Are You Addicted to Your Cell-Phone?

Addiction is virtually the same as dependence. And many people are dependent on their cell-phones. But a study presented at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America annual meeting has tried to quantify the degree of addiction, and abuse, in cell-phone users with anxiety. ( The term addiction is often equated with abuse; however, addiction and abuse are not the same. Abuse usually involves another person or a live thing; occasionally, as here, it can involve a dead thing.)

The University of Florida researchers enrolled 183 people, aged 18 to 75, in their study. The subjects had owned a cell-phone for an average of 7 years; about 1/3 of them were students. Cell-phone addiction was measured using a questionnaire. The 38 items covering dependency included such questions as: “I have a hard time relaxing if my cell-phone signal does not have good signal strength.” “I think I might spend too much time on my cell-phone.” “I check to make sure my cell-phone is on if I haven’t recently received a call.” Cell-phone abuse results were not specifically reported. However, examples of symptoms of abuse were given, i.e. experiencing work, school, relationship, or financial problems due to cell-phone use.

Anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the International Personality Item Pool anxiety subscales. While the range of dependency scores covered a large range among the participants, higher anxiety scores were associated with increased cell-phone dependency and abuse scores.

These findings are not especially surprising. Cell-phones are tools for making it easier to stay in touch with other people. This is an important factor for anxious people, and some with particular forms of anxiety may find them particularly useful – e.g. the obsessive-compulsive subject can use the phone to check things, those with a social phobia can avoid face-to-face meetings by using the phone . . . The next study will doubtless involve the effects of cell-phone deprivation.