Assessment of Digital Detoxification Strategies Among Undergraduate Students in Universities in Rivers State

This study assessed digital detoxification strategies among students in the Faculty of Education in public Universities in Rivers State. Two research questions were answered, and corresponding hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population for this study comprised 8751 students in the Faculties of Education in the three public universities in Rivers State. The sample size comprised 2137 400-level undergraduate students in the Faculties of Education in three public Universities in Rivers State. The multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample for this study. The instrument used for data collection was a researcher-structured questionnaire titled: Digital Detoxification Strategies Among Undergraduate Students Questionnaire. The instrument was validated by five experts and standardised through item analysis. The instrument's reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha, which yielded a reliability estimate of 0.90. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Variance was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the majority of the Faculty of Education students in public Universities in Rivers State often use technology and social media and were aware of digital detoxification strategies. However, the application and utilization of these strategies were to a low extent. The results also showed that majority of digital detoxification strategies tested did not differ significantly among the three public universities. The study concluded that many students have a low level of awareness and engagement in digital detoxification strategies. It was recommended, among others, that the management of public Universities in Rivers State should organise workshops and seminars to educate students on the importance and techniques of digital detoxification; this would help increase their awareness, application and implementation of these strategies.