Is Smartphone Addiction Real?

Megalith

Megalith

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I do think people spend more time than they realize on their phones—maybe Apple and Google can integrate a native usage tracker into iOS and Android’s settings panel or something.

“Even although people may be using their smartphones a lot, it’s generally life-enhancing,” says Dr Griffiths. “But there will always be a small minority, with any technological advancement, that do it to excess and it causes them problems. The good news is, particularly when it comes to smartphones, the genuine incidence of addiction is small.”
 
My friends can't even watch an entire movie without going on 9gag during the slow parts. It's fucking infuriatingon
 
At adult Halloween party last night, 90% of people either glued to their phones, or constantly and nervously pulling them out and checking them.
 
>_>
<_<

Define adult halloween party....

But yea, phone addiction is a real thing... because anything can be addicting.
 
Judging by the number of morons behind the steering wheel looking up and down to their laps, driving with their smartphone on their laps, yeah... it's an addiction. That or there's a moron virus spreading like wildfire!
 
Oh!Oh! I forgot... recently there has been a push for the FAA to regulate drones, but if people and the gov't actually had their priorities straight they would have launched a federal campaign stop all these jackasses with their smartphones behind the wheel!
 
What qualifies as 'addicted'? Seems the younger generation at my work can't go 10 minutes without checking something on their phones or trying to carry on a text conversation. It's amazing they get anything done at all (they barely do).
 
NickJames said:
My friends can't even watch an entire movie without going on 9gag during the slow parts. It's fucking infuriatingon
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Yes it is. I've quit having friends over to my place for any sort of movie night or anything for this very reason.

DPI said:
At adult Halloween party last night, 90% of people either glued to their phones, or constantly and nervously pulling them out and checking them.
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The exact same thing occurred at the Halloween part I attended. I hope these people enjoy their fouled eyesight, bowed posture, and arthritic thumbs in their later years.
 
DPI said:
At adult Halloween party last night, 90% of people either glued to their phones, or constantly and nervously pulling them out and checking them.
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are your friends socially awkward? it's easy to escape an uncomfortable social situation by pulling out your phone
 
I don't think it's a matter of real or not anymore, but it is spreading like a bloody plague.

Using your phone while waiting in line or in the waiting room? Acceptable.

Using your phone while walking/driving? That's not.

Unfortunately the latter happens more often than the former.
 
aShrubbery! said:
Oh!Oh! I forgot... recently there has been a push for the FAA to regulate drones, but if people and the gov't actually had their priorities straight they would have launched a federal campaign stop all these jackasses with their smartphones behind the wheel!
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Because I think most people could justify the "infrequent" use of a cell phone while driving. For instance I listen to podcasts and audiobooks while driving. Or using the navigation capabilities. It doesn't mean I am constantly looking at my phone, but I do not want an arbitrary law saying I *can't* use my phone while driving.

However, I also feel most people would not be able to justify using a drone, outside of just playing around. So that is why there would be much more public support for blocking or regulating drone usage.
 
Its very real. I've been grinding up and snorting Blackberrys for years now, but side-effects never hardly any are there is normal me I figure fine is brain.
 
I have friends I go out with with who get on their phone and browse imgur or text people while they're with me. It's pretty fucking annoying. Flip side, the other people I hang out with who are more mature, have their shit together, and are usually on one of my start-up groups leave their phone in their pocket, and focus on me. Not really a scientific fact, hardly an observation either, but still worth noting I suppose.
 
BiH115 said:
I have friends I go out with with who get on their phone and browse imgur or text people while they're with me. It's pretty fucking annoying. Flip side, the other people I hang out with who are more mature, have their shit together, and are usually on one of my start-up groups leave their phone in their pocket, and focus on me. Not really a scientific fact, hardly an observation either, but still worth noting I suppose.
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It will be a generational thing. Wait another 20 years for the 2nd generation of those born into this technology and it will be prolific. My kids, 3 & 5, can already operate phones and tablets pretty good. When they get into the work place with the rest of their generation, things are going to be all over. They might even stick their nose up at this old clunker.

KBMSMUSBB.jpg
 
You said it. Although I'm seeing a lot more people in their 30's and 40's that are glued to their phones.
 
Addiction and/or conditioning; pick your poison.

There was research done on exactly this and in a nutshell the brain of people who use their phones alot reacted the same way to their phone vibrating and/or chiming as the dogs did to the sound of a bell in the Pavlov experiments.

Essentially people who use their phones a lot become conditioned to them and the brain reacted in a way we could call addicted.
 
Had a friend stay who I have not seen for 5 years. She spent more time on her phone than anything else.. scary. The type that will skype call you when at a party with other friends, then subject you to the same when hanging out. Social media addict, travels so only way she can keep in touch with her gazillion 'friends'.

I have no time for that bullshit. When I visit or catch up with friends I like to talk face to face. I don't have a personal bookface account so prefer stuff old school.. Should have just skyped her while she stayed lol >__<
 
A few years ago, similar articles were published about people's obsessions with email. Of course, except for Agent 86's, desks don't go 60mph on streets, so the main penalty for distracted keyboarding was your TPS report was late. Oddly, until email enabled phones ruined it, meetings were a refuge from emails.
 
I don't know about addiction, but I will admit, that I have a much lower tolerance for boredom while waiting for something than I used to in the pre-smartphone era.

I mean, you used to have to just sit there in the waiting room. Unless you brought a book or a newspaper, you were stuck with those terrible donated magazines.
 
People want to say I'm addicted to my smartphone and tablet. I get a laugh as they are the same people that treat Facebook as all serious business :D
 
I think that a lot of people need to go look up the definition of the word addiction.
 
Quix said:
I think that a lot of people need to go look up the definition of the word addiction.
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I'm not sure which side of the argument you are posting about in this case, but surprising as it may sound, in tests, especially young people who have grown up with smartphones are increasingly exhibiting classic physical withdrawal signs if their device is removed from them, including elevated heart rate, sweaty palms, feelings of anxiety, etc. etc.

I still feel it doesn't rise to the level of substance addiction, but the concept isn't quite as crazy as it may sound on the surface.
 
westrock2000 said:
It will be a generational thing. Wait another 20 years for the 2nd generation of those born into this technology and it will be prolific. My kids, 3 & 5, can already operate phones and tablets pretty good. When they get into the work place with the rest of their generation, things are going to be all over. They might even stick their nose up at this old clunker.

KBMSMUSBB.jpg
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I would too; that thing's layout is atrocious.
 
chockomonkey said:
I would too; that thing's layout is atrocious.
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Yeah, at first glance I thought it was just a standard tenkeyless, but then I realized how everything was squished on the right side. No thanks, not for me.

I'd rather have a full 104 key board.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041945974 said:
Isurprising as it may sound, in tests, especially young people who have grown up with smartphones are increasingly exhibiting classic physical withdrawal signs if their device is removed from them
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What tests? That sounds like pop-sci news clickbait, and that's exactly what you find if you search the internet (a high school senior research project that shows 'something like withdrawals,' internet 'surveys' where people say they'd give up chocolate or whatever before their phone, etc). That's not science.

As far as I know there are no actual scientific studies indicating that 'phone addiction' exists. When we slap the term 'addiction' on anything people enjoy it devalues the term into meaninglessness.
 
You'll want to look up FMRI based research.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
What tests? That sounds like pop-sci news clickbait, and that's exactly what you find if you search the internet (a high school senior research project that shows 'something like withdrawals,' internet 'surveys' where people say they'd give up chocolate or whatever before their phone, etc). That's not science.

As far as I know there are no actual scientific studies indicating that 'phone addiction' exists. When we slap the term 'addiction' on anything people enjoy it devalues the term into meaninglessness.
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Well, I have not read any actual research papers (they tend to go a bit beyond the laymans level of understanding of these things, and I am definitely a layman) but I have definitely read stories in reputable news outlets, referring to two recent specific studies on this topic showing rather disturbing results, one out of a south Korean catholic university (forget the name) and one international study led out of University of Maryland.
 
Addiction. So people with a hypothetical vacation to Tahiti or summer hiking in Alaska and digital cameras, books but no phones will fight withdrawal? I doubt it.

But they're overused.

With the cost of child care and open dates/weekends I can see how parents want that docile kid and they are... committed. Big tantrums, and cable TV was pretty bad as a babysitter in the 90s but at least kid shows ended at night instead of infinite episodes on Youtube.
 
All you have to do is look ANYWHERE there are people and see how many of them have their heads buried in their cellphone to see the addiction. Doesn't matter where, walking down the street, the supermarket, the bathroom, the Bank, the Pizzeria, the theater, while driving a car, you name it. Two people fucking, odds are at least one of them is on a cellphone. It's an infestation I tell you!
 
Yup smart phone addiction is real because for some reason we can't go 5 minutes without checking our phones even though we know there is nothing new to be seen. It's become a social habit to check your phone when you have nothing to do.
 
UnholyCarcass said:
Yup smart phone addiction is real because for some reason we can't go 5 minutes without checking our phones even though we know there is nothing new to be seen. It's become a social habit to check your phone when you have nothing to do.
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Question is, is it real addiction, or some form of obsessive compulsive disorder? :p
 
Smartphone addiction is good old internet addiction. The only difference is the perceived coolness of the delivery system.
 
The nicer the phone the greater the addiction. Just get an iPhone and it won't be an issue.
 
mi7chy said:
The nicer the phone the greater the addiction. Just get an iPhone and it won't be an issue.
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Hmm... not sure if trying to diss iPhone, or trying to say iPhone will be the salvation of mankind...
 
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