Reaching for your phone can be bad for your health

It’s time to hang up on compulsively reaching for a smartphone to relax, escape or pass the time. The habit is harming our health and relationships, a new Victorian study has found.

Callum Sadberry, Claudia Talon and Florian Sohier check their phones. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Compulsively reaching for a smartphone to relax, escape or pass the time can damage psychological wellbeing, a new Victorian study has found.

World-first research into the impact of problem smartphone use also found habitual users hanging up on other aspects of life, such as partners, friends, and their work.

Deakin University researchers examined the psychological impact of smartphone use on more than 500 Victorian university students.

The results have prompted researchers to call for those not in control of their phone use to switch off non-essential notifications, set daily phone-use time limits and phone-free periods, and ensure they have real-life interactions daily.

NEW TECH SAVES SMARTPHONE-ADDICT PEDESTRIANS

MOBILE MYKI SYSTEM SWITCHED ON FROM NEXT WEEK

NO NEED FOR THE LATEST SMARTPHONES

Callum Sadberry, Claudia Talon and Florian Sohier check their phones. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Lead researcher Dr Sharon Horwood said there were strong links between low wellbeing and a reliance on phones to relax, escape and pass time.

“We certainly found that those people who use their smartphone too much or in a problematic way have a lot more negative emotions than positive,” Dr Horwood said.

She said problematic smartphone use did not affect general satisfaction with life.

“It is a more immediate, almost a momentary kind of feeling — like: ‘I have just wasted a lot of time’ or ‘This is not good for me, I wish I couldn’t do this’,” she said.

“I think it has a lot to do with feeling that you haven’t spent your time very well, you maybe let other things slide, you may not pay your bills on time, are not sitting down with your partner or your kids, or not socialising with your friends,” Dr Horwood said.

Data from the study, published in journal Computers in Human Behaviour, show high smartphone use is associated with feelings of a lack of control, a reduced sense of purpose in life, and a reduced ability to resist social pressure.

The researchers found a constant stream of news and entertainment, which is not necessarily positive, might lead to “techno-exhaustion”.

Using phones to make calls and send text messages had a positive impact on wellbeing, as opposed to the negative impact of looking at what others were doing on social media.

The researchers also found older participants had lower levels of general and problematic smartphone use, and better psychological wellbeing.

More work must be done to determine whether problematic smart phone use could be considered a behavioural addiction similar to gambling. But Dr Horwood said it could have a huge impact on users’ ability to do their job or maintain relationships.

“Generally, people who use phones in a problematic way tend to feel they have less control over life and less quality of life. They are feeling like they are not engaged in their life, not excited or energised, feeling like their life has become a bit stagnant,” she said.

“That might be a result of spending more and more time online and not managing day-to-day things. Perhaps they are not meeting their obligations at work; maybe their relationship with their romantic partner is becoming strained.”

[e-mail]