Digital Addiction in Spain and Indonesia

According to the research of Lilian Velasco-Furlong, Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez, and Hilarius Bambang Winarko, digital addiction in Spain and Indonesia is associated with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and lower self-esteem among university students. However, the intensity and psychological pattern of digital engagement differed between the two countries.

This article explains the results of a comparative study involving 773 university students. Indonesian participants reported higher digital addiction symptoms, nomophobia, daily recreational digital-media use, social anxiety, and loneliness than Spanish participants. At the same time, the Indonesian sample reported higher self-esteem, while depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between countries.

The main findings indicate that problematic digital use is a multidimensional phenomenon. It cannot be understood exclusively through screen time because emotional vulnerability, social relationships, cultural context, and patterns of technology use also influence the experience.

What is digital addiction?

In this study, digital addiction refers to persistent, poorly controlled, or potentially maladaptive use of digital technologies, particularly social networks, Internet services, and smartphones.

The term was used in a non-clinical sense. It did not represent a formal psychiatric diagnosis. The researchers assessed three main digital-behavior variables:

Addiction symptoms

Addiction symptoms were measured using a subscale of the Addiction Risk to Social Networks and Internet Scale, or AR-SNIS. The measure evaluates behaviors associated with reduced control and potentially problematic Internet or social-network engagement.

Nomophobia

Nomophobia means fear, anxiety, or distress related to being unable to access a mobile phone or digital connection. It may involve discomfort when a device is unavailable, the battery is depleted, or Internet access is interrupted.

Daily digital-media use

Participants estimated how much time they spent each day using social networks, the Internet, and WhatsApp for non-academic purposes.

The available response categories ranged from approximately one hour to more than four hours per day. This measure distinguished recreational use from digital activity required for university study.

Why is it important?

Digital platforms are now integrated into education, entertainment, information seeking, and social interaction. High usage alone is not necessarily harmful, but persistent or uncontrolled engagement may coexist with psychological difficulties.

According to the research, digital addiction and mental health were significantly connected in both national samples. Students reporting stronger addiction symptoms or nomophobia also tended to report more social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Higher digital-addiction scores were generally associated with lower self-esteem.

These relationships matter because online activity may serve two opposing functions. It can provide social support and immediate emotional relief, but it can also reinforce avoidance, comparison, reassurance seeking, and dependence on online validation.

A socially anxious student, for example, may prefer text-based communication because it reduces the pressure associated with face-to-face interaction. Although this strategy may offer temporary relief, excessive reliance on it could reduce opportunities to develop confidence in offline situations.

How was the study conducted?

The study included 773 university students:

• 387 participants from Spain
• 386 participants from Indonesia
• Ages between 18 and 30
• Mean age of 20.31 years
• 61.08% women and 38.92% men

Participants were enrolled in undergraduate or postgraduate programs. Data were collected in both countries between November 2023 and May 2024 using an online Microsoft Forms questionnaire.

The researchers assessed:

• Digital addiction symptoms
• Nomophobia
• Daily recreational digital-media use
• Self-esteem
• Social anxiety
• Depressive symptoms
• Loneliness

Validated instruments included the AR-SNIS, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Social Anxiety Scale, CESD-10 depression measure, and short UCLA Loneliness Scale.

Because the data did not follow a normal distribution, the researchers used non-parametric statistical methods. Spearman correlations examined relationships between variables within each country, while Mann–Whitney tests compared Spanish and Indonesian participants.

What were the main findings?

Indonesian students reported more addiction symptoms

The median normalized addiction-symptom score was 0.54 in Indonesia and 0.37 in Spain.

The difference was statistically significant and had a large effect size. This was one of the clearest cross-national differences identified in the study.

The box plot on page 5 shows that the Indonesian distribution was shifted upward compared with the Spanish distribution, although scores varied considerably within both groups.

The main findings indicate that problematic engagement with social networks and Internet services was more pronounced in the Indonesian student sample.

Nomophobia was substantially higher in Indonesia

Nomophobia produced the largest country effect reported in the study.

The median score was:

• Indonesia: 0.50
• Spain: 0.27

The difference was statistically significant, with a large effect size of r = 0.47.

The figure on page 6 visually demonstrates this contrast. Indonesian participants generally reported greater anxiety related to losing mobile access or connectivity.

This result suggests that connectivity-related anxiety may be particularly relevant when designing digital-wellness programs for Indonesian university students.

Indonesian participants spent more recreational time online

Daily digital-media use also differed significantly between countries.

Among Indonesian participants, 44.3% selected the highest category, representing more than four hours of non-academic digital-media use per day. In Spain, 25.1% selected this category.

Lower-use categories were more common in Spain:

The chart on page 8 shows that the strongest national difference occurred in the highest-use category.

However, time online should not be interpreted as equivalent to addiction. Digital addiction involves control, motivation, distress, and functional consequences, not only the number of hours spent using a device.

Social anxiety was higher in the Indonesian sample

Indonesian participants reported a median normalized social-anxiety score of 0.50, compared with 0.30 among Spanish participants.

The difference was statistically significant and had a moderate effect size.

The researchers discuss cultural context as one possible explanation. In more collectivist environments, concern about group expectations, social evaluation, and maintaining an acceptable public identity may affect how anxiety is experienced.

Digital platforms may intensify this pressure by requiring users to remain visible, responsive, and socially appropriate.

Nevertheless, the study did not demonstrate that collectivism caused the observed difference. Other social, economic, technological, educational, and sampling factors may also have contributed.

How were digital addiction and mental health connected?

Correlations in Indonesia

Among Indonesian students, addiction symptoms showed significant relationships with:

• Nomophobia: r = 0.57
• Social anxiety: r = 0.31
• Depressive symptoms: r = 0.33
• Loneliness: r = 0.28
• Self-esteem: r = −0.18

Nomophobia was also associated with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and lower self-esteem.

One of the strongest emotional relationships was between social anxiety and depressive symptoms, with a correlation of r = 0.52.

Correlations in Spain

The Spanish sample showed a similar overall pattern.

Addiction symptoms were correlated with:

• Nomophobia: r = 0.55
• Social anxiety: r = 0.34
• Depressive symptoms: r = 0.41
• Loneliness: r = 0.20
• Self-esteem: r = −0.13

The strongest emotional correlation in Spain occurred between depressive symptoms and loneliness, at r = 0.59.

Self-esteem showed stronger negative relationships with depression and loneliness in Spain than in Indonesia. This suggests that self-perception may occupy a different position within the psychological pattern of digital use in each country.

Correlations do not establish causation. The findings cannot determine whether problematic digital use contributes to distress, whether distressed students use digital media more frequently, or whether both processes occur simultaneously.

What did the study find about self-esteem?

Indonesian participants reported significantly higher self-esteem than Spanish participants.

The median normalized scores were:

• Indonesia: 0.63
• Spain: 0.53

This result is noteworthy because the Indonesian group simultaneously reported more digital addiction symptoms, nomophobia, social anxiety, and loneliness.

The findings therefore do not support a simple model in which higher digital engagement always corresponds to lower self-esteem at the national-group level.

Within each country, however, self-esteem was negatively correlated with addiction symptoms, nomophobia, social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. In other words, students with lower self-esteem generally reported greater psychological or digital difficulties, even though the average level differed between countries.

This distinction highlights the difference between:

• Comparing individuals within the same country
• Comparing average scores between countries

A relationship observed within each sample does not necessarily explain why the two national samples differed overall.

Were depressive symptoms different between countries?

No statistically significant national difference was found for depressive symptoms.

The Indonesian median was 0.40, while the Spanish median was 0.36. Although the Indonesian score was slightly higher, the difference did not meet the study’s significance threshold.

The figure on page 7 shows substantial overlap between the two distributions.

The main findings indicate that depressive symptoms may be a shared concern among university students in both contexts rather than a variable that clearly distinguishes the two national samples.

Was loneliness higher in Indonesia or Spain?

Loneliness was significantly higher among Indonesian participants.

The median normalized score was:

• Indonesia: 0.45
• Spain: 0.37

The effect size was smaller than those observed for nomophobia, addiction symptoms, or social anxiety, but the difference remained statistically significant.

This finding may appear contradictory because digital platforms provide constant opportunities for communication. However, frequent online contact does not necessarily create emotionally satisfying relationships.

This article explains that digital communication can offer an impression of connection without fully meeting needs for intimacy, belonging, and meaningful interpersonal support.

Loneliness may also encourage more online engagement. Students who feel isolated may use social networks to seek reassurance or compensate for limited offline support. This may create a cycle in which loneliness and problematic digital use reinforce one another.

Were there differences between men and women?

Most digital and psychological variables did not differ significantly by sex.

No significant male–female differences were found for:

• Digital addiction symptoms
• Nomophobia
• Social anxiety
• Loneliness
• Self-esteem

Depressive symptoms were the only variable showing a statistically significant sex difference. Female participants reported slightly higher scores than male participants.

The effect was small, meaning that sex explained only a limited proportion of the variation in depressive symptoms.

The study therefore does not support broad claims that one sex was consistently more vulnerable to digital addiction among university students.

Why might Spain and Indonesia differ?

The authors propose that cultural and structural conditions may influence digital behavior, but these explanations should be considered hypotheses rather than confirmed causal mechanisms.

Different digital ecosystems

Internet and social-media platforms may occupy different roles in everyday life. In Indonesia, digital media may function as a particularly important source of communication, entertainment, news, and social participation.

A digital environment that encourages constant connectivity could contribute to higher daily use and stronger anxiety about disconnection.

Collectivist and individualistic orientations

Indonesia is described as having a comparatively collectivist cultural orientation, whereas Spain is characterized as more individualistic.

In collectivist settings, digital communication may be closely tied to group membership, responsiveness, social expectations, and the maintenance of relationships. This could increase pressure to remain available online.

In more individualistic contexts, digital experiences may be more closely connected to autonomy, personal performance, self-presentation, or individual social comparison.

These broad cultural categories cannot explain every participant’s behavior. Considerable variation exists within both countries.

Offline social interaction

The authors suggest that interpersonal connection may have a particularly central role in Spanish social life. Greater reliance on offline interaction could potentially reduce dependence on digital communication for some students.

This interpretation was not directly tested and should not be treated as a confirmed explanation for the national differences.

How is it applied?

The findings support the development of culturally sensitive digital-health interventions rather than identical programs for all populations.

Applications in collectivist settings

Programs in contexts such as Indonesia may benefit from emphasizing:

• Emotional regulation
• Healthy online and offline social relationships
• Anxiety related to connectivity loss
• Social expectations and online self-presentation
• Strategies for reducing compulsive checking
• Group-based digital-literacy programs

Interventions should avoid framing all social-media engagement as harmful. Instead, they should help students recognize when online participation becomes driven by fear, avoidance, or loss of control.

Applications in individualistic settings

Programs in contexts such as Spain may place greater emphasis on:

• Autonomy and intentional technology use
• Self-efficacy
• Critical evaluation of digital content
• Social comparison
• Online validation and self-esteem
• Balanced integration of online and offline activities

Applications for universities

Universities could combine mental-health and digital-wellness services through:

• Early screening for problematic digital behavior
• Counseling for anxiety, depression, and loneliness
• Digital-literacy education
• Workshops on nomophobia and compulsive checking
• Peer-support initiatives
• Programs encouraging meaningful offline connection
• Guidance on recreational screen-time management

The study did not experimentally evaluate these interventions. They represent practical implications derived from the observed relationships.

What are the limitations?

The study has several important limitations.

First, its cross-sectional design prevents conclusions about causality or the direction of the relationships.

Second, participants were university students between 18 and 30 years old. The findings may not apply to non-students, adolescents, older adults, or people with different educational and occupational backgrounds.

Third, the samples may not represent the complete populations of Spain and Indonesia. National averages should not be inferred from these university groups.

Fourth, the study did not include several potentially important variables, such as income, academic discipline, family structure, socioeconomic conditions, or urban–rural location.

Fifth, all measures were self-reported. Participants may have underestimated or overestimated their digital use and psychological experiences.

Finally, impulsivity was not assessed. The authors identify it as a possible moderating or mediating factor that could help explain the relationship between problematic digital use and emotional symptoms.

Future studies should use longitudinal designs, objective device-use data, more diverse populations, and broader psychological and sociodemographic measures.

What are the key conclusions?

According to the research of Velasco-Furlong, Romero-Rodríguez, and Winarko, digital addiction in Spain and Indonesia follows both shared and country-specific patterns.

The main findings indicate that:

• Digital addiction symptoms were connected with poorer mental-health indicators in both countries.
• Indonesian students reported more addiction symptoms, nomophobia, recreational digital-media use, social anxiety, and loneliness.
• Spanish students reported lower self-esteem.
• Depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between countries.
• Women reported slightly more depressive symptoms, but most other variables showed no significant sex differences.
• Cultural context may help explain digital behavior, but the study cannot establish cultural causation.

This article explains why problematic digital engagement should not be treated as an isolated behavioral problem. It is embedded in emotional needs, social relationships, patterns of anxiety, self-perception, and the wider digital environment.

Effective prevention should therefore combine digital literacy with psychological support and adapt its approach to the social and cultural context of the target population.

Frequently asked questions

Which country showed more digital addiction symptoms?

The Indonesian student sample reported significantly more addiction symptoms than the Spanish sample.

Where was nomophobia higher?

Nomophobia was substantially higher among Indonesian participants, with one of the largest effect sizes in the study.

Did Indonesian students spend more time online?

Yes. Approximately 44.3% of Indonesian participants reported more than four hours of daily non-academic digital-media use, compared with 25.1% of Spanish participants.

Does the study prove that digital media cause anxiety or depression?

No. The study identified correlations, but its cross-sectional design cannot establish causality.

Were depressive symptoms higher in Indonesia?

The Indonesian median was slightly higher, but the difference between countries was not statistically significant.

Which sample had higher self-esteem?

Indonesian participants reported higher average self-esteem than Spanish participants.

Can high self-esteem coexist with high digital use?

Yes. The Indonesian sample reported both higher self-esteem and greater digital-addiction indicators. This demonstrates that relationships observed between individuals do not always explain average differences between countries.

Is digital addiction a formal diagnosis?

The study used the term in a non-clinical sense to describe problematic or poorly controlled digital engagement. It should not be interpreted as a psychiatric diagnosis.

What mental-health variables were associated with digital addiction?

Addiction symptoms and nomophobia were associated with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and lower self-esteem in both samples.

What should universities do?

Universities can integrate digital-literacy education, psychological screening, counseling, peer support, and culturally appropriate programs that address anxiety, loneliness, online validation, and compulsive technology use.