Study: One in Eight Harbor Smart Phone Addiction

AP Photo/Seth Wenig
AP Photo/Seth Wenig

A new university study claims that one in eight people suffer an addiction to their smart phone.

The new study by Dr. Zaheer Hussain, psychology lecturer of the University of Derby, claims that the more you use your smart phone, the higher your risk of becoming addicted to it.

Dr. Hussain also claimed that moodiness, loneliness, jealousy, and an obsession with physical appearance are all indicators of smart phone addiction.

A particular trait of those with smart phone addiction is high scores of narcissism.

The study found that 13 percent of the 256 participants could be classified as addicts.

Dr. Hussain reports that the overuse of smart phones can have an impact on our “psychological well-being.”

“We now use smart phones on a daily basis and for various tasks so being aware of the psychological effects is very important,” Hussain said.

“There are various smartphone apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Candy Crush, as well as Skype and email that make smartphone use psychologically more attractive and can lead to addiction,” he continued.

Social media apps were most used by those who showed signs of smart phone addiction, and users spent at least 3.6 hours a day on the device.

The paper, titled “Smartphone Use, Addiction, Narcissism, and Personality: A Mixed Methods Investigation,” was published in the International Journal of Cyber Behaviour, Psychology and Learning (IJCBPL).

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.

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