Is Cell Phone Addiction a Thing? Smartphone Use, Sleep, Anxiety & Depression
Is there such a thing as cell phone addiction? Many people often describe themselves as being ‘addicted’ to their smartphone but is this an accurate description or just a way we have of describing how our mobile phones have become more and more integrated into our daily living?
My wife has said to me in the past that she thinks I’m addicted to my cell phone as I may have a quick check quite a few times, especially if there are some live football or rugby scores to be checked. Yet when she has that screen five inches from her face for a long period she’s much more likely to consider that she is being practical by responding to work messages. And my eldest daughter is rarely more than one metre away from her smartphone (or 30 minutes away from her next Facetime) and can seemingly start to get a bit edgy if her battery starts falling much below 20%.
Are we all addicted or are we just all making use of technology in a way that suits us individually? As technology continues to develop, is any of it really a problem?
The research seems to suggest that cell phone addiction is certainly a thing and that there are outcomes and consequences from how we utilise cell phones that can impact on our sleep, anxiety and depression levels, as well as our cognitive processing and task performance.