Artificial Education: Coping Mechanisms of the Modern-Day Digital Reader in Lower Middle-Income Countries: A Lebanese Case Study of Generation Z
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the coping mechanisms of students when engaging in academic online reading material. The study is a qualitative study that examined data collected from semi-structured focus group interviews from a convenient, non-random sample of 14 students taking Advanced Academic English (202) in a private, English-speaking university in a lower middle-income country, Beirut, Lebanon, during the academic years of Spring 2023, Summer 2023 and Fall 2023. The findings seem to suggest that students likely engage in using digital technology tools and shortcuts as well as artificial intelligence applications as coping mechanisms due to “screen inattentiveness”, pressure in the form of “grade fixation”, information overload, distractions through dopamine deprivation as well as academic, extracurricular, and environmental stressors. With academic anxiety increasing among Generation Z in Lower Middle-Income Countries, this may likely suggest intervention programs that enhance mental and emotional well-being in addition to digital and artificial intelligence literacies programs to enhance students’ critical thinking skills while using digital technologies. Further research on assisting students to overcome such emotional burdens to enhance their performance is required, while tapping into a larger, more comprehensive sample.