Exploring the Link Between Smartphone Use, Habit Formation, and Self-Regulation

Abstract

Obsessive and excessive smartphone use can be compared to drug addiction, as it hijacks the brain's dopaminergic pathways in a similar way. Increasing evidence suggests that smartphone usage has become deeply rooted in our daily habits. According to a study from 2020, an average person with internet access spends 2.5 hours each day on social media [1]. Our attachement to smartphones is increasingly more often associated with habit formation and self-control problems. Bernheim and Rangel define addiction as the combination of two key forces: habit formation and self-control problems [2]. Habit formation means that today’s consumption increases tomorrow’s demand. Self-control problems mean that people consume more today than they would have chosen for themselves in advance. These two forces are central to classic addictive goods such as cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. Many also argue that smartphones, video games, and social media apps can be just as harmful and addictive as cigarettes, drugs, or gambling. Study collected in Turkey, researching the link between time spend on digital media and self-regulation, proved that the more time children spent using digital media, the more likely they were to have a lower level of self regulation [3].

To explore these dynamics, a two-phase design was employed. In the first phase, participants answered questions about their smartphone use, including whether they viewed it positively or negatively, and how many hours they believed they spent on their devices daily. A total of 44 participants completed this phase. In the second phase, participants were asked to submit screenshots of their weekly screen time from Apple’s Screen Time application over the past four weeks and the average number of steps they took per day over the past month. A significant drop-out occurred between phases, with only 23 participants completing the second phase. Based on the collected data, we analyzed whether individuals with higher screen time demonstrated poorer inhibition and attention control, and whether their daily number of steps was lower compared to participants with less screen time. Additionally, we compared self-reported screen time to the objectively recorded data and examined which app categories were most frequently used among participants.

References

[1] S. Kemp, “Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media,” We Are Social UK, Jan. 30, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media/

[2] B. D. Bernheim and A. Rangel, “Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes,” American Economic Review, vol. 94, no. 5, pp. 1558–1590, Nov. 2004. doi: 10.1257/0002828043052222.

[3] B. Canaslan and S. Sungur, “Preschool children’s digital media usage and self-regulation skill,” Turkish Journal of Education, pp. 126–142, Apr. 2022. doi: 10.19128/turje.889549.