Understanding Patterns for Smartphone Addiction: Age, Sleep Duration, Social Network Use and Fear of Missing Out

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine high school students and uncover the relationships between Smartphone Addiction levels and certain factors such as (a) Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) (b) Social Networking Site (SNS) usage habits (using smartphones), (c) age, d) sleep duration and (e) duration of smartphone ownership. The study group consists of 161 students from two public high schools in Turkey. Two different scales were employed for data collection; namely, the Smartphone Addiction Scale and FoMO Scale. Based on a cross-sectional research method, this qualitative study makes use of Pearson Correlation and Stepwise Multiple Regression statistical tests. Findings have shown positive correlations interpreted as Smartphone Addiction increasing with greater student age, daily duration of SNS use on smartphones, duration of smartphone ownership, and Fear of Missing Out. In addition, there exists negative-correlation between smartphone addiction and sleep duration, as well as frequency of SNS use on smartphones. Last but not least, it has been shown that FoMO, daily duration of SNSs use on smartphone and duration of smartphone ownership predict smartphone addiction, with the FoMO variable being the strongest predictor.

Predictors of problematic smartphone use among university students

“…The importance attributed to using the device for work purposes was not statistically correlated to smartphone use scores. Others have previously reported a connection between smartphones use and use of social networks (Haug et al, 2015;Arnavut et al, 2018;Gezgin, 2018;Sha et al, 2019). However, we did not find any previous studies on the importance attributed to specific social apps.…”

“…6. More use of different social network apps was related with higher smartphone usage (Arnavut et al, 2018;Gezgin, 2018;Haug et al, 2015;Kircaburun & Griffiths, 2018). 7.…”

“…7. The importance attributed to the social networks was directly correlated with problematic smartphone use (Arnavut et al, 2018;Gezgin, 2018;Haug et al, 2015). 8.…”

“…Although accessing social networks has been singled out as the most used function in smartphones (Haug et al, 2015), few studies have investigated the relationship between problematic smartphone use and the importance of social networks. Most studies have only investigated whether individuals use social networks, and if so, the daily amount of time that they spend on social networks (Arnavut, Nutri, & Direktor, 2018;Gezgin, 2018). Nevertheless, Jeong, Kim, Yum, and Hwang (2016) researched if games or social networks predicted greater problematic smartphone use in participants and found that, although games and social networks were both predictors, the stronger predictor was social networks.…”

Fear of Missing Out and Smartphone Addiction Mediates the Relationship Between Positive and Negative Affect and Sleep Quality Among Chinese University Students

“…State-FoMO has been found to directly and indirectly impact phubbing via problematic Instagram use, whereas trait-FoMO has been indirectly associated with phubbing via state-FoMO and problematic Instagram use (24). Additionally, some studies have shown the associations between high levels of FoMO and negative outcomes, such as bad school performance, fatigue, and decreased sleep (25)(26)(27)(28).…”