SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR SMARTPHONE COULD BE A SIGN OF ANXIETY, RESEARCHERS FIND

man using his smartphone

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.

Phil 

Loading...