Smartphones allow us to have information available at our fingertips, in addition to offering portability, convenience, and a sense of privacy. However, overuse of such devices may create a sense of reliance, sometimes leading to fear of missing out (FOMO) and separation anxiety when being without one’s phone.

It is estimated that around 30% of students may be affected by problematic phone use (which can be referred to as smartphone addiction although that is not a clinically recognised term.) For example, 36% experience extreme tiredness by day and 38% have poorer quality of sleep from regular smartphone use late at night. Overuse of smartphones also has adverse effects on productivity and academic performance, with over three quarters of students reporting that smartphones had detrimental effects on their ability to complete academic work, due to lack of concentration and a fear of missing notifications and messages (Furst et al, 2018).

Other issues involve users becoming distracted by their smartphones when driving, greatly increasing the risk of road accidents. A study by researchers Madden and Lenhart (2009) worryingly revealed that 34% of American adolescents between the ages of 16 and 17 reported using their smartphones to text while driving.

Nomophobia

Nomophobia is a portmanteau of no mobile phobia, and while not officially clinically recognised as a phobia, it refers to a fear or anxiety resulting from the absence of mobile phone connectivity. Those experiencing nomophobia display agitation and anxiety when they are separated from their smartphones. Other symptoms include excessive use of one’s phone and feeling nervous about being away from it; possibly avoiding environments where smartphones are not permitted; constant phone checking; and displaying a preference to communicate using technology rather than doing so face-to-face.

It is likely that people may be of greater risk of developing problematic relationships with their mobile devices if they are also experiencing mental and/or emotional disorders, such as low self-esteem, social anxiety, and depression. In our study (Graff, Davies & Davies, under review), we predicted that impulsivity, attachment style, self-esteem, depression, and social phobia might be related to nomophobia and problematic smartphone use. We employed 115 individuals aged 18 to 30 who completed scales including items measuring the following (sample questionnaire items included):

• Smartphone Addiction: “Using a smartphone is the most fun thing to do”.
• Nomophobia: “If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would feel a desire to check it”.
• Impulsive Behaviour (including lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, sensation seeking, and positive urgency): “I tend to act without thinking when I am really excited”.
• Self-Esteem: “I wish I could have more respect for myself”.
• Revised Adult Attachment Scale (with three subscales of ‘close’ ‘dependent’ and ‘anxious’): “I am comfortable developing close relationships with others”.
• Patient Health: “How often have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless in the past two weeks?

Problematic Smartphone Use

Overall, we found that signs of smartphone addiction were reported in 47% of participants, while nomophobia was evident in 73% of participants. For all the measures we tested, we found firstly that self-esteem appeared to be related to smartphone addiction. In other words, participants with lower self-esteem were more likely to experience problematic smartphone use, which is consistent with previous research.

We also found sensation seeking and low levels of conscientiousness to be related to problematic smartphone use. This may be explained to some extent by smartphones providing an escape from the real world.

Finally, we found that attachment style—specifically anxious attachment—to be related to problematic smartphone use, which supports existing research, which has suggested that insecure attachment to be associated with increased internet and smartphone use.

However, we failed to find depression to be a predictor of smartphone addiction, therefore not supporting most of the previous literature. One possibility for this could be the differences in the scales we employed to measure depression compared to other research.

The Effects of Nomophobia

Similar to problematic smartphone use, we found a relationship between sensation seeking and nomophobia. Previous studies on nomophobia have found those with anxious attachment styles and those with avoidant attachment styles to be prone to nomophobic tendencies. While the current study found anxious attachment to be related to nomophobia, avoidant attachment was not related to nomophobia. Finally, we found no self-esteem differences for nomophobia, nor did we find depression to be related to nomophobia, failing to support the previous research.

Overall, we know that women are significantly more likely to participate in studies such as this than are men, which is reflected by the larger percentage of female participants in the current study. Furthermore, 70% of participants in our study were aged between 21 and 24, which is comparable with previous research. It would be useful for future research to examine whether the findings from the current study would be applicable to different demographics.