Phone Addiction?

Robert Fettgather has served as Special Consultant in psychometrics to the Departments of Education and Developmental Disabilities for the State of California. He holds a specialist credential in learning handicapped and community college credentials in both learning and developmental disabilities. The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing has certified Robert Fettgather as a Stress Management Trainer, and Medical Hypnosis Seminars of the Los Gatos Institute has certified him in Clinical Hypnotherapy.  At Santa Clara University, Graduate Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, Robert Fettgather's studies included Health Education and Behavioral Medicine.

What about smartphone addiction? Well, its not in the DSM. but it has received the attention of researchers. In Cell Phone Addiction: A Review the authors discuss the problem: "sleep disturbance, anxiety, stress, and, to a lesser extent, depression...have been associated with problematic cell-phone use. In addition, the present review reveals the coexistence relationship between problematic cell-phone use and substance use such as tobacco and alcohol".

Look around. If your smartphone is nearby, its mere proximity could be diminishing your concentration as you read this blog! So says an interesting study on the topic from the University of Texas. There is also research to suggest that smartphone addictions are negatively affecting social relationships.  In fact, when we snub others in favor of looking at our phones, that's been dubbed "phubbing". According to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: "Smartphones and social media platforms (have been) adopted faster than any communication technology before it...By 2023, more than 46 percent of teens report being online "almost all of the time." 

What about chatbots? Dr. Allen Frances states,  "Hooking kids early on chatbots is much easier than hooking them on drugs—it just takes helping them do their homework (and) Chatbots are doubling in efficiency every 7 months, while humans hooked on chatbots seem to lose cognitive efficacy". 

Yikes! This is an individual and societal problem requiring investigation and intervention across disciplines. Will it happen?