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"Mobile Phone Addiction: Symptoms, Impacts and Causes-A Review."

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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation

“Mobile Phone Addiction: Symptoms, Impacts and Causes - A Review.”

Kiran S. Sanjana JS. Prof. Reddy Naik J.

Department of Industrial Engineering & Department of Industrial Engineering & Department of Industrial Engineering &
Management Management Management
BMS College of Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, BMS College of Engineering,
Bengaluru, India Bengaluru, India Bengaluru, India

Abstract - technologies provides a rich selection of functions and

8
Mobile phones are requisites for many young adults, improved portability that increases the prevalence of
but such devices may negatively affect their mental mobile phone use, especially among young people.4
health and well-being. Rapid development in mobile

phone technologies provides a rich selection of
features and improved portability that increases the
prevalence of mobile phone use, especially among
young adults. They often develop attachment toward
mobile phones, seeking the proximity of mobile
phones and experiencing distress on separation 1. A
-2
multitude of studies have documented that mobile
phone addiction would bring about negative impacts
on physical and mental health as well as social
adaption such as academic problems, interpersonal
problems, health issues, depression, anxiety, and even
suicidal ideation2. In India alone, it is estimated that
S
01
Mobile phones, especially smart phones, are being
increasingly used over recent years in both developed
and developing countries .Despite offering great
convenience, mobile phones can exert negative
influences, induce extreme emotional changes and even
cause serious physiological reactions, giving rise to the
phenomenon popularly known as “mobile phone
addiction” 5.
Mobile phone is considered a double-edged sword for
young adults. On one hand, utilization of mobile phone
facilitates young people to increase their social

about 530 million smart phone users will be active by communication frequency, improve their relationships
the end of 2018 3. The worldwide mobile phone and make new friends. On the other hand, improper use
addiction related issues are growing at an alarming of mobile phone influences young people negatively.
B

pace. Such issues need immediate addressing. In this Specifically, improper mobile phone use can reduce
paper, various symptoms, impacts and causes of individual’s concentration and the amount of
mobile phone addiction is summarized. Various information received during a typical class, block face-
IV

journals dealing with similar issues are reviewed in to-face communication, and even lead to mental or
this paper. physical stress. It is estimated that prevalence of mobile
phone addicts ranges from 0% to 38% of mobile phone
users across cultures and societies, suggesting at least
Keywords- Mobile Phone Addiction, depression, stress, 62% of mobile phone users are with possible
IC

health problems, social network.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Mobile phone addiction (MPA), a widely prevalent but
unspoken issue, is silently creeping into the youth of
many countries. Mobile phones are widely hailed for
their technological benefit to mankind, the ease it creates
in doing daily chores, and most of all, bridging of
information as well as communication gaps among
people. Rapid development of mobile phone
addiction.5A plethora of research and study to
understand the effects of MPA on young adults has been
done. For instance the research done by BMC assesses
some of the self-perceived effect of increasing mobile
phone usage on the well-being of college going students.
Symptoms and the various common health effects was
studied.6
Another research paper “Mobile phone to youngsters:
necessity or addiction” studied about the addictive
behaviors of mobile phone users. The purpose of similar

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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation

studies is to identify the prevalence of MPA in young

people, and the understanding of its effects on one’s 2.1 FUNCTIONS OF A MOBILE PHONE
daily life.
Mobile phones comprise of various features and
functions to enable users to experience ease in doing
2.0 MOBILE PHONE ADDICTION
desired tasks and activities. Field observations and a
survey were conducted to gauge the level of engagement
Constant dependency on one’s mobile phone, to cater to
that Elon University students have towards their devices
psychological needs and extraneous necessities, causing
and with each other in face-to-face situations. For this
a constant attachment to ones gadget, leading to loss of
study, the author tried to capture a sample that is an
productivity and developing chronic side effects such as
accurate representation of the individuals affected by cell
depression, loneliness, lack of social behavior, loss of
phone addiction. A survey of Elon University students
sound sleep and various health issues: is termed as MPA.
between the ages of 18 and 22 was conducted. There
Mobile phones are hailed as one of the greatest
were 65 responses to survey questions that were
inventions of the 20th century. But with technological
designed to gauge cell phone habits, primary uses of cell
advances, human dependency increased and led to an
phones, and feelings and emotions individuals possess

8
irreplaceable position of a phone in our daily life. MPA
without their cell phone9. According to their survey,
is a behavioral form of addiction just like any other, but
when asked about the primary usage of their cell phone,
different from substance addiction.

01
Texting was mentioned by 83.1 % as most used feature,
According to a report by New York Times (2017) 7, both
followed by calling at 10.8% and Social apps at 6.1%.
adults and teens check their mobile phones 150 times a
day, that is every 6 minutes and send an average of 110
Another journal study investigated indicators of smart
texts per day. A recent Huffington post article reported
phone use, smart phone addiction, and their associations
the following statistics 8:
with demographic and health behavior-related variables
-2 in young people by collecting sample data of 1,519
 92 percent of teens go online daily, and
students from 127 Swiss vocational school classes.10
24 percent say they are online “almost
constantly.”
 76 percent of teens use social media (81
percent of older teens, 68 percent of teens
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ages 13 and 14).

 71 percent of teens use Facebook, 52
percent use Instagram, 41 percent use
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Snap chat, 33 percent use Twitter. Table 1: Average hours of mobile phone usage per day
 77 percent of parents say their teens get
distracted by their devices and don’t pay
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attention when they’re together.

 59 percent of parents say they feel their
teen is addicted to their mobile device.
 50 percent of teens say they feel
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addicted to their mobile phone.

These statistics show the urgent need to understand and

address MPA related issues before it reaches a stage of
Digital Detox.

The various functions of a mobile phone, the

symptoms/addictive behaviors, and the impacts, causes
and treatments of MPA are discussed in this paper.

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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation

 Delay in arrival to committed tasks, due to

prolonged usage of phone in unnecessary
situations.
 Productivity and performance are hindered and
retarded due to usage of a phone.
 Prefer social and personal connect using a phone
as a medium thus eliminating real world contact.
 Lack of sound sleep due to prolonged phone
usage.
 Seeking to a mobile phone as a source of
comfort during times of emotional distress and
loneliness.
 Failure to abstain from mobile usage even by

8
constant attempts.
 Loss of time sense due to usage.
 Constant need to check notifications, text

01
messages etc.
 Ignoring face to face conversations and looking
into digital displays when conversing to
someone.
-2  Feeling nervous, moody and anxious when
abstained from usage.
On analyzing the above data, people spend around 2-  Constant urge to use mobile phone when
3hrs on social networking feature of a smart phone, driving, riding, crossing road etc.
which is the maximum duration of use on a daily basis,
 Respond to texts, calls even if the environment
followed by music, phone calls and texting10. This
accounts to 80% of all the time spent on usage. If this is unfavorable to receive/text a reply.
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can be reduced, it will have an optimal effect on the

overall addiction level. According to the researches, if anyone possess the
following traits, they can be considered to be addicted to
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Mobile Phones in some way or another.

2.2 SYMPTOMS OF MPA
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Overuse of mobile phone leads to behavioral addiction

(MPA). This reflects in the everyday behavioral pattern 2.3 IMPACTS
of the patients. The various mobile phone addiction
symptoms are summarized from various journal papers MPA has a huge impact on the overall behavior of an
pertaining to the aforesaid issue.
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individual. These impacts are in correlation to the

symptoms and causes. A research in an urban college, in
They are 11: Hydrabad6 was done for two months (July and August,
2012), with 459 respondents in total of which 75%
 Increased longing to use one’s mobile phone students were under 20 years of age. The male to female
when abstained from its usage. ratio was 1:1, with 63.8% of them belonging to an urban
 Constant thoughts of using a mobile phone. background and the rest were from rural areas. The
 Aggressive repulsive behavior towards survey conducted showed that 96.1% of students had a
switching off the phone when constrained to. mobile phone and on an average 88.2 % of them spent
about half an hour on their mobile phones daily.

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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation

Their survey showed the following results:  Male infertility due to RF radiation damages
retarding spermatogenesis in the male
reporductive system.12.
 Brain related problems such as tumors, seizures
due to harmful radiation13.
 Obesity.
 Distraction.

2.4 REASONS AND CAUSES

Addiction as a whole is caused by various psychological

reasons that uncontrollably, control the dependency of a
person to various needs. One such addiction is MPA.
There are a number of reasons that cause MPA. With

8
reference to few journals, some of the main reasons are
listed below:
 Constant urge to explore and experience new

01
things, leading to excessive use of newer
technologies.
 Seek validation and agreement on a social
platform such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.
-2  To develop new connections/friendship with
people on social platforms: One of the main
reasons for youngsters to seek to social
networking sites is the hope to explore and
expand their friends circle. Hence this tends to
form into an addiction.
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 Due to the enhancement in technology, our

mobile phones can do much more than they ever
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did. From texting to keeping ones work related

From the above survey, it comes to light that alarming files; safe and secure, smartphones are tending
percentage of the student community in professional to become inevitable in our daily lives. Hence
IV

colleges, in urban settings,in our country(India), do they tend to become ones extended self.
suffer from symptoms of both mental and physical
 The way smartphone applications are designed,
nature due to overuse of mobile devices.
Some more serious long term issues that require has a strong effect on human brain. They are
immediate attention are: designed to attract users, and increase the
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 Emotional and mental stress. application outreach. This is achieved by various

 Depression. marketing and designing techniques14. This
 Lonliness. causes a huge attachment to one’s phone.
 Social effects such as neglecting face to face  False contentment; a feeling of being happy and
conversations, ruining relationship quality. content with the joy derived from electronic
 Social anxiety. means and avoiding real contact with people.
 Negative emotions.  Seeking rewards as such as points in games,
likes on one’s social profile etc. leads to false
sense of reward, and causes continual
requirement to achieve such rewards.

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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation
 Lack of stricter laws regarding availability of
mobile phones to teenagers.
 Lack of strict checks by parents on the excessive
usage of phones by their children, and lack of
proper guidance.
2.5 TREATMENT
On detailed analysis of few journal papers, below are
somesatisfactory remedies to combat MPA.
 Create unplugged zone: disconnect all devices,
switch off Wi-Fi and keep them away or out of
reach.
 Delete unnecessary applications and the ones
that tend to be addictive.

Schedule a time slot to limit your usage to
within this span.
 Stop replacing phones as means of
entertainment.
 Develop productive habits to combat loneliness.
 Seek advice, guidance and help in difficult
-2
situations.
 Explore new avenues in life; seek physical
presence of friends and family.
 Develop new working hours and accommodate
various tasks strategically to prevent long hours
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of loneliness that may lead to MPA.
 Always prefer tasks that do not require the use
B
of a mobile phone in any form as such, even if it
may be difficult.
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3.0 DISCUSSION
Addiction to technology based devices such as mobiles
phones are growing at a rapid pace, especially among
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youngsters. This has various implications on the overall
behavior of the individual. The journals referred to study
the effect of MPA, summarized various symptoms,
reasons, impacts and treatment.
Various research studies were conducted on young
people between theage group 14-30. The primary effect
of mobile phone addiction was found to be headache and
anger management issues. But they failed to throw light
on more serious and dangerous issues such as
Depression and Anxiety.
ISBN : 978-16-35357-55-4 © 2018 DSCE, Department of IEM .
Personal use is permitted. all rights reserved by the author, republication/redistribution requires author permission.
Table 4: Estimation of risk proportion of users
On analyzing the duration and event of usage of mobile
phones, it was found that the phone was maximum used
for social networking, music, and phone calls. The
primary use of a cell phone is to communicate through
phone calls. But the advent of technology has introduced
a plethora of features and functions that mentally induce
addictive effect on the human brain, leading to MPA.
8
These features may be a boon, but with inappropriate
limit of usage, they turn out to be a bane.
01
The researches done do not aim to identify the effects of
individual applications on the level of addiction. It also
fails to weigh the effect of personal commitments (i.e.
need to keep constant check on committed work/family)
that lead to excessive usage of a mobile phone, leading
to addiction.
The researches do not highlight the realistic effect of
MPA on one’s Daily Productivity. The causes of
addiction are fairly general and vary from person to
person. The impacts are also person dependent. The
study identified that 15.4% of users are at a huge risk of
MPA, and 5.1% are already addicted.17. These numbers
vary largely based on the region of study and age group
and time of study.
The authors of this review paper have amalgamated few
causes, impacts and reasons collectively from various
journals reviewed. The key importance of this review
study is to provide the overlay of the process of MPA,
and suggest remedies by identifying appropriate
symptoms. This review study also throws light onto the
urgent need by Government and Educational institutions
to impose stricter laws governing the use of mobile
phones by young adults, thus preventing them from a
prospective addictive scenario, in the near future. The
responsibility of parents and well-wishers on the well -
being of their wards, is highly important to prevent MPA
by constant check and corrective measure. On the whole,
technology is the edge of a two-sided sword, fancied
well; it will lead humanity to greater heights else it will
spell disaster. The responsibility of individuals on
themselves is huge, and being responsible is the first step
to prevent addiction. One must remember MPA is a slow
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 International Conference on Trends in Industrial & Value Engineering, Business and Social Innovation

but dangerous disease that’s creeping into our daily
lives. Everyone associated with a victim are responsible
to extend support to them, to combat addiction.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Mobile Phone addiction is a highly secretive disease
that’s affecting many phone users these days. The
purpose of a phone since its invention has changed a lot
and the now cellular devices that we call smart phones
are widely hailed as one of the best inventions of this
century17. But as we incline towards introducing
technology into every activity of our life, we become
more and more dependent. This dependency leads to
adults: the mediating role of interpersonal problems”, ©
2015 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.
[6] Jayanti p Acharya, Indranil Acharya and Divyavijay
(2013), a study on some of the common health effects of
cell-phones amongst college students, community
medicine & health education.vol-3
[7]https://www.elephantjournal.com/2017/08/cellphone-
addiction-in-teens-is-real-scary- statistics-some-helpful-
advice/
[8]tps://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-johnson/teens-
addicted-to-social-_b_9696378.html
[9] Tessa Jones*, “students’ cell phone addiction and
their opinions”, strategic communications elon
university, vol 5, spring 2014.
[10] Severin Haug1*, Raquel paz castro1, “smartphone
use and smartphone addiction among young people in

8
addiction. Once MPA has taken over the psychological
behavior of a victim, immense effort is needed to Switzerland”, journal of behavioral addictions 4(4), pp.
rehabilitate the person. Every technology has a down 299–307 (2015) ,doi: 10.1556/2006.4.2015.037

side and as mankind, we need to learn to adapt and deal
with these issues more effectively and efficiently. The
purpose of this study was to compare few journals and
analyze the content. By this study, the authors threw
light on some drawbacks of these papers. The gap
between the research subjects and the current subjects of
research were understood. The need for changing
-2
approaches to address MPA is highly commendable.
The issue of addiction can be combated only through the
cooperation of various bodies of people such as
educational institutions, Government, Workplace etc.
The rightful way to maintain a synergic balance between
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01
[11] Joseâ de-sola1, Hernaân, Fernando rodrõâguez de
fonseca1,3*, gabriel rubio4*,(2017), “prevalence of
problematic cell phone use in an adult population in
spain as assessed by he mobile phone problem use scale
(mppus)”&ishfaq ahmed1*, tehminafiaz qazi2 and
khadijaaijaz perji2,(2011), “mobile phone to youngsters:
necessity or addiction”, doi: 10.5897/ajbm11.626 issn
1993-8233©2011 academic journals.
[12]https://www.cancer.gov/aboutcancer/causespreventi
on/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet
[13]https://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/10/28/10ingredients
-concoct-subconsciously-addictive-mobile-app

technology and its negative effects is to understand its [14] http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-27/smartphone-

harmfulness, and develop self-control and not give in to is-most-important-consumer-invention-of-21st-century-so-
nugatory temptations. far/
B

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