Smartphone addiction and its influence on adolescents’ habits

Smartphone addiction is the excessive use of mobile devices for various purposes that keeps an individual engrossed. Adolescents are easily influenced by peers and others, thereby adopting habits that are either beneficial or harmful, thereby affecting their overall well-being. The present study was undertaken to assess smartphone addiction and its influence on adolescents’ habits. The sample for the present study comprised 160 adolescents (80 boys and 80 girls). Simple Random sampling was used to select the study samples. Two standardized tools, namely, the Smartphone Addiction Scale developed by Dr Vijayshri and Dr Masaud Ansari and the Adolescents’ Habits Scale developed by Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Lakshmi and Dr Shruti Narain were used to assess the smartphone addiction and habits among adolescent boys and girls. A survey method was used to collect data. Chi-Square test, Spearman’s Correlation, and T-test were used to analyze the data. The results of the study indicated that there existed smartphone addiction among adolescent boys and girls in the dimensions of forgetfulness, lack of attention and social withdrawal, which was significant at 5% level and in the dimensions of compulsion, depression and anxiety, and disturbed hunger/sleep, it was found to be non-significant. Further, the study showed differences in habits between adolescent boys and girls for the dimension of study habits, which was significant at the 5% level, and for the dimensions of extracurricular habits, technology use, and experimentation behaviour, which were not significant. The results also indicated that there are differences between adolescent boys and girls in smartphone addiction and habits. The findings of the association between smartphone addiction and adolescent habits revealed that there is a positive association significant at 1% level for smartphone addiction, and there is no significant association for adolescent habits. The study highlighted the need for sensitizing the adolescents on the impact of smartphone usage.