Does Smartphone Addiction Fall on a Continuum of Addictive Behaviors?

Abstract

Due to the high accessibility and mobility of smartphones, widespread and pervasive smartphone use has become the social norm, exposing users to various health and other risk factors. There is, however, a debate on whether addiction to smartphone use is a valid behavioral addiction that is distinct from similar conditions, such as Internet and gaming addiction. The goal of this review is to gather and integrate up-to-date research on measures of smartphone addiction (SA) and problematic smartphone use (PSU) to better understand (a) if they are distinct from other addictions that merely use the smartphone as a medium, and (b) how the disorder(s) may fall on a continuum of addictive behaviors that at some point could be considered an addiction. A systematic literature search adapted from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was conducted to find all relevant articles on SA and PSU published between 2017 and 2019. A total of 108 articles were included in the current review. Most studies neither distinguished SA from other technological addictions nor clarified whether SA was an addiction to the actual smartphone device or to the features that the device offers. Most studies also did not directly base their research on a theory to explain the etiologic origins or causal pathways of SA and its associations. Suggestions are made regarding how to address SA as an emerging behavioral addiction.

Do Age, Gender and Poor Diet Influence the Higher Prevalence of Nomophobia among Young People?

“…All this promotes benefits in our daily tasks, but it is also beginning to generate new pathologies, among which are phobias and addictions. An example of this is the emergence of the concept of nomophobia, which refers to the anxiety caused in people by not being able to access the smartphone at a certain time [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…Recent research shows that excessive use of these devices can lead to absolute dependence of the user on the object [11][12][13][14] and addictive behavior [15]. This is manifested by the need to use the phone more and more [16][17][18], exhibiting sadness, depression, anger, irritability, restlessness, tension or nervousness when the phone is not available [5].…”

Adolescents’ Addictive Phone Use: Associations with Eating Behaviors and Adiposity

“…Most research on addictive phone use has been conducted in college student and other adult populations [8]. Although a growing body of research has examined addictive phone use in adolescents in Europe and Asia [9], very limited research has examined addictive phone use among adolescents in the United States.…”

The Matthew Effect in Recovery from Smartphone Addiction in a 6-Month Longitudinal Study of Children and Adolescents

“…There is contradictory evidence in the literature regarding whether smartphone addiction truly exists [5][6][7]. PSU is generally not regarded as a serious health issue like substance abuse.…”