Do you spend too much time on your smartphone? According to an American study, published in Computers in Human Behaviour, this could be linked to a desire to shut out reality and escape certain unpleasant experiences and feelings.
The researchers studied students’ responses to a questionnaire about cell phone use and their feelings. They then asked 72 students to spend five minutes writing about a personal flaw or weakness that made them feel uncomfortable, placing them in an anxiety-inducing situation. The participants then had to wait for 10 minutes while the writings were supposedly reviewed.
During the test, a third of participants had no access to their smartphone or any other device, another third had access to their smartphone, and a final group had access to a basic video game.
The study found that the group allowed access to their smartphone had the lowest anxiety levels. The participants were 64% more likely not to experience anxiety than those with access to no device.
Of the participants allowed cellphone access who felt very anxious during the test, 82% used their mobile throughout the experiment, compared to 50% of anxious participants in the video game group.
Conversely, 50% of non-stressed participants reached for their cellphone compared with 25% of the video game group.
Smartphones can serve as “security blankets” which reassure and comfort anxious users.
PhilÂ