Determinants Of Smartphone Addiction: An Overview From Mental Health And Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

Smartphones currently provide incredible opportunities, convenience, dependability, and everything a person could ever need. Smartphones are real-time information suppliers with advanced computing capabilities that have shrunk the inequalities in Internet access and provide more equal chances for all people around the world. Many smartphone users carry their phones with them everywhere and use them for an average 150-180 times per day. The purpose of this study is to investigate how smartphones are changing society and how smartphones will transform culture, social life, technology landscape, and other facets of current society on their own. This research looks at prior studies on smartphone addiction and related issues, with a focus on emotional health and psychological well-being. Factors including mental health issues and parental isolation were found to play a significant role in the development of a smartphone addiction. At the conclusion of the publication, the researchers stressed some significant factors leading to smartphone addiction for further research in this field from the previous literature.

Keywords: Emotional health, mental health, psychological well-being, smartphone addiction

Introduction

Mobile phones, especially smartphones, today provide excellent opportunities, comfort, dependability, and virtually everything a person requires. The devices used to serve a specific function, ranging from a simple calculator to a Hi-Fi stereo, a workstation PC, a gaming system, a media player, and a television. Now, each device serves multiple functions. Out of the box, all of those features have been condensed into a single, compact device that we are all familiar with: the smartphone. Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular.

Smartphones are becoming increasingly important in daily life, and they provide a wide range of mobile applications for information, communication, education, and entertainment. Smartphones typically include touch screens, mobile Internet access via Wi-Fi or cellular networks, the ability to install smartphone applications, and other features such as media players, digital cameras, and GPS navigation.

Earlier research established that mobile communication promotes "subjective well-being" and life satisfaction (Chan, 2015). However, excessive smartphone use can lead to poor academic performance and interpersonal issues (Bae, 2015; Busch et al., 2021; Lepp et al., 2014). A behavioural addiction to smartphones can result in a variety of problems on all levels, including physical, psychological, and social dimensions (Ding & Li, 2017).

While the majority of studies have either discussed the benefits of smartphones or the drawbacks of excessive smartphone usage, this study seeks to shed light on the negative aspects of excessive smartphone usage. This study aims to provide a general overview of pathological smartphone use to change people's perceptions of the device, such that it cannot be used to achieve our vital life objectives rather than being used as a tool to make our lives and daily activities easier.

Problem Statement

Consistent agreement in the research community concurs that mobile phones have become increasingly present in the classroom since the World Pandemic of Covid-19 has attacked us. As a result, most people use them every day. The phenomenon of mobile phones has become a contemporary issue in the community. Although current research has begun to address problematic smartphone use among users, there is still much left to understand about factors contributing towards smartphone usage which led to behavioural addiction. Problematic mobile phone use is generally defined as a specific type of phone-related behaviour that elicits certain psychological and behavioural symptoms. Foerster et al. (2015) described problematic mobile phone use as pathological in nature, in which certain addictive and psychological symptoms are evident in users.

Research Questions

The research aims to answer the following questions:

What are the constituting factors that influence smartphone addiction (from mental health and psychological well-being)?

What are the psychological and behavioural symptoms of smartphone addictions?

Research Methods

This study is carried out to review the numerous related papers regarding factors contributing to smartphone addiction focusing on mental health and psychological well-being. This study assembles information collected from previous research in the form of a table to facilitate future researchers who are interested in this subject area. It also intends to explore the possible future research as recommended from the previous studies regarding smartphone addiction.

Discussion

This revolution in technology has taken place all over the world, and the younger generation is particularly quick to adopt it in a wide range of fields such as health and education and business. To keep up with the revolution's momentum, smartphone use increased in importance (such as with the rise of video calls and the addition of snap-chat functionality), and the impact of smartphones on every aspect of human life has continued to grow.

One of the reasons driving smartphone usage among users was the demand for convenience, as well as social needs and influences from others (Ding & Li, 2017; Isaac et al., 2019). As a result, smartphones now play an essential role in our community's technological culture, particularly among younger generations. Regardless of the benefits and requirements of smartphones, excessive use can lead to addiction. Smartphone addiction is defined as a dependency on, and excessive and uncontrolled usage of a smartphone (Király et al., 2020).

Several smartphone research on children's use of touch gadgets have lately been conducted (Agarwal, 2014). Lee et al. (2021) looked into secondary school students' use of smartphones and the development of smartphone addiction. Haug et al. (2015) talked about the downsides of smartphones, and they talked about how young people use their phones too much, how they get attached to them, and how they get addicted to them. As a result, this study aims to shed light on the dangers of too much smartphone use, which have been left out of previous studies.

Based on the variables and items analysed, the elements influencing smartphone addiction has been outlined by the researchers for this study purposes (Table 1). Referring to the previous studies, we found out that among prominent factors leading towards smartphone addiction are depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness and parent-child communication and relationship.

Conclusion

With the use of smartphones, we are able to communicate more readily while also being entertained, educated, and informed about the world around us at all times. Interaction with cell phones, on the other hand, can lead to unhealthy habits of addiction and stress, which can manifest themselves in various ways. Previous studies have found a correlation between sadness, anxiety, and stress, as well as a smartphone addiction. As a result, societal members' commitment and synergy to raising awareness about the necessity of ensuring that smartphone use may primarily benefit users' mental health and psychological well-being may be multiplied severalfold.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to University of Technology MARA (UITM) Malacca for providing generous funding to the researchers through the TEJA GRANT (GDT 2021/2-6) for the year 2021.

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