Abstract:

Abstract The spread of technology with globalization is one of the important factors that result in the expansion of the virtual world. Although technology has many positive uses, it makes people addicted to it, causing negative consequences. In this context, feelings such as anxiety and fear arise in case of staying away from smart devices, and this phenomenon is called nomophobia. Nomophobia manifests itself in the tourism industry as well as in many other industries. Although the tourism industry is labor-intensive and time to spend time in the virtual environment is limited, it is normal for tourism employees to exhibit behaviors such as anxiety and fear when they are away from smart devices. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the anxiety of being away from the mobile phone of the students who are studying in order to be an intermediate staff in the tourism sector. In line with quantitative research methods, the data were obtained through face-to-face survey application. The population of the study consists of 300 students studying in Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir Vocational School, Tourism and Hotel Management program by the researchers. The convenience sampling method was determined as the sampling strategy, and the sample size was created with 211 students. Within the scope of the research, t-test and anova analyzes were applied to reveal the effect of nomophobia on students. As a result of the study, it was revealed that male participants were more under the influence of nomophobia than female participants in the dimensions of loss of communication, inability to access information, not being able to go online and deprivation of devices. Another result is that the group who is most worried about losing communication when they do not have a phone is 17 years old and younger.

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