Analysis of Differences in Monthly Smartphone Usage Fees by Age Using Analysis of Variance

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study is to statistically examine whether there are significant differences in monthly smartphone fees among four age groups: infants, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. A one-way analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA) was employed to test whether the mean monthly fees differ significantly across these age groups. ANOVA is a statistical technique used to compare the means of three or more independent groups. In this study, the independent variable was age group (four levels), and the dependent variable was the average monthly smartphone fee.
The results showed that adults had the highest average monthly fee (M = 5.20), followed by the elderly (M = 4.65), adolescents (M = 4.28), and children (M = 3.62). The ANOVA results indicated statistically significant differences among the groups (F-test, p < .05), and post-hoc analyses revealed that all groups differed significantly from each other. These findings suggest that the differences in smartphone usage patterns—parent-controlled and educational use among children, content-centered use among adolescents, functional and work-related use among adults, and basic communication use among the elderly—directly contribute to variations in communication costs.
In conclusion, this study empirically demonstrates that age-related differences in smartphone usage patterns lead to significant disparities in communication expenses. The findings provide a foundational basis for designing age-specific mobile pricing plans and for developing policy measures to reduce communication costs among vulnerable groups such as adolescents and the elderly. Future research could incorporate additional socioeconomic variables (e.g., gender, income, occupation) and apply two-way ANOVA to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of factors influencing smartphone cost differences.