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Are you reading this on your smartphone<\/a> in between texting your group chat, scanning headlines, responding to your boss on Slack, doing Wordle, and checking the status of your Instagram<\/a> post to ease your worry about how it\u2019s being received\u2014all before tucking the phone into your pocket only to reflexively tap it to make sure it\u2019s still there?\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019re certainly not alone. But you also may have a problematic relationship with your phone<\/a>\u2014something that would be understandable, say experts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard not to resist picking it up and swiping it open,\u201d Gloria Mark, Chancellor\u2019s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, who studies the impact of digital media on people\u2019s lives, tells Fortune.<\/em> \u201cThere\u2019s often not a clear reason for doing it. It\u2019s a habit.\u201d<\/p>\n But sometimes, that habit can cross over into problematic territory.<\/p>\n Researchers have, over the years, come up with ways of measuring what\u2019s been referred to as\u00a0 smartphone addiction\u2014including the 2013 Smartphone Addiction Scale<\/a> (SAS), in part based on the earlier Internet Addiction Test<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, University of Toronto researchers used the SAS to conduct the largest ever study of smartphone addiction<\/a>\u2014surveying over 50,000 participants ages 18 to 90 in 195 countries and finding that women and younger people were most prone to the addiction, especially in Southeast Asian countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople try to avoid negative emotions by using their phone,\u201d lead researcher Jay Olson said in a press release<\/a> about the findings. \u201cKind of like an adult pacifier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In this context, \u201caddiction\u201d is a word that many technology researchers, including Mark, tend to stay away from.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would be careful with using the word addiction,\u201d Mark, author of the new Attention Span,<\/em><\/a> says. \u201cAddiction happens when it really interferes with a person\u2019s life, like they can\u2019t work anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers in Barcelona questioned this language in a 2018 study<\/a>, concluding that, \u201cA behavior may have a similar presentation as addiction in terms of excessive use, impulse control problems, and negative consequences, but that does not mean that it should be considered an addiction,\u201d and instead suggested referring to \u201cproblematic use.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, Larry Rosen, Professor Emeritus of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and an expert in the psychology of technology, tells Fortune<\/em> that \u201cwhen you use that term, people start to think that everything is classified as an addiction,\u201d which this is not (yet)\u2014at least according to the psychiatric diagnosis bible, the DSM-5<\/a>. There, the potential diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder<\/a> (IGD) appears in the appendix and is the closest example.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at it in a sort of simplistic way of how screens affect people in either one of two directions\u2014either a direction of needing to do more, or an addiction direction,\u201d Rosen tells Fortune<\/em> about how he sees problematic smartphone use. \u201cOr, what I would call an obsession direction, which is also biochemically based in the brain, but with different chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n In the addiction-like situation, he says, you\u2019re chasing a high from dopamine and serotonin, which are \u201cthe chemicals that you keep needing more of to feel just as good,\u201d such as by wanting to repeatedly play a game on your phone. Another problem, though, which Rosen believes is \u201cmore prevalent,\u201d is the anxiety-based obsession\u2014when you post something on TikTok, for example, and then worry about how people are reacting to it, prompting an anxiety reaction with a rush of cortisol.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey can work in conjunction,\u201d he says of the addiction-obsession. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I would call the lethal case. That\u2019s the most difficult one, because that\u2019s when part of your biochemistry is saying, \u2018You have to get back on and check!\u2019 and the other part of your biochemistry is saying, \u2018But I need more and more and more of these things to feel good enough to go check.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNomophobia is \u2018No Mobile Phone Phobia\u2019\u2014it\u2019s a funky term that basically means what you do when you don\u2019t have your phone: You panic,\u201d says Rosen. \u201cAnd it also then includes things like phantom pocket vibrations, because, again, that\u2019s kind of a panic, anxiety-based reaction.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n That nuance is why Rosen argues that addiction is not quite the right word\u2014and why the panic you experience when you\u2019re away from your phone is not the same as the panic a drug addict feels when unable to get a fix.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would argue that addicts, yes, if they can\u2019t get the drugs, they do get anxious, they need the drugs. But the reason that they need the drugs is because they need more and more to feel the same high,\u201d he explains, whereas not having your phone causes anxiety because you think you\u2019re missing out on something.<\/p>\n \u201cIt should be AOMO, anxiety about missing out. That is really an anxiety-based disorder,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like we have an obsessive-compulsive disorder. It\u2019s the reason that people carry their phone in their pocket and continually tap their pocket all day long to make sure it\u2019s still there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That all depends on how you\u2019re measuring it.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using the IGD\u2019s guidelines as they appear<\/a> in the DSM-5, you\u2019ll be looking for symptoms that include preoccupation, unpleasant feelings when your phone is taken away, a buildup of tolerance (needing more and more for the same amount of pleasure), the inability to control your usage, abandonment of other activities, deception about how much you use the device, and negative consequences, such as losing a job or relationship over the issue.<\/p>\n The Smartphone Addiction Scale<\/a>, meanwhile, presents 11 statements for self-evaluation\u2014including \u201cI am addicted to my smartphone,\u201d \u201cI have a hard time concentrating in class\u2026or while working due to smartphone use,\u201d \u201cI have my smartphone on my mind even when not using it\u201d\u2014and asks you to rate each on a scale of 1 to 6, from \u201cstrongly disagree\u201d to \u201cstrongly agree.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the 2016 proposed diagnostic criteria<\/a> for smartphone addiction, created by a group of psychiatrists. That\u2019s based on how you rate on 16 criteria, including preoccupation with smartphone use, recurrent failure to resist smartphone use, a marked increase in tolerance, withdrawal experienced as anxiety or irritability, smartphone use for longer than intended, and loss of previous interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marks has a simpler measuring stick: \u201cIt becomes a problem when people can\u2019t do the things they\u2019re supposed to be doing\u2014when you can\u2019t conduct your work and when \u2026 you can\u2019t even have a conversation with another person without the phone interfering,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd also when people just can\u2019t stop these behaviors,\u201d despite the problems they cause.<\/p>\n Start by simply raising your self-awareness, suggests Rosen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGo look at screen time. Chart it out\u2014put it on a spreadsheet, write it on a piece of paper. Keep track, so you\u2019re aware of how much time you\u2019re actually spending and where you\u2019re spending it. Look at where you tap first, when you open up your phone, how many times you open up your phone. Just be aware.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Next, try to take what Rosen calls \u201ctech breaks,\u201d meaning to take breaks from what you should be focusing on\u2014work, family\u2014to quickly look at whatever you want on your phone.<\/p>\n \u201cStart timing yourself,\u201d he says. \u201cLook at whatever you want and set your phone to time it for one minute. Once you\u2019ve looked at everything that you want, close anything that you don\u2019t need for your work\u2014flick it away.\u201d Then set your timer for 15 minutes, which will help your brain \u201cto not leak cortisol,\u201d because you know you\u2019ll be able to get to it soon, and allow yourself another minute of browsing.<\/p>\n Keep doing this, gradually increasing to 30 minutes and then up from there.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust keep doing this, until the alarm goes off and you say to yourself, \u2018Wait, wait, wait, I want to finish this paragraph, whatever I\u2019m doing,\u201d until, hopefully, you will be able to become engrossed enough to not need or want to keep going to the phone. Just be sure to tell people you\u2019re practicing tech breaks, Rosen suggests, so people don\u2019t get annoyed if you don\u2019t respond to texts or calls instantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSay, \u2018I will call you during my next tech break,\u201d he says, as integrating the words \u201ctech break\u201d into your language will help you stick to the plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark suggests simply training yourself to always leave your phone in another room, maybe putting it in a drawer, especially when you have work to do.<\/p>\n \u201cMake it very hard to access the phone,\u201d she says. \u201cAt first, people might jump up and run into the other room to check, but after a while, you know, you\u2019ll slowly become used to the idea of not having your phone next to you. Do that as a practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\nBut is it really a smartphone \u201caddiction\u201d?<\/h2>\n
And there\u2019s what\u2019s been dubbed \u201cnomophobia\u201d<\/h2>\n
How do you know if you have a smartphone problem?<\/h2>\n
How to deal with a smartphone problem<\/h2>\n