Mobile Phone Addiction

Introduction

Recent technological developments have turned mobile phones into multifunctional machines for everyday use. The arrival of the smartphone brought convenience to interpersonal conversation, social networking, agenda management, entertainment, shopping, and other personal activities. Probably no other modern device is embedded into our lives as deeply as the mobile phone. However, an alarming consequence of this embedding has begun to emerge. Excessive dependency upon this technology leads to serious psychological and behavioral impacts on mobile phone users. In particular, as mobile phones embrace features and capabilities from laptop computers and telecommunication technologies, such as easy-to-use interfaces, mobility, Internet access, interactive games, and access to social media (e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram), the potential risk of uncontrolled use increases greatly.

In recent years, studies have shed light on the behavioral health issues related to the problematic use of mobile phones. Examining the literature, we can find a group of similar terminologies that fall under the conceptual umbrella of problematic mobile phone use, including mobile phone addiction, mobile phone dependency, and pathological or maladaptive mobile phone use. Since these constructs were developed in similar academic disciplines (e.g., social psychology, communication, and behavioral health) using theoretical models and explanations with shared focuses and elements, these concepts are often interchangeable.

Today, as mobile phones become increasingly sophisticated and multifunctional, adolescents and young users are becoming increasingly dependent, or “addicted,” to this technology, not only for interpersonal communication through voice or text (i.e., short messaging service—SMS) but also as a tool for seeking gratification, searching for information, entertainment, relaxation, passing time, picture and video taking, and expressing status and identity, as well as currently undiscovered applications (Charlton, Panting, & Hannan, 2002; Leung & Wei, 2000). This chapter provides a clear definition of mobile phone addiction and reviews the literature surrounding it, focusing especially on diagnostic criteria, predictors, symptoms, and consequences of this addictive behavior.