The number of smartphone users is increasing all over the world, which necessarily means an increase in the time of their use. In contrast, there have been only a few studies globally dealing with the issue of addiction to these devices.
Canadian researchers conducted a statistical analysis combining multiple scientific studies of problematic smartphone use, with a focus on young people. The results showed that problematic smartphone use is increasing worldwide.
China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia had the highest rates of smartphone use, while Germany and France had the lowest.
Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, used data on smartphone use between 2014 and 2020 for nearly 34,000 participants from 24 countries around the world.
The United Kingdom ranked 16th out of 24 countries, while the United States ranked 18th.
“We conducted an analysis of problematic smartphone use, with a focus on youth,” the team says – in the research paper published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
“Problematic smartphone use increased worldwide between 2014 and 2020, and we expect this trend to continue,” the researchers continued.
The team looked at 81 previously published studies of teens and young adults’ phone use, all based on the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS).
The Smartphone Addiction Scale is the most widely used measure of smartphone addiction, to ask about smartphone use in relation to daily life disturbances, loss of control and withdrawal symptoms.
Participants’ ages ranged from 15 to 35 years (because they tend to spend more screen time and have the highest rates of smartphone ownership), although the average overall age was 28.8 years, and most participants were female (60%).
The researchers assigned each country a score for problematic smartphone use, ranging from 10 to 60. China ranked highest, with a score of 36 out of 60.
Iran was ranked sixth with a score of 31.52, and Canada (based on a sample taken at McGill University) also has very high rates, as it ranked seventh, followed by Turkey in eighth place, and Egypt with a score of 29.54 out of 60.
The researchers believe that a possible explanation for the differences may be the varying social norms and cultural expectations surrounding the importance of staying connected regularly through smartphones.
The countries with the least problem with smartphone use, Germany and France, are “individual and culturally separate”, so they may not share such standards.
Overall, the results show that problematic smartphone use is increasing worldwide, which may have ‘psychological consequences’.
“Because organizations track objective metrics, such as smartphone ownership and screen time, it is also important to assess the subjective aspects and psychological consequences of this prevalence,” the researchers concluded.
The team hopes that these findings will help researchers and policy makers to identify and predict problematic smartphone use around the world.
The team also recently launched a website for the public to rate their smartphone addiction compared to others around the world.
The site also makes recommendations for people looking to reduce their screen time and explore alternative, and possibly healthier, activities.
