Addiction in the digital era
Smartphones are the first item many people reach for upon waking – before coffee, their toothbrush or even their partner! Multiple studies have identified the addictive qualities of the smartphone and at the same time another aspect has emerged – the positive rewards smartphone distractibility provides.
An important question facing psychologists and other mental health professionals today is whether increased smartphone usage and this distraction-addiction can create detrimental consequences to emotional and mental health.
Distraction-addiction in this article is operationalised as anything that emanates from the compliance to repetitive distractions that ultimately elevate to the level of a compulsion. Social scientists have defined compulsion as one’s irresistible need to engage in some behaviour, even when they know the consequences can be bad (Heather, 2017).
Smartphone manufacturers have also identified distraction, that leads people away from their smartphones, as a problem and are starting to include features as part of the default applications to remind users of their usage patterns with the intention to pull users away from other unintended distractions and the growing concerns about the impact of mindless smartphone usage (Berthon & Pitt, 2019).
Shapiro and Carlson (2017) proposed that the three interconnected components of mindfulness are attention, intention and attitude. In today’s digital era there are significant challenges to maintain the balance of the three components and be digitally mindful. An absence of mindfulness in relation to digital interactions could result in distraction.
Oraison et al. (2020) used a mixed-methods approach to investigate how smartphone addiction and distraction impacted on emotional states. The study included 164 participants aged between 18 and 70 years who completed a series of questionnaires measuring the level of distraction stemming from smartphone use, a measure of depression, anxiety and stress, along with measures of smartphone addiction. Participants also took part in a semi-structured interview.
Survey and qualitative findings
Addiction and distraction were found to be highly correlated and together significantly predicted hours of use as well as increased depression, anxiety and stress. The results indicated a complex relationship between smartphone use, distraction and addiction. Some of the complexities were also evident in the data provided in the qualitative responses as participants provided detailed reports of the reasons for their smartphone usage as well as the consequences of this use.
1. Factors that influenced smartphone usage for participants including convenience, time of day and other daily activities impacting on smartphone use.
2. Short-term effects associated with phone use such as instant gratification, using smartphones to avoid or delay situations, communication and connectedness, and distraction.
3. Long-term effects associated with phone use including dependence, being contactable at any time or place, temptation to use smartphones and a conscious effort needed to refrain from use, and smartphones interfering with daily activities.
The smartphone paradox
Smartphones offer their users multiple contradictory features and qualities. Texting is faster, easier and cheaper to use than many means of communication, but at times extremely inappropriate (i.e., while driving). While researching on the net we can be continually bombarded by distractions that take us away from our search and onto something totally unrelated (but potentially interesting) but leading to considerable time being sidetracked. We take photographs of people or places with ease and potentially could miss out on the experience of relating to those people or places. Overall our smartphones offer unlimited gratification with the prospects of distraction and/or addiction.
The price of rampant and uncontrolled technological advancement may be as much about loss as it is about gains. Smartphone distraction-addiction is a glaring example of the unleashed power and influence of our new and unfettered reality. These realities necessitate the need for solutions.
Advocating for a ‘digital mindfulness’ approach may be one solution and seems appropriate to manage the detrimental effects while supporting the gratifying advances technology can offer. In this way one can determine and manage their smartphone use in the context of the meaning, satisfaction and emotional engagement that derives from smartphone use in the context of their daily routines and relationships. Given the positive versus negative potential impacts of smartphone usage, the ability to apply digital mindfulness appears to have value in that the educated user gains more control through reflective insight.
The full article: doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12281