Grace Wilcox

Health Occupations

Cell Phone/Smartphone Addiction

Technology is becoming very popular in our society, especially among younger
generations. Almost every person has had their head down texting or their face glued to their
phone while walking down the street. There are so many different kinds of activities people can
do on their phones. With smartphones, people can surf the web, get directions, and post
information on social media. Most of the younger generations, including myself, would not be
able to go just one week without using their smartphones. Parents of younger generations should
know if their children are prone to cell phone or smartphone addiction. It is also important for an
individual to know if they are addicted to their smartphone. Having an addiction to smartphones
can put a person and others in danger. Cell phone and smartphone addiction is quickly growing
and can possibly be a new form of addiction that people need to be aware of.
Younger generations such as middle school and high school students, are becoming more
prone to developing a smartphone addiction. These kids are the first generations to grow up with
a smartphone and the internet at their fingertips. Having all these connections to the world are
making students want more and more information. An addiction can cause harm to a person and
the people around. Most addictions are similar and can cause a person to act differently when
they dont have the object they are addicted to. Many addicts are not aware of their addiction, but
their friends and family will notice change in behavior. In this case, parents may be telling their
children to, get off the phone and spend time face to face. One research article recently
published by Dongil Kim and associates, tested 795 elementary, middle, and high school students

from Korea on smartphone proneness addiction and mental health complications. Some mental
health problems that were tested were anxiety, depression, aggression, and low tolerance. These
major problems are signs of an addiction. In this study they had the students fill out a
questionnaire to discover information about how much the students used their phones. Based off
the questionnaire, the researchers made a Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS). This
tested the students proneness to addiction and proneness to mental health complications. They
found that over 50% of the students were either prone to smartphone addiction or prone to
mental problems. So, most younger people might develop an addiction to some sort of
smartphone or cell phone.
Smartphones have so many new activities a person can do. Anyone can do all the basic
cell phone activities such as talking and texting. Now with smartphones, people can surf the web,
play games, read books, take pictures, shop, etc. Having access to all these different activities
give people a reason to constantly be distracted by their phone. In another study, by Yand-Han
Lee and associates, 164 college students from Texas were tested for this new addiction, cell
phone addiction (CPA). College students commonly view their cell-phone as an integral part of
who they are, and/or as an important extension of themselves (Lee et al.). College students, like
the rest of the younger generations, are not receiving much face to face social interaction like
they should. College students have even admitted that to researchers that they believe they are
addicted to their cell phones. The students know they spend more time on their phones than they
should. Some students believe that cell phone addictions can be a good thing; a cell phone can
save your life if you are in danger. In contrast, cell phones can possibly put your life in danger.
For example, putting your information out into the world or texting while driving. Both of these
can not only put a person in danger but other people around them as well. This study has also

shown that most students bury themselves in their cell phones by pretending to text, call
someone, or check the time so they have a reason to avoid awkward situations. Once again cell
phones are getting in the way of face to face conversations. Most students do not know how to
handle difficult or awkward situations. After tracking the students cell phones and creating a
Manolis/Roberts Cell-Phone Addiction Scale (MRCPAS), researchers found students are
spending a significant amount of time on their phones. The college females spend approximately
600 minutes on their cell phones per day, while college males spend about 458.5 minutes per day.
Most students were surprised about those amounts; none of them thought that much time was
spent texting, calling, Twitting, Facebooking, etc. The top 5 activities that took up the most time
were calling, texting, emailing, banking, and taking pictures. The researchers did find that
spending that much time on a cell phone within 24 hours every single day is an addiction. Since
hundreds of minutes are spent on the students cell phones each day, using their cell phone is a
part of daily life, and it might be impossible for the students to go anywhere without their phones
for a day.
Smartphone use is growing each day and more of the population is using them, so the
addiction is growing as well. Addiction is associated with some identified factors: low tolerance,
withdrawal, compulsive symptoms, and time management problems. Internet addiction is related
to smartphone addiction. Most male college students have an internet addiction and are dealing
with the symptoms of a smartphone addiction. Another recent study aimed to develop a selfadministered scale based on features of Internet addiction and the smartphone's characteristics,
and to identify smartphone addicts. (Roberts et al.) In order to develop the Smartphone
Addiction Inventory (SPAI) scale, the researchers modified and made revisions to the Chen

Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) the help with smartphone addiction. 283 college students from
universities in Northern Taiwan were recruited to participate in this study. The participants were
asked to fill out a questionnaire and were tested on the SPAI scale to see whether or not the
college students have an addiction related to their smartphone. Based on the questionnaire,
researchers found out most of the students hear/feel their phone go off with some sort of
notification even when no notifications are present on the phone. This is called a phantom
vibration. The college students stated that the phantom vibrations are very bothersome.
Researchers cannot find evidence of a relationship between smartphone addiction and phantom
vibrations, but they do believe that there is some sort of connection between the two. The results
for this study showed that time management, compulsive behavior, functional impairment,
withdraw, and low tolerance and all corresponding with cell phone addiction. In regards to time
management, students say they cannot eat a meal without using their phone and have sleep loss
because they cannot put their phones down at night before going to sleep. Compulsive behavior
is the core of the addiction. The students compulsive behavior can sometimes ruin a relationship
with other people and make their attitudes more negative. Functional impairment is related to
sleep management as well. The functional impairment is linked to time management issues.
Withdraw is another corresponding symptom to smartphone addiction. It takes days or weeks for
symptoms of withdraw to show up in smartphone addiction. The symptoms do not show after
one day like other addictions. The last symptom is low tolerance. The low tolerance shows no
patience for other people because the students expect their smartphones to be fast and expect
their information to be retrieved quickly. This study concluded that most college students are
addicted to their smartphones and show some or all of the five addiction problems.

Even though smartphone addiction isnt a cause for great concern with most people, it is
certainly something more people need to become aware of. I believe that everyone should spread
the word about cell phone addiction. People can spread the word by word of mouth, participating
in an awareness walk, making fun t-shirts in honor of smartphone addiction awareness, or
sharing the statistics that are causing harm to the younger generations. By people being more
aware of what smartphone addiction is, then maybe younger generations will set down their
phones for a while and have more face to face interactions. If more of the younger generations
start setting down their phones then there will be less danger in the society and less car accidents
from smartphone use. Every person needs to spend time outside and spend time with other
people to receive some social interaction outside of their smartphone.
Overall, all kinds of addictions can be cured as long as a person has self control and
knows when to stop. Knowing boundaries and having a supportive team that has a persons back
is one of the most important things for a person can have while stopping an addiction. It is also
important for parents to know if their children in younger generations are prone to cell phone or
smartphone addiction. Also, smartphone use is growing each day. The more time a person spends
on their phone the higher the chance is that the person will become addicted. Having an
addiction can cause some problems and can cause trouble to the people in their life. Lastly,
having a cell phone or smartphone addiction does not only put one person in danger but puts
other people around in danger as well. People need to be more aware that cell phone or
smartphone addiction is becoming a major problem.

Work Cited

Kim, Dongil, Yunhee Lee, Juyoung Lee, JeeEun Karin Nam, and YeoJu Chung.
"Development of Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth." PMC. PLOS One,
21 May 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029762/>.

Lee, Yang-Han, Hsien-Wei Tseng, Terry B. J.Kuo, Sue-Huei Chen, Yu-Hsuan Lin, and LiRen Chang. "Development and Validation of the Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI)."
PMC. PLOS One, 4 June 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045675/>.

Roberts, James A., Luc Honore Petnji Yaya, and Chris Manolis. "The Invisible Addiction:
Cell-phone Activities and Addiction among Male and Female College Students." PMC.
Akademiai Kiado, 3 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291831/>.