younger generation is caused by smartphone
addiction. 2) The Islamic education system can be a solution to overcome these problems
because it pays great attention to character education. 3) In its application, Islamic
educators and those responsible for Islamic education must apply the education methods
taught by the Islamic religion. The findings of this study will give a general picture of the
risks of phubbing for the younger generation and serve as a reminder to every element of
society of their responsibility for the character of the younger generation.
| 106 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
INTRODUCTION
Global cellphone use as of April 2023 was recorded as reaching 5.48 billion
devices, or around 68.3% of the total population of the earth. Meanwhile, there are around
5.18 billion devices, and 4.80 billion devices are actively used to access the internet and
surf social media. This figure is equivalent to 64.8%, and 59.9% of the world's population,
which currently numbers 8.03 billion people (Kemp, 2023). This percentage represents
an increase in mobile phone users from last year in the same period of 2.9%, or 152
million devices. Meanwhile, the devices used by people to access the internet increased
by 2.9% or 147 million devices and the devices used to play social media increased by
3.2% or 150 million devices in that period.
The percentage increase in this data illustrates that the flow of smartphone use has
become a primary commodity for the majority of society. The development of
increasingly sophisticated and innovative facilities and features on smartphones makes
them seem like magical objects that can help with various basic human activities.
However, this has increased smartphone dependence to unprecedented levels. This results
in people continuing to use their smartphones even when having face-to-face
conversations with other people. This phenomenon is known as phubbing.
Phubbing is a portmanteau that combines the words "phone" and "snubbing" to
describe the act of snubbing someone in a social context by focusing on their phone rather
than speaking to someone directly in their company. The phrase was first used in a
Macquarie Dictionary advertising campaign to describe the growing issue of smartphone
abuse in public settings (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2018). Phubbing is also defined
as the act of using a smartphone while having a face-to-face discussion with someone, as
opposed to paying attention to them. (Y. Al-Saggaf & MacCulloch, 2018). Some define
phubbing as those who use their smartphones to avoid engaging in interpersonal
communication, glance at them while speaking to others, or both (Karada et al., 2015).
Based on the definitions above, the author concludes that phubbing behavior is an
activity that insults or harasses other people by ignoring their existence because they are
reluctant to interact socially directly but prefer to play on their smartphones and interact
socially virtually with other people via their smartphones.
According to David & Robert (2017), phubbing behavior initially occurs due to a
person's incompatibility with busy environmental conditions, making smartphones an
escape from these conditions. This condition can hurt social interactions between
phubbers (phubbing perpetrators) and phubbees (phubbing victims). These negative
impacts include reducing the quality of communication, causing feelings of loneliness,
and reducing satisfaction in communicating (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2018).
Furthermore, phubbing behavior can also cause depression and make the victim feel
neglected in ongoing interactions (Audina & Firman, 2022). Apart from that, there are
also several other impacts discussed in several pieces of literature, including increased
feelings of jealousy, a lack of intimacy with a partner, decreased relationship satisfaction,
and symptoms of depression (Yeslam Al-Saggaf & O'Donnell, 2019).
In some literature regarding the causes of the phubbing phenomenon, it is stated
that excessive addiction to applications on smartphones, such as internet addiction, social
media addiction, and mobile game addiction (Y. Al-Saggaf & MacCulloch, 2018; Yeslam
Al-Saggaf & Donnell, 2019; Karada et al., 2015). This research is in line with Griffiths'
theory of addiction, which states that if someone experiences an addiction, they will lose
track of time, so they will not pay attention to their surroundings and will not respect
other people (Griffin, 2012).
| 107 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
RESEARCH METHOD
This essay employs a qualitative methodology together with descriptive analytic
techniques. In order to describe and illustrate current occurrences, both natural and
artificial, qualitative descriptive research emphasizes characteristics, quality, and
relationships between different activities (Audina & Firman, 2022). The phenomenon that
the author examines in this paper is the problem of phubbing behavior among the younger
generation and the solution of the Islamic education system to reducing this problem. In
this research, the data taken by the author came from scientific journals and online articles
that discussed the above problems. Meanwhile, the data analysis used is descriptive
analysis, namely a data analysis technique used to analyze data by describing,
simplifying, and presenting it. The scientific journals and online articles that became the
data for this research were observed to find conclusions and then described through
regularly arranged tables.
| 108 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
be avoided by every human being on the face of the earth. Globalization has given birth
to various kinds of technology that help make things easier for people in their daily
activities. One of these technologies is a smartphone. The sophistication of smartphone
technology that was born from the womb of globalization has ultimately changed the
mindset of society, from early childhood to teenagers, parents, teachers, and lecturers.
Responding to technological sophistication requires a proactive response to filter out the
negative impacts of smartphone misuse, especially phubbing behavior, which is the main
topic of this article.
Phubbing, as defined in the introduction of this paper, is defined as an activity that
insults or harasses other people by ignoring their existence because they are reluctant to
interact socially directly but prefer to play on their smartphones and interact virtually with
other people via their smartphones. Phubbing behavior can generally happen to anyone,
regardless of a person's gender, age, or social status. However, in a study, this behavior
was more susceptible to infection among the younger generation (Yeslam Al-Saggaf &
Donnell, 2019).
Talking about the younger generation, it seems the author has to limit the meaning
of youth here. The definition of youth in the Indonesian legal system can be seen in Law
No. 40 of 2009 concerning Youth, Article 1, Paragraph 1. It is stated in this article that
the definition of youth in the Indonesian legal system can be seen in Law No. 40 of 2009
concerning Youth Article 1, paragraph 1 (Nurmalisa, 2017). It is mentioned in the article,
"Youth are Indonesian citizens who are entering an important period of growth and
development aged 16 (sixteen) to 30 (thirty) years."
This article explains the boundaries for someone who is considered a youth, namely
between the ages of 16 (sixteen) and 30 (thirty) years. This means that today's youth are
those born between 1993 and 2007. If this age limit is related to Don Tapscoot's
generational division concept, some of the Millennial Generation and Generation Z are
the young people referred to in the law (Youarti & Hidayah, 2018).
| 109 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
Based on the picture above, it is not surprising that the younger generation is the
generation most vulnerable to being infected by phubbing behavior. The author believes
this because the emergence and development of smartphones are in line with the birth
year of this generation.
According to many researchers, the phubbing phenomenon among the younger
generation is caused by addiction to smartphones and their features; internet, social media
and mobile games (Y. Al-Saggaf & MacCulloch, 2018; Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas,
2016; Karadaǧ et al., 2015). Meanwhile, smartphone addiction is caused by the following
factors; self-control, poor reasoning, time distortion, Fear of Missing Out, boredom, and
depression (David & Roberts, 2017).
The results of the author's literature and web page researches on the topic of
smartphone addiction and phubbing behavior among the younger generation are quite
concerning. The conclusion of this literature study and web page shows that between 39%
and 75.95% of the younger generation are indicated to be addicted to smartphones
(Hanika, 2015; Kaonang, 2016; Youarti & Hidayah, 2018). Meanwhile, around 54% to
89% of young people think that phubbing behavior is normal (Karadaǧ et al., 2015; Ranie
& Zickuhr, 2015; Stop Phubbing, 2019). The following is a table summarizing the
literature that the author encountered;
| 110 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
The normalization of phubbing behavior in the results of the literature study above
is a consequence of the concept of reciprocity in social psychology (Y. Al-Saggaf &
MacCulloch, 2018). In this concept, it is stated that when someone carries out a social
action, the recipient of the action will reverse the action, either in the form of positive
reciprocity or negative reciprocity. In phubbing, neglecting friends on a smartphone
might result in this behavior being reciprocated, whether on purpose or accidentally. In
the end, the frequency with which phubbing conduct is accepted and regarded as usual
can have an impact.
From an Islamic perspective, the phubbing phenomenon was recorded in the hadith
of the Prophet Muhammad long before the invention of smartphones. Based on a search
for hadiths relating to the phubbing phenomenon using one of the applications, namely
the Imam 9 Hadith Encyclopedia, two hadiths were found related to the phubbing
phenomenon. There is only one hadith that will be accepted as research material, namely
the hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad No. 2808, a book from Musnad Bin Hasyim, the
initial chapter of Musnad Abdullah bin al-Abbas (Mustolah, Fikra, & Nur, 2022). The
hadith reads:
َِ َاّلله َعلَْيهِ َو َسلَّ َِم َّاَّتَ َِذ َخاَتًَا فَلَب َسِهه هِثَّ ق
ِال َشغَلَنِ َه َذاِ َعْن هك ْم َِّ صلَّى َ َّب َِّ َن النَِّ َعنِ ابْنِ َعبَّاسِ أ
همْن هِذ الْيَ ْومِ إلَْيهِ نَظَْرةِ َوإلَْي هك ِْم نَظَْرةِ هِثَّ َرَمى بِه
“From Ibn Abbas, the Prophet SAW made a ring and put it on, and then he said,
"Apparently, I was so busy with this ring that I didn't pay attention to you guys from today
until I always paid attention to it and you always looked at it." (HR. Ahmad 2808).
Hadith narrated by Ahmad No. 2808 explains about the Messenger of Allah, who
once was busy with a ring so that his attention was diverted and he paid less attention to
the people around him. After some time, the Messenger of Allah realized that this was
not good and immediately threw the ring away, until in the end, he was able to pay more
attention to his friends. in attendance was Abbas (Mustolah et al., 2022). This implies that
a Muslim should pay more attention to his surroundings rather than being busy or paying
excessive attention to something. Such behavior will make communication patterns with
other people less established well and can even lead to misunderstandings.
If related to current phenomena, the phubbing behavior of the younger generation
can be compared to the phenomenon that occurred in the hadith. Nowadays, smartphone
addiction is to blame for the phenomena of "less attention" in social settings. In response
to this problem, the Islamic education system can be used as a solution to reduce phubbing
| 111 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
behavior among the younger generation. This is because the Islamic education system is
guided by Quran and Hadith, which every Muslim believes are the keys to solving all
types of problems.
According to Abuddin Nata (2018), the reason Islamic education can be used as a
solution to the problems above is because Islamic education pay great attention to
character and moral education. Islamic education's attention to character education has
existed since the time of the Prophet Muhammad. This is evident from Allah's command
that the first and main task of the Prophet was to perfect the morals of his people (Ainiyah,
2013). The education of the Islamic character is not just in terms of the human relationship
with God, but also in terms of the human relationship with the changing times. Currently,
changing times are marked by the birth of technologies that have never been encountered
before. In the introduction to this article, the author states that one of the technologies that
was born was communication technology in the form of smartphones. The presence of
smartphones among the younger generation provides positive and negative influences
according to the wisdom of their use. In this connection, The goal of Islamic education is
to turn bad attitudes into positive ones that are in harmony with the environment and to
stop them from having an impact on the next generation.
| 112 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
following are several strategies that parents can use to educate their children at home or
as a family:
First, exemplary education through self-reflection. An exemplary attitude can be
depicted when using a smartphone; parents must avoid phubbing in front of children. This
attitude will make children understand the importance of direct communication.
However, if it turns out that children are still phubbing, parents must reflect and introspect
themselves, especially the intensity with which they use smartphones.
Second, education through supervision using parental control. In its development,
smartphone features have become increasingly sophisticated and pampered their users.
One of these features is parental control. Parental control can be found in almost all
smartphone applications. Parents can use this feature to monitor and control their
children's smartphone usage activities.
Third, habituation education involves determining the time and place for playing
smartphones according to family rules. Determining the time for children to play with
smartphones is very useful in preventing children from becoming addicted to
smartphones. From a health perspective too, excessive use of smartphones will cause
problems with children's physical and psychological well-being. Doctors recommend that
the maximum use of smartphones for children be 2 hours a day (Alodokter, 2023).
Meanwhile, the place where you can play on your smartphone must also be stipulated in
family regulations. Parents must designate parts of the house that cannot be used for
playing on smartphones, such as at the dining table, when welcoming guests, or in the
bathroom.
Fourth, education by providing rewards and punishments. Giving rewards and
punishments is important for children so that they always comply with the rules.
However, what parents need to pay attention to is that the rewards given to children are
not additional time playing with smartphones, but other things that children like, such as
being taken on holiday or buying certain items. Meanwhile, in giving punishment parents
and children must agree on the punishment given when children violate these rules. The
goal is for children to feel invited to make decisions.
| 113 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
Teachers can also include internet usage etiquette and surfing etiquette on social media.
Apart from that, it is important for teachers to monitor children's activities at school or
during extracurricular activities. If phubbing behavior is found in students' social
interactions, the teacher can intervene by giving advice or punishment to the students.
3. The Synergy between the Government and Public Figures in Society Education
The government is the highest authority in a region. It is not surprising that each
policy has a big impact on the success of a program, including efforts to reduce the
phubbing behavior of the younger generation. Meanwhile, public figures with their
popularity and knowledge have a role in educating the younger generation about the
language of phubbing behavior. Therefore, synergy between leaders and public figures is
needed in implementing the Islamic education system in society as an effort to reduce the
phubbing behavior of the younger generation.
Efforts to reduce phubbing behavior in the younger generation in the community
can be made with various activities oriented towards moral development. The government
can collaborate with public figures in implementing these activities, where the
government is the financial supporter and the public figure is the speaker. An example of
this activity is holding a seminar about the dangers of phubbing both offline and online.
Apart from that, the government and public figures can also do a podcast which will later
be distributed on popular social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, and others.
CONCLUSION
literature and web page review conducted by the author, the author provides an
overview of the phenomenon of phubbing behavior among the younger generation which
is quite worrying. However, the existence of an Islamic education system can be a
solution to overcome this phenomenon. Through Islamic education, every Islamic
educator and person responsible for Islamic education; parents, teachers, government, and
public figures, must synergize with each other in optimizing their responsibilities. In
implementation, they can use Islamic education methods that have been taught in the
Koran and the Prophet’s Sunnah. These methods include exemplary education,
habituation education, education through attention and supervision, education through
punishment, and education with the promise of fun.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ainiyah, N. (2013). "Pembentukan Karakter Melalui Pendidikan Agama Islam", Jurnal
Al-Jabar: Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika, 13(1), 23–38.
Al-Saggaf, Y., & MacCulloch, R. (2018). "Phubbing: How Frequent? Who Is Phubbed?
In Which Situation? And Using Which Apps?", 39th International Conference on
Information Systems (ICIS)., 1–9. San Francisco: AISNET.
Al-Saggaf, Yeslam, & O’Donnell, S. B. (2019). "Phubbing: Perceptions, Reasons Behind,
Predictors, and Impacts", Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 1(2), 132–
140. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.137
Alodokter. (2023). "Berapa Jam Waktu Idea Anak Gunakan Gadget Setiap Hari".
Retrieved 19 September 2023, from Alodokter website:
https://www.alodokter.com/berapa-jam-waktu-ideal-anak-gunakan-gadget-setiap-
hari
Anwar, S., & Salim, A., (2018). "Pendidikan Islam dalam Membangun Karakter Bangsa
di Era Milenial", Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 9(2), 233–247.
| 114 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
| 115 |
At-Turats Vol 17 No.2 (2023) | doi: https://doi.org/10.24260/at-turats.v17i2.2796
Nudin, B. (2020). "Konsep pendidikan Islam pada remaja", LITERASI (Jurnal Ilmu
Pendidikan), 10(1), 63–74. Retrieved from www.ejournal.almaata.ac.id/literasi
Nurmalisa, Y. (2017). Pendidikan Generasi Muda. In Media Akademi (1st ed.).
Yogyakarta. Retrieved from www.mediaakademi.com
Panjwani, F. (2004). "The ‘Islamic’ in Islamic Education: Assessing the Discourse",
Current Issues in Comparative Education, 7(1), 19–29.
Ranie, L., & Zickuhr, K. (2015). "Americans’ views on mobile etiquette".
https://doi.org/http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/26/americans-views-on-
mobile-etiquette/.
Stop Phubbing. (2019). "Definition and disturbing phubbing stats".
https://doi.org/https://web.archive.org/web/20120901204042/http://stopphubbing.
com/
Tolchah, M., & Mu’ammar, M. A. (2019). "Islamic education in the globalization era;
Challenges, Opportunities, and Contribution of Islamic Education in Indonesia"
Humanities and Social Sciences Reviews, 7(4), 1031–1037.
https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.74141
Youarti, I. E., & Hidayah, N. (2018). "Perilaku Phubbing Sebagai Karakter Remaja
Generasi Z", Jurnal Fokus Konseling, 4(1), 143.
https://doi.org/10.26638/jfk.553.2099
| 116 |