by Ryan Wasson
We use our phones a lot on a daily basis, to the point where some say it’s practically an addiction. If an addiction does, in fact exist, researchers say social anxiety is a main factor that explains such behavior, especially in adolescents. For the sake of being transparent, I left the phrase “phone addiction” in quotes due to the disagreement researchers have over whether or not phone addiction exists. I'll leave that for you to decide for yourself.
I recently read a scholarly article published by researchers: Fanchang Kong, Ningning Lan, Haibo Zhang, Xiaojun Sun, and Yan Zhang. In this study, Kong’s team surveyed over 1200 adolescents to determine mobile phone dependence. According to the article, mobile phone dependence is defined as “an individual’s excessive use of mobile phones that results in physical, psychological, and social impairments because of obsession,” (Kong et al., 2021). They also defined social anxiety as “anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of personal evaluation in real or imagined social situations,” (Kong et al., 2021).
The authors went into the study with four main hypotheses that all included social anxiety to some degree. They found that all four hypotheses were confirmed by their findings. They first found that any level of social anxiety within an individual will positively influence mobile phone dependence (Kong et al., 2021). This makes sense both within the realm of mobile technology and within my personal experiences as well. Much like the researchers’ findings suggest, individuals with higher levels of social anxiety are more likely to find fulfilling connections in an online forum, and mobile technology enhances that experience and opportunity for those individuals (Kong et al., 2021). For me, in times of stress and longing connection, especially during COVID-19, I would turn to content creators on YouTube. I don’t tend to be socially anxious, but I had a similar reason as those that are socially anxious to find a connection online that for a while, I physically couldn’t get in person.
To understand how the next hypothesis was proven, the authors use the term, “self-concept clarity.” It’s a complicated term, but it basically refers to how comfortable an individual is with him/her/themself and their abilities. “For example, individuals with low self-concept clarity tend to feel inferior, be introverted, not fully understand their abilities, and look for alternative satisfaction through social networks,” (Kong et al., 2021). The authors, as a result, found that this concept positively correlated to levels of social anxiety and mobile phone dependence (Kong et al., 2021). I find this interesting, because in my personal experience, regardless of how someone felt about themselves, they always used phones to varying degrees. I feel that this finding may be misleading as phones are used for a variety of reasons which may explain why addictive behavior exist for reasons other than social anxiety.
The third and fourth hypotheses essentially affirmed what I’ve said above, with the only difference being that in the fourth hypothesis that self-esteem was also found to play a role in mobile phone dependence in conjunction with self-concept clarity and social anxiety (Kong et al., 2021). Within the realm of mobile technology and my personal experiences, these findings make sense overall. If one is more socially challenged in general, they are more likely to try and make those connections online and, as a result, become dependent on mobile phones for social interaction among other needs found online. I can say, from what I’ve seen and experienced, that those that tend to be more reserved tend to exhibit this kind of behavior, which is backed up by what the researchers found in their study.
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