Addiction to smartphones has been associated with worsening psychological well-being, self-control issues, and cognitive decline

Most people in developed countries own smartphones. The fear of not having a smartphone is called 'nomophobia' and has become a social problem. Research shows that people with smartphone addiction tend to report feelings of loneliness and a lack of self-regulation.

In addition, people with smartphone addiction are more likely to experience withdrawal symptoms when smartphone use is restricted. Researchers Rosa Fabio, Alessia Stracuzzi, and Riccardo Lo Faro were interested in studying the relationship between smartphone use and behavioral and cognitive shortfall.

Fabio and colleagues recruited 111 participants aged 18 to 65 years. 28% of the participants were college students and 78% were working adults. Each participant's phone details were obtained via the 'SocialStatsApp', which provides information on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp usage.
The Smartphone Addiction Scale – Simplified Version (SAS-SV) was used to determine the risk and severity of smartphone addiction for each participant. Participants also completed a simplified version of the Psychological General Well-Being Index, the fear of missing out scale, and the procrastination Scale items.
This study consisted of three phases, a pre-test phase, an experimental phase, and a post-test phase. During the pre-test phase, Fabio and his colleagues assessed each participant's basic smartphone usage via SocialStatsApp. During the experimental phase, participants were instructed to limit smartphone use to 1 hour per day for 3 consecutive days. In the post-test phase, the participant had free use of the smartphone for 7 consecutive days.

Before and after the experimental phase, participants were assessed for working memory, attention, executive control, auditory reaction time, visual reaction time, ability to inhibit motor responses, and behavioral inhibition.
Researchers found that participants with higher levels of smartphone addiction had higher rates of non-compliance. Participants with higher levels of smartphone addiction spent more time using smartphones in all three phases, even when instructed to limit smartphone use during the experimental phase.

The results also show that participants with high levels of smartphone addiction tend to have a lower working memory, visual reaction time, auditory reaction time, and motor inhibition ability compared to participants with lower levels of smartphone addiction.
There were no significant differences in performance on these measures for each participant in the pretest and post-test periods. Finally, participants with higher levels of smartphone addiction scored lower on psychological indicators of general well-being and higher on the fear of missing out and procrastination scales.

Fabio and colleagues argue that their results show that people with higher smartphone reliance have less self-control. Poor self-regulation can have the following negative effects on people's daily lives. Impaired cognitive tasks and slow reaction times. Researchers also found that people with lower smartphone reliance had better perceptions of overall well-being and quality of life, given they had less procrastination and were less fearful of exclusion.

A limitation of this study was that some of the original participants quit the study when they found that he had to limit smartphone use to one hour a day for three consecutive days. Fabio and his colleagues suggest future research should look at people with higher levels of smartphone addiction and their withdrawal symptoms.

Published in the InternationalJournal of Environmental Research and Public Health