COMPARISON OF THE INFLUENCE OF MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES ON THE MENTAL STATUS OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS DURING LOCKDOWN, WORK AND EDUCATION IN ONLINE MODE

Abstract

Summary. The issue of the negative influence of multimedia technologies on the population is extremely important, especially during the pandemic and lockdown.

The aim of the study – to investigate the impact of the world pandemic and multimedia technologies on the psychological state of children and adults during the lockdown.

Materials and Methods. Features of depression, anxiety and stress, the presence of Internet addiction, memory and attention disorders during a pandemic in 285 respondents (50 children and 235 adults) admitted the high level of depression, anxiety, and stress as well as Internet addiction, memory, and attention disorders during the pandemic. During the research, we received information from the respondents about the time they spend on the internet. We also used: the Kimberly-Young Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Hugo-Munsterberg Attention Test Method, the Short-Term Memory Study, and the Mathematical Methods statistics.

Results. The respondents were divided into two groups according to age and four subgroups according to gender. The study found out that the children are more likely to have depression during the quarantine, while the adults reported a high level of anxiety and stress. It was found that the risk group for the development of Internet addiction is group 2.1 (adult women), in which excessive use of multimedia was observed in 35 %, while the least vulnerable was group 2.2 (adult men) with a probability of developing this dependence at 14 %. It was found that the use of multimedia tools is more likely to cause attention deficit in adult respondents, in particular, a low level was observed in 27.61 % of women and 20.79 % of men, when in children this figure was 7.15 %  and 9.1 %, respectively. In contrast, children were more likely to experience memory loss (7.14 % of girls and 9.09 % of boys) than adults (2.98 % of women and 4.95 % of men).

Conclusions. Children are more likely to have depression during the quarantine, while the adults reported a high level of anxiety and stress. Women have a risk of developing Internet addiction during the lockdown. The use of multimedia tools to a greater extent cause disturbance  of attention in adult respondents and memory impairment in children.