What is Smartphone Addiction?
Smartphone addiction*, also known as phone addiction or cell phone addiction, can be defined in several ways depending on the source. The two most agreed upon elements is an inability to stop using a cell phone and significant relational, educational, occupational, or personal problems that arise from the inability to stop using.
Some researchers and clinicians question if smartphone addiction is a misleading term, as most people using smartphones are engaging in specific activities that can provide drastically different experiences. For example, most people use smartphones for a variety of reasons, including acquiring information, watching videos, going on social media, and playing video games. Being labeled with “smartphone addiction” could therefore be too general, as a person could be more accurately described as having a gaming, video-watching, or social media addiction.
The Negative Effects of Smartphone Addiction
The negative effects of overusing smartphones can be complex, as they will depend on a variety of factors such as personality, family dynamics, current and past relationship quality, comorbid conditions like anxiety and depression, general life satisfaction, and culture. This complexity is often shown in studies exploring multiple variables. For example, Kim, Cho, Kim (2017) found that early childhood attachment styles (specifically anxious and avoidant styles) could have direct and indirect effects on smartphone addiction. In other words, the interactions people have with early caregivers can impact how they relate to other people later in life, which can also impact their smartphone use. Those with insecure and anxious attachment styles will be more likely to experience loneliness due to their difficulties in regulating their emotions when relating to others, which puts them at a higher risk of having a smartphone addiction.
Some other negative effects of smartphone addiction can include:
- Physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, eye fatigue, neck pain, pinky pain (smartphone finger)
- Nomophobia (fear of not having a phone)
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Low self-esteem
- Negative moods when not using
- Thinking about cell phone use when it’s not available
- Body dysmorphia (especially related to social media use)
- Displacement (taking away time from other fulfilling activities)
- Relationship issues
- Aggression towards objects or others
- Educational or occupational problems
Smartphone Addiction Scale
Unlike several other technology addiction scales that directly use criteria from gambling disorder, the smartphone addiction scale developed by Kwon et al. (2013) uses 6 categories to determine smartphone addiction: daily-life disturbance, positive anticipation, withdrawal, cyber-space-oriented relationship, overuse, and tolerance. Other symptoms assessed in other scales include things like preoccupation (thinking about using a phone), deception (lying about use), and mood modification.
Some other examples of smartphone addiction scales are listed below:
- Smartphone Addiction Scale
- Smartphone Addiction Scale and Short Version
- Smartphone Addiction Inventory
- Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS)
Smartphone Addiction Treatment
Because smartphones provide access to subcategories of technology addictions, therapy will likely begin with determining which aspects of the smartphone the user has difficulties controlling. For example, a person might use their smartphone to consistently access social media, whereas another person might use it to play video games. In these cases, a therapist can help define the specific addiction to social media or video games and provide treatment that aligns with these specific addictions.
Contact The Center for Technology Wellness for Your Free Smartphone Addiction Consultation Today!
At the Center for Technology Wellness, we believe that people want a healthy relationship with technology. We also believe that people want to feel fulfilled in their lives. By combining individual and systemic treatments supported by a harm reduction philosophy, we believe that we can help people express their unique concerns with their smartphone use, develop a treatment plan that works for their busy life, and implement interventions that can improve their relationship with their smartphone.
Some of our assessments and interventions include:
- Helping people define what “problematic usage” means to them or their loved ones
- Using smartphone addiction scales developed by researchers to gain a better understanding of symptoms and potential treatment options
- Determining “green, yellow, and red zone use” to provide clarity on when a user is using their smartphone in healthy, cautionary, and concerning ways
- Assessing how other mental health issues could be contributing to problematic smartphone use (e.g., anxiety, depression, social anxiety, impulsivity)
- Identifying emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and environmental cues that lead to problematic use
- Practicing ways to recognize these cues to curb problematic use and divert energy to other fulfilling activities
- Constructing a support network of family members, friends, and professionals who can have the gamer’s back as they seek a more fulfilling life
*The term “addiction” in relation to technology is controversial amongst researchers and clinicians. Although some are attempting to use terms “addiction” and “disorder” to describe problematic usage of technology to develop scales and diagnoses for clinical settings, others contend that these terms are inappropriate for several reasons (e.g., they could stigmatize people, they mislead people into thinking substance addictions are identical to technology addictions).
These terms are used on this site because it is the language that most people commonly use when seeking information and help on this topic. At the Center for Technology Wellness, we use the preferred terminology of our clients, whether it includes more diagnostic terms like “addiction” and “disorder,” or simple descriptions from our clients (e.g., “I feel like I’m watching Tik Tok too much”).
Sources:
Kim, E., Cho, I., & Kim, E. J. (2017). Structural equation model of smartphone addiction based on adult attachment theory: Mediating effects of loneliness and depression. Asian nursing research, 11(2), 92-97.
