Keywords

1 Introduction

For centuries, human artifacts of cultural mediation evolved from clubs to hammers to machines of the industrial age [1] During the past few decades, we observed the emergence in development of information technology and electronic tools. However, technology has never become so indistinguishably interwoven within the development of human consciousness until recently. In the last two decades the use of information technology—particularly, the use of smartphones in the recent years has been observed to alter a range of psychosocial conditions. New smartphone applications (apps) continue to arrive on the market, offering a variety of useful tools for staying connected, exploring social media, doing business, playing games, and listening or watching audio/videos. As such, the intertwining nature of technology is having a profound effect on our interpersonal relationships and activities in the world—particularly among the college-age population [2].

Along with the television penetration rate (98%), from 1950 to 2000, by 2000 there was an 80% penetration of computers and cell phones in US—and by 2003, computers had penetrated 75% of US homes with children, with 63% having access to the Internet [3]. By 2010, Americans spent 1.3 trillion hours on seeking for information, an average of over 12 h per day. [4] This includes the consumption of over 10,845 trillion words translating to 100,500 words per person daily, with the majority of the time being spent seeking information on the Internet [5]. Consequently, the statistics illustrate an extreme change in the way humans interact with and process information.

The exponential use of smartphones in 2007, showed the next stage in excessive and dependent use of technology. Currently, 90% of North Americans possess mobile phones, where about 70% of those are smartphones [6]. As part of everyday life, smartphones provide direct access to people through voice calls, text messages, and support social interaction with a range of networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. As a psychological tool extending the way we distribute information and reinforce personal relationships [7], researchers have defined the smartphone as a type of “affective technology,” [8, 9]—linking it to the “emotional” human condition [10, 11] and the means to connect to those around us.

Currently, 98% of college students have a mobile phone, and evidence suggest that daily usage exceeds four hours per day—occurring in a diversity of settings [12, 13]. For example, researchers have demonstrated that texting among college students is so frequent (due to its convenience, speed, and facelessness), that participants exhibited a significant degree of disinhibition and inattention to their immediate social environment or interpersonal relationship [14]. Consequently, considering the diverse use and impact that smartphones have on contemporary human life, particularly young adults, it is expected that an array of behaviors might be observed among this cohort.

In this paper, we introduce our findings of a pilot study on the impact of smartphones on the psychosocial wellness of college students. As such, we measured the impact of smartphone use on emotion and mood, dependency, addiction, purpose of life, social communications, and self-consciousness of college students.

2 Excessive Use and Psychosocial Development

With the recent increase in smartphone adoption [15] and dependence [16] studies continue to identify related neuro-psychological and neuro-social effects of using smartphones. A range of psychiatric disorders leading to abnormal or anti-socio- psychology including: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), weakening of cognitive focus and shallower thinking skills, reduction of creativity and problem solving skills, a lowered ability to filter out extraneous information, adverse effects upon psychosocial development, hyperactivity and behavioral problems, feelings of isolation, depression, anxiety and restlessness, and an inability to form meaningful and long-lasting relationships, are now confirmed to be correlated with excessive use of smartphones [17].

Research suggests that the brain’s contact with external neurological disruptions can transform the course of its development, causing disastrous results, specifically for children and young adults [18, 19]. Recent studies confirm psychiatric disorders in children are correlated with excessive use of and addiction to computer games, as well as the general use of the Internet [20]. Negative outcomes for young adults elicits from an overuse of smartphones, such as sleep deprivation and obesity [21]. Additionally, studies convey excessive use of gaming technologies led to a form of neural rewiring [22], particularly, structural deviations due to exposure to divergent sensory experiences in ways that weaken cognitive focus, resulting in shallower thinking skills. Studies have also shown that the extreme use of the Internet instigated potential adverse effects upon the psychosocial development of adolescents [23]. Such affects have been adversely associated with notable behavioral and social maladjustment, with other outcomes showing hyperactivity and conduct problems. Additional studies show that the forming of meaningful relationships via social media was difficult to establish compared to those in the real world [24]. Online activity did not create lasting friendships, but rather resulted in long-lasting non-casual social connections, while at the same time created weakening real-world relationships.

In the context of Internet use, researchers also characterized extreme or “excessive use” as “poorly controlled preoccupations, urges, or behaviors regarding computer use and Internet access that lead to impairment or distress” (p. 117) [25]. Related to these effects are neural changes in the brain, particularly, structural deviations due to exposure to divergent sensory experiences—particularly on children and adolescents [26]. More significant are recent studies using MRI technology that show the effects of brain activation patterns on middle age adults during Internet searching. These findings indicate that online searching appears much more stimulating than reading from traditional substrates—demonstrating that sensory-rich experiences increase activity of the visual cortices [27]. This suggests that research participants have a significant sensory-rich experience, while searching online that increases activity in the visual brain regions. Outcomes have suggested the potential for negative brain and behavioral effects, including impaired attention and addiction. All in all, these studies provide support for the continued neural alternation that is impacting individuals on many levels, which is most strenuous.

Finally, the use of smartphones is a crucial part of our daily living, however, studies show that the younger population, especially college students, have been using smartphones excessively more than other populations [28,29,30]. Such use includes a variety of different activities such as texting, emailing, and engaging social media networks [31]. Such findings suggest that the increased use of interactive media, may cause feelings of isolation, depression, anxiety and restlessness—including feeling of anxiety when people are separated from their smartphones [32].

3 Flow Theory and Consciousness

Researchers argue that the experience of “flow” is an emotional condition related to excessive behavior [33]. In such a state, an emotional bond is formed between the psychological and chemical mechanisms of the brain, which occurs through the repeated experience of flow [34, 35]. For example, smartphone users may produce the same self-centric experiences as online gamers—in which their “awareness” of the surroundings disappear from consciousness [36]. Strikingly, Csikszentmihalyi observed that flow was correlated to the loss of self-consciousness. Here, consciousness is a state of psychological immersion often accompanied by positive emotions, where time disappears and the sense of self is lost [37].

Related to “intrinsic motivation”, Csikszentmihalyi states that “flow” is a technical term connected to mood and consciousness, a concept related to daily activates and their direct experiences of positive feelings [38, 39]. Through studies that observed technological usage in the 1990s, flow theory was directly applied to the analysis of user experience when seeking information from online sources, with an additional focus on understanding the relation between skill levels and the tendency of experiencing flow [39].

The self-motivating features of flow, exemplifies the appealing nature of smartphones and the users’ captivation with such an artifact. The attentive focus allows for a deeper understanding between consciousness and flow, which gives way to a heightened user experience of absorption, enjoyment, and interest [40]. In addition to several studies that have examined emotion and cognitive changes related to mood management, human-to-human and social communication [41,42,43], the matter of excessive use of smartphones on consciousness or awareness of the world have been increasingly recognized [44, 45]. As such, we argue that researchers should continue to explore the psychological dimensions of what makes social media usage so motivating [46, 47], specifically the impact of the excessive use of smartphones of social engagement.

3.1 Research Question

While psychologists propose possible reasons for smartphone addiction owing to its ability to alter mood and trigger enjoyable feelings [48], it is not fully known if repetition of use is correlated to other negative effects that impact psychosocial development. For this reason, we were compelled to ask what the effects of smartphone use are (among college students), on a variety of psychological domains—such as the (1) emotion/mood, (2) dependency, (3) addiction, (4) purpose of life, (5) social communication, and (6) self-consciousness. From this question, focused on six areas of inquiry, we arrived at seven hypotheses. Table 1 aligns the six topics with the seven hypotheses, with the number of questions asked in each category. The questions can be found in Appendix A.

Table 1. Research topics areas with hypotheses and number of questions.
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4 Methods

4.1 Participants

A convenience sample of 22 full-time and part-time graduate students (63/36% male/female) from the Indiana University School of Informatics (mean age = 26), were recruited for this research study during Spring 2014. All students were part of a graduate level introductory course in informatics. The student participants formed a cohort with diverse ethnicity, age and gender.

4.2 Data Collection

To provide additional insight into the findings of the author’s past study on the impact of smartphone use [49], they performed an online post-study pilot questionnaire. (Findings from this study have not been previously reported.) Participants completed the online survey based on their daily experiences using smartphones. The questionnaire consisted of 72 questions, divided into three sections:

  1. 1.

    Smartphone usage—questions regarding quantities of smartphone use and usage time of texting, phone calls, game-play, social media use, etc.

  2. 2.

    Smartphone daily experiences—the largest group of questions, with six subsections, each using a seven-point Likert-scale.

  3. 3.

    Demographics—questions related to Gender, Nationality, Age, and Years of smartphone use, cellphone use, and PC/Laptop use.

Figure 1 shows the online survey interface with the seven-point Likert scale—from: Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (7).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Depicts online survey interface.

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4.3 Data Analysis

For the reporting of our findings (for this paper), our analysis of the data was executed in three phases. In the first phase we focused on section two (as noted) but narrowed our analysis to only 35 of the 60 questions related to the participants smartphone daily experiences. After our preliminary analysis of the data, we determined that cleaning the data was necessary, i.e., those data points that might be disconnected with the effect that we were trying to isolate—thus allowing us to maintain our focus on those selected topics of interest. We did not observe any obviously erroneous data due to a mistake during data collection or reporting. Also, for this reporting, we are not reporting on participant smartphone usage or demographics—section one and three. After phase one, phase two of our analysis consisted of appropriately aligning the remaining questions under those subsections with their related hypotheses. Phase three consisted of a revised analysis of the 35 questions.

For our data analysis, we measured frequency (within the seven Likert degrees), with conversion percentages—from the scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree. We first averaged the scores of each question, according to the responses from the 22 participants. This was followed by averaging those frequency scores that pertained specifically to each of the hypotheses. As such, we could determine to what degree or percentage the overall response was—within the range of responses from strongly disagree to strongly agree. For example, under hypothesis one, “Smartphone use significantly impacts stress and anxiety,” there are four questions that provided frequencies, with a total overall score of 52.27%. This frequency score conveys the degree to which the participants agreed with the stated hypothesis—that the use of their smartphone causes stress and anxiety in their daily life.

5 Results

As noted, the 35 questions were grouped according to their respective hypotheses. As such, we re-state the hypothesis, along with the frequency percentage, and any relevant findings.

H1: Smartphone Use Significantly Impacts Stress and Anxiety

Analyzing the responses of four questions revealed that 52.27% of participants agreed that their anxiety level increases with smartphone use. Added to this percentage is the fact that 72.73% of the participants stated that they feel impatient and fretful when they are not holding their smartphone in hand.

H2: Smartphone Use Significantly Impacts Mood or Feelings

Analyzing the responses of four questions revealed that the negative impact of smartphone use on mood was reported by 60.23% of college students. Impacting this overall score is the fact that 77.27% of participants stated that when they use their smartphone they are enabled to be more in touch with their feelings—while only 45.45% said that feel calm while using their smartphone.

H3: There is a Strong Dependency Upon Smartphones

Analyzing the responses of seven questions, revealed that 57.27% of college students consider themselves dependent on their smartphone. The most influential factors contributing to their dependency were that 72.73% of the students felt safe and secure when they had their smartphones in their procession, while 63.64% had difficulty with going through their daily life without their smartphone in their procession.

H4: There is a Strong Degree of Addiction to Smartphones

Although 68% of participants reported constantly checking their smartphone for different purposes and 63% agreed it was very difficult to live their daily life without their cellphone (note above), only 30.52% of college students agreed (overall of seven questions) that they were addicted to their cellphones. In this section of seven question, the question that received the lowest score (at 22.73%) was: “I believe I am addicted or have an abnormal dependency on my smartphone.”

H5: Smartphone Use Significantly Impacts Their Personal Life. (Positively)

Analyzing the responses of three questions, our findings revealed that smartphone use improves purpose of life among college students at 59.09%–including its positive impact on their personal life by giving them greater values and helping them to be successful. Among this group of three questions, “believing that nothing is more fun than using my smartphone,” received a score of 90.91%, the highest percentage of any of the 35 questions.

H6: Smartphones are the Main Form of Communication and Information Gathering

Analyzing the responses of three questions, we observed that smartphones are considered as the main form of communication by 66.67% of the participants and the main tool for finding information by 72.73%, rather than ask others to help them.

H7: Smartphone Usage Increases Self-consciousness. (Positively)

Analyzing the responses of seven questions, our findings uncovered that 54.55% of participants (overall) indicated that they have a better level of self-consciousness when they use their smartphone. Interestingly, 72.73% agreed that when using their smartphone makes them less aware of the close surroundings—while 63.64% agreed that it is difficult to talk on their phone if they think others are watching them.

6 Discussion

In this study we examined the effects of smartphone use on the psychosocial wellness among college students, with a focus on six psychological domains: emotion/mood, dependency, addiction, purpose of life, social communications, and self-consciousness. Our findings were independent of sex, age group, or level of smartphone usage among our participants. Our study suggests addictive usage behaviors, 68% reporting constantly checking their smartphone, and smartphone dependency, 57% reporting smartphone dependency as well. However, despite these findings, only 22% of participants in our study agreed to have smartphone addiction and dependency.

According to analysis of our survey data, smartphone use increases anxiety and stress level among college students, and our participants agreed they feel impatient if they do not have their phone in their possession. Although we cannot deduce causality in this study, these findings are aligned with the previous research findings that correlate excessive use of smartphones with increased level of anxiety and restlessness.

Another component of our findings suggest smartphones are the main tool for communication and information seeking among college students. As noted, these findings are in agreement with past studies investigating smartphone usage among college students. Taken together, a conclusion that the two most significant smartphone usage patterns among college students are: (1) maintaining social relationships and (2) accessing the online digital information.

The most outstanding finding emerging from our data analysis is the impact of smartphones on the personal life of college students—by more than 90% agreeing on nothing is more fun than using their smartphones. This discovery provides new perceptions into the notion that excessive smartphone use has an individuals’ social life. This behavior, we believe, may also suggest that excessive and/or repeated use may promote the experience of pleasure and improvement of mood, but may also lead to an increase in a lack of awareness of the close environment. In the former case, the risk of forming habitual usage and addiction are present.

Regarding limitations to the study—first, the sample size of the study limited our ability to extend our findings inferentially to the greater population of college students. For this reason, we identified it as exploratory in nature, and thus, a pilot study. Other contributing limitations to a small sample might include the narrow characteristics of our participants—drawing upon one class of college students, from one university. We suggest that future studies extend the investigation to be more inclusive of socio- demographics, ethnicity and cultural backgrounds, devices, location, and type of activities.

7 Conclusion

Excessive smartphone use, of any degree, can have physical, psychological and social implications for any individual. However, our findings specifically suggest that college students depend heavily on their smartphones—to a level that if they were not in possess of them, they would not feel secure or in control. While smartphones are their primary mode of communication and information seeking, excessive use may have a significant influence on mood, while increasing the level of stress and anxiety.

In sum, although smartphones can translate into tools that empower and expand one’s communication capacity, they may adversely affect psychosocial wellness, as well as disrupt one’s accurate sense of consciousness—of both persons and objects around them. Our challenge remains therefore, to not only understand the influence of these mediational technologies, but increasingly to identify those explicit threats to mental and social wellness—leading to the shaping of lives that are positive, productive, and socially engaged.