What is ‘problematic smartphone use’ and should we worry about it?
Two studies have linked “problematic smartphone use” to higher rates of anxiety, depression and insomnia among teenagers, but the researchers haven’t shown that excessively using such devices directly causes these issues
By Carissa Wong
1 August 2024
Some teens stay on their phones late into the night
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
Two recent studies have linked “problematic smartphone use” among teenagers to increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia. But is it a real problem? And how worried, if at all, should we be?
What is “problematic smartphone use”?
The researchers of both studies defined smartphone use as being “problematic” if it involves someone losing their sense of control over usage, being preoccupied with their device at the expense of meaningful activities and feeling distressed when they can’t use it. Use becomes problematic when it interferes with your work, school or relationships, says Jon Elhai at the University of Toledo in Ohio, who wasn’t involved in either study.
“Problematic smartphone use” isn’t recognised as a diagnosable condition by official health bodies, such as the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the national health services in the UK.
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The two pieces of work found an association with certain conditions. This means additional research is needed to ascertain if smartphone use can cause such health problems, says Nicola Kalk at King’s College London, who was involved in both studies.
What did the two studies find?
In one, Kalk and her colleagues surveyed smartphone use among more than 650 teenagers, aged 16 to 18. They used the “Smartphone Addiction Scale”, which asks whether people experience blurred vision due to their device use or if they feel impatient when not holding it, for example. This leads to a score from 10 to 60, with scores above 30 considered problematic.
Of the participants, 19 per cent met the definition of problematic smartphone use. These individuals were twice as likely to report symptoms of moderate anxiety and nearly three times as likely to report symptoms of moderate depression, compared with their peers.
