In this era of rapid technological advancement, lies the paradox of the internet. For example, while productivity can increase thanks to the convenience of instant messaging, remote working and video call meetings, the internet also opens doors for people to waste time mindlessly scrolling through social media, doing little more than posting narcissistic posts or arguing with people thousands of miles away because of simple differences of opinion.

Realizing the double edged sword of the internet’s potential, three University of Indonesia (UI) students — Irfan Budi Satria from the school of electrical engineering, Nabila “Nayu” Ayu Budianti from the school of biology and Alhuda Reza Mahara from the school of computer science — created Nettox, a smartwatch they believe can help people deal with internet addiction.

Nettox, short for “internet detox”, began with a discussion about Nayu’s cousin, a second-grade elementary student heavily addicted to YouTube.

Nayu also remembered a time she was traveling on a commuter line train and saw a toddler glued to her mother’s gadget.

Alhuda, meanwhile, admitted he had once begun developing an addiction to the internet.

“When I was stressed with assignments, I would reach for my phone and spend hours scrolling through it instead,” Alhuda told The Jakarta Post.

Wanting concrete evidence that he was indeed developing an internet addiction, Alhuda installed an application to track his phone usage and, to his surprise, he found he spent more time on his phone than asleep.

“It [internet addiction] ruins my daily productivity,” said.

Irfan faced the same struggle. In his case, he spent hours watching YouTube videos.

“Sometimes we also spend large amounts of time looking at others’ Instagram stories, without really knowing why,” Irfan said.

Irfan and Nayu, who attended the same high school, accidentally reunited at UI’s campus. They then brainstormed project ideas for their Student Creativity Program (PKM) competition.

Following several days of discussions, they concluded that internet addiction was a prevalent problem today.

They then began developing the Nettox smartwatch. Irfan was in charge of designing the prototype, while Nayu served as the health and science researcher and Alhuda joined as the Nettox application developer.

Feeling a sense of urgency to address the issue, the team conducted research, constructed a prototype and developed a mobile application for the Nettox smartwatch within three months, despite being swamped with mandatory university requirements such as internships and community service programs.

The team’s research found that people who exhibit high rates of internet usage have low heart rate variability (HRV) while physically active people have high HRV. This may be due to the fact that people addicted to the internet have a tendency to sit or lay around all day playing mobile games or scrolling through social media feeds.

However, a large number of people nowadays also use the internet for work purposes, making the definition of internet addiction unclear.

However, the team noted that addiction was not solely defined by physical indicators such as HRV. There are also psychological indicators that require further assessment. Hence, personalized psychological questionnaires are also available on the Nettox application.

The prototype of the Nettox smartwatch, which does not look as ergonomic as the team had hoped, uses a pulse oximeter sensor to gather data on the user’s health by scanning their heart beat and oxygen saturation level.

The data is then sent to the mobile application for further analysis. The application also provides initial assessments of the user based on psychological questionnaires and initial health reports.

If the smartwatch detects a slight anomaly, it emits a sound notification. However, if anomalies become increasingly significant, the device emits both sound and vibration notifications.

Though the project did not make it to the final of the PKM competition, the team intends to continue developing Nettox by having their juniors come on board or by continuing to work on it after they graduate.

Given the internet is a relatively new invention, it is possible there are plenty of undiscovered effects. The team hopes new discoveries can be made through the continued development of a more ergonomic smartwatch.

“We hope to make it more user-friendly and impactful for users” said Nayu.

“We hope this will provide a solution for Indonesia’s younger generation, so they will not grow into internet addicts.”

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

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