THE INFLUENCING FACTORS IN HOW PEOPLE USING SMARTPHONES UNDER COVID-19: QUANTITATIVE METHOD

Abstract

It is ubiquitous to see that people are grabbing their smartphones whenever they could no matter in public or private situations, which make this portable device to be a necessity in people’s daily life. Here, this article aimed to tackle the real needs of smartphone usage under COVID-19, to make a comparison of the smartphone usage behavior of customers who live in Bangkok before and during a pandemic situation, whether any factors could these behavior lead to attitudinal or behavioral loyalty, which the quantitative method will be adopted to investigate related issues. The research has found that relatively lower-income smartphone users are more intended to use their smartphones to browse the website, social media, or addict to video games, together with younger generation interact with their smartphones at a higher frequency. Also, lower-income smartphone users in Bangkok are more apt to use the smartphone to relieve their anxiety, in line with Gen Y (25-40) smartphone users in Bangkok might rely less on the smartphone to release their stress compared to the younger age group. Additionally, during COVID-19, Gen Z (18-24) smartphone users have significantly higher inclinations to hold their smartphone whenever they experience boredom at home or outside than Gen X (41-56) smartphone users in Bangkok. Meanwhile, lower-income group of smartphone users as well as younger smartphone users arguably leaner to trust their smartphones to bring them psychological comfort. Furthermore, when acting as an independent variable, Psychological Comfort has an impact on the dependent variable behavioral loyalty as well as attitudinal loyalty.