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Problematic smartphone use is psychological or behavioral dependence on cell phones.

Some people are using online communication to replace face-to-face conversations. Clinical psychologist Lisa Merlo says, “Some patients pretend to talk on the phone or fiddle with apps to avoid eye contact or other interactions at a party.” Furthermore, a 2011 study showed

  • 70% check their phones in the morning within an hour of getting up;
  • 56% check their phones before going to bed;
  • 48% check their phones over the weekend;
  • 51% constantly check their phones during vacation; and
  • 44% reported they would feel very anxious and irritable if they did not interact with their phones within a week. 

This change in style from face-to-face to text-based conversation has also been observed by American psychologist Sherry Turkle. Her work cites connectivity as an important trigger of social behavior change regarding communication; therefore, this adaptation of communicating is not caused only by the phone itself. Turkle also argues that people now find themselves in a state of “continual co-presence” where digital communication allows the occurrence of two or more realities in the same place and time. 

Subsequently, they also live in a “world of continual partial attention,” the process of paying simultaneous attention to a number of sources of incoming information, but at a superficial level. Bombarded with an abundance of emails, texts and other messages, people not only find themselves divesting people of their human characteristics or individuality, but also increasingly treating them as digital units. This is often referred to as depersonalization. 

According to Elliot Berkman, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, the constant checking of phones is caused by reward learning and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Berkman explains that, “Habits are a product of reinforcement learning, one of our brain’s most ancient and reliable systems,” and therefore people tend to develop habits of completing behaviors that have rewarded them in the past. For many, using a mobile phone has been enjoyable in the past, due to the reinforcing positive feelings when receiving and responding to a notification. 

Berkman also iterates that people often check their smartphones to relieve the social pressure they place upon themselves to never miss out on exciting things. As Berkman says, “Smartphones can be an escape from boredom because they are a window into many worlds other than the one right in front of you, helping us feel included and involved in society.” When people do not check their mobile phones, they are unable to satisfy this “check habit” or suppress the fear of missing out, leading to anxiety and irritability.

Other implications of cell phone use in mental health symptoms were observed by Thomée et al. in Sweden. This study found a relationship between report of mental health and perceived stress of participants’ accessibility, which is defined as the possibility to be disturbed at any moment of day or night.