Problematic Use of the Internet and Smartphones in University Students: 2006–2017

In the paper

“The perception of problematic Internet and mobile phone use has increased over the last decade”

• Also stated in: § 4. Discussion · plain

  “Taken globally, the results of the study support the idea that the perception of a problematic use of the Internet and mobile phones exists and has increased over the last decade (H1).”

In the paper

“To the question, “Do you think girls are more addicted to the Internet than boys?” 73.2% answered affirmatively.”

In the paper

“As can be seen, the increase of the perception of problematic Internet and smartphone use was stronger for females than for males, but as of 2017, both sexes had lower scores and tended to present the same degree of negative effects.”

In the paper

“There were no significant differences either for gender or for the different major degrees (F(4, 787) = 1.24; p = 0.291 for the CERI, and F(4, 787) = 1.85; p = 0.116 for the CERM).”

In the paper

“Post-hoc Bonferroni pairwise comparisons showed that scores for both CERM and CERI had increased from the first survey: there was, in fact, a significant difference between the 2006 scores and those of all the following surveys (p < 0.001 in all comparisons).”

In the paper

“Our results show that women use social networks and academic applications more and listen to more music than men.”

In the paper

“The most frequent activities on the Internet were checking emails and sending messages, participating in social networks, and listening to music.”

In the paper

“Men play more videogames and betting games and use more adult pages than women.”

In the paper

“Women presented higher scores in the CERM, but not in the CERI.”

In the paper

“As shown in Table 5, the scores in the CERI and CERM grew from 2005 to 2013 and remained stable during the 2013–2014 academic year.”

In the paper

“However, between the 2013 and the following years, there was no significant difference between 2013 and 2015, and there was even a decrease of the negative effects between 2015 and 2017 (p < 0.001) with respect to the CERM; for the CERI, there was a decrease from 2013 to 2015 and from 2015 to 2017 (p < 0.001 in both cases).”

In the paper

“The correlation between CERI and CERM was “moderate” up to 2014 and increased to “high” as of 2015.”

In the paper

“The correlations between the different online functions and the CERI and CERM were mostly significant, but low, with the most relevant correlation being between social networks and both the CERI and the CERM (see Table 3).”

In the paper

“The correlations with the CERI and CERM were 0.38 (p < 0.001) and 0.34 (p < 0.001), respectively.”

In the paper

“The multivariate analysis of variance for the effects of gender and year of administration on CERI and CERM showed significant effects of both factors (except for gender on CERI) and also a combined effect (see Table 7).”

In the paper

“Although the Internet activities of men and women were different, there were no differences found in the problematic use of the Internet [53,54].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [53] Beranuy, 2009, Problematic Internet and mobile phone use and clinical symptoms in college students: The role of emotional intelligence, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [54] Casas, 2013, Validation of the Internet and Social Networking Experiences Questionnaire in Spanish adolescents, Int. J. Clin. Health Psychol. source

In the paper

“However, the perception of our students was that women are more addicted to the Internet than men probably because of the fact that using social networks is more common than using video games.”

In the paper

“Social network use is the only Internet use that moderately correlated with CERI and CERM. The other correlations, in line with other studies, were low or nonexistent [17].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source

In the paper

“No differences were found between men and women in the problematic use of the mobile phone despite this being a frequent result in other investigations [15,17,40,53].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [15] 2015, Predictors of problematic Internet and mobile phone usage in adolescents, Aloma
• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [40] Bolle, 2015, Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior. The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender, Comput. Hum. Behav.
• Not checked yetcites [53] Beranuy, 2009, Problematic Internet and mobile phone use and clinical symptoms in college students: The role of emotional intelligence, Comput. Hum. Behav. source

In the paper

“The average scores in the CERI were higher than in the CERM, as has been the case with these instruments in other studies [18,20,53].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18] Beranuy, 2009, Validación de dos escalas breves para evaluar la adicción a Internet y el abuso de móvil, Psicothema
• Not checked yetcites [20] Panova, 2016, Avoidance or boredom: Negative mental health outcomes associated with use of Information and Communication Technologies depend on users’ motivations, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [53] Beranuy, 2009, Problematic Internet and mobile phone use and clinical symptoms in college students: The role of emotional intelligence, Comput. Hum. Behav. source

In the paper

“Although the correlation of the CERI and CERM with the statement “I am addicted to the internet” was moderate, the participants who were “very much in agreement” and “agreed” with this statement obtained significantly higher results than the rest in both the CERI and the CERM.”

In the paper

“Although men and women use the Internet differently, their problematic use of the Internet and mobile phones are quite similar.”

In the paper

“Young people are worried about the phenomenon”

In the paper

“Other studies have also reported reliability indexes of 0.80 [41].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [41] Oberst, 2017, Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out, J. Adolesc. source

In the paper

“For example, in 2015, in Spain, there was a clear preference for smartphones (88.2%) over computers (78.2%) for accessing the Internet, especially in 14–19 year olds.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [8] Fundación Telefónica (2016). La Sociedad de la Información en España 2016, Fundación Telefónica.

In the paper

“The study was approved by the Committee of Ethics and Research of the FPCEE Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull.”

In the paper

“The term ‘Internet addiction’ or ‘smartphone addiction’ is not used consistently in the literature. A review shows the use of different expressions; there is, for instance, ‘digital addiction’ [25], ‘problematic Internet use’ [26], or ‘Internet-use disorder’ [27].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [25] Montag, 2016, Carpe diem instead of losing your social mind: Beyond digital addiction and why we all suffer from digital overuse, Cogent Psychol. source
• Not checked yetcites [26] Anderson, 2017, Internet use and Problematic Internet Use: A systematic review of longitudinal research trends in adolescence and emergent adulthood, Int. J. Adolesc. Youth source
• Not checked yetcites [27] Brand, 2016, Integrating psychological and neurobiological considerations regarding the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders: An Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. source

In the paper

“In fact, the DSM-5 [4] included addiction to video games in the list of disorders that should receive further research.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [4] American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), American Psychiatric Association. source

In the paper

“However, studies on the addictive consequences of both the ‘old’ mobile phone [9,33,34,35,36], the current smartphone [22,24,37,38,39,40], and the Internet are cross-sectional, and therefore the temporal evolution of their addictive impact on the population is still unknown.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [9] Bianchi, 2005, Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use, Cyberpsychol. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [33] Ha, 2008, Characteristics of excessive cellular phone use in Korean adolescents, Cyberpsychol. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [34] Jenaro, 2007, Problematic internet and cell-phone use: Psychological, behavioral, and health correlates, Addict. Res. Theory source
• Not checked yetcites [35] Labrador, 2010, Menores y nuevas tecnologías: Conductas indicadoras de posible problema de adicción, Psicothema
• Not checked yetcites [36] Otero, 2009, Factors associated with cell phone use in adolescents in the community of Madrid (Spain), Cyberpsychol. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [22] Kwon, M., Lee, J.Y., Won, W.Y., Park, J.W., Min, J.A., Hahn, C., Gu, X., Choi, J.H., and Kim, D.J. (2013). Development and validation of a Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS). PLoS ONE, 8. source
• Not checked yetcites [24] Aljomaa, 2016, Smartphone addiction among university students in the light of some variables, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [37] Bian, 2015, Linking loneliness, shyness, smartphone addiction symptoms, and patterns of smartphone use to social capital, Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev. source
• Not checked yetcites [38] Mumcu, 2016, Modelling smartphone addiction: The role of smartphone usage, self-regulation, general self-efficacy and cyberloafing in university students, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [39] Lin, 2015, Time distortion associated with smartphone addiction: Identifying smartphone addiction via a mobile application (App), J. Psychiatr. Res. source

In the paper

“The reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) in the present study was 0.76; in the original study it was 0.77.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18] Beranuy, 2009, Validación de dos escalas breves para evaluar la adicción a Internet y el abuso de móvil, Psicothema

In the paper

“Ever since Young [1] presented Internet Addiction: the Emergence of a New Disorder at the Congress of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Internet addiction has been a widely discussed disorder in the media and in scientific literature [2].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [2] Carbonell, 2009, A bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on Internet, video games, and cell phone addiction, J. Med. Libr. Assoc. source

In the paper

“In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.73. Cronbach’s alpha in the original study was 0.80.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18] Beranuy, 2009, Validación de dos escalas breves para evaluar la adicción a Internet y el abuso de móvil, Psicothema

In the paper

“The participants had to click on a box to give their informed consent and continue with the study.”

In the paper

“The interest in the possible addiction to the Internet, video games, online role-playing games, television, and mobile phones has given rise to a new field of study: technological addictions [3].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [3] Griffiths, 1995, Technological addictions, Clin. Psychol. Forum source

In the paper

“Because of its popularity and because it is a relatively new device (compared to the “classical” mobile phone), the smartphone has raised concerns about its potential to be addictive [9,10,11,12] as happens with other possible behavioral addictions, such as those to the Internet or to social networking sites [13].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [9] Bianchi, 2005, Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use, Cyberpsychol. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [10] Billieux, 2015, Can disordered mobile phone use be considered a behavioral addiction? An update on current evidence and a comprehensive model for future research, Curr. Addict. Rep. source
• Not checked yetcites [11] 2010, Mobile phone addiction: A point of issue, Addiction source
• Not checked yetcites [12] Pedrero, 2012, Adicción o abuso del teléfono móvil. Revisión de la literatura, Adicciones source
• Not checked yetcites [13] Carbonell, 2017, A critical consideration of social networking sites’ addiction potential, Addict. Res. Theory source

In the paper

“This evolution of preference for the phone over the computer was also observed for the accessing of leisure activities, which decreases the dominance of the computer in the professional and educational spheres [8].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [8] Fundación Telefónica (2016). La Sociedad de la Información en España 2016, Fundación Telefónica.

In the paper

“The negative consequences of this problem include the possible increase of stress, anxiety, and/or the “paradox” of a lack of communication, despite being more connected, especially among young people and adolescents [5,6,7].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [5] Lepp, 2015, Exploring the relationships between college students’ cell phone use, personality and leisure, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [6] Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., and Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults—A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 11. source
• Not checked yetcites [7] Carbonell, 2012, Internet and mobile phone addiction: A review of empirical Spanish studies, Papeles Psicol.

In the paper

“The term ‘addiction’ is probably adequate when related to specific types of use, such as addiction to gaming via the Internet or to pornography via the Internet.”

In the paper

“It is also not surprising that the Internet uses of young men and women are quite different from each other as there are differences in behavior and attitudes between them in the real world which are perpetuated in the network (H2).”

In the paper

“The questionnaires used make it possible to detect a concern about certain technology-based behaviors but in no case to issue a clinical diagnosis.”

In the paper

“In a recent research, the percentages ranged from 3.9% in Belgium to 1% in Poland, with 1.7% addicts identified in the Spanish sample [17].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source

In the paper

“A preliminary comparison shows that the range of values for problematic users or addicts ranges between 0% and 35%, with 10–20% being the most frequent values [7,10,12], although there have been reports of 48% in university students [24].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [7] Carbonell, 2012, Internet and mobile phone addiction: A review of empirical Spanish studies, Papeles Psicol.
• Not checked yetcites [10] Billieux, 2015, Can disordered mobile phone use be considered a behavioral addiction? An update on current evidence and a comprehensive model for future research, Curr. Addict. Rep. source
• Not checked yetcites [12] Pedrero, 2012, Adicción o abuso del teléfono móvil. Revisión de la literatura, Adicciones source
• Not checked yetcites [24] Aljomaa, 2016, Smartphone addiction among university students in the light of some variables, Comput. Hum. Behav. source

In the paper

“This problematic use of the Internet is specific and not general; that is, it depends on the concrete activity that is carried out [45,46,47]. This can also be affirmed for mobile phones [17,48,49].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [45] Griffiths, 2014, Is excessive online usage a function of medium or activity?, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [46] Pontes, 2015, The impact of Internet-based specific activities on the perceptions of Internet addiction, quality of life, and excessive usage: A cross-sectional study, Addict. Behav. Rep.
• Not checked yetcites [47] Montag, 2015, Is it meaningful to distinguish between generalized and specific Internet addiction? Evidence from a cross-cultural study from Germany, Sweden, Taiwan and China, Asia-Pac. Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [48] Jeong, 2016, What type of content are smartphone users addicted to? SNS vs. games, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [49] Griffiths, 2018, Conceptual issues concerning Internet addiction and Internet gaming disorder: Further critique on Ryding and Kaye (2107), Int. J. Ment. Health Addict. source

In the paper

“In any case, women’s problematic use is greater (H3), probably as a consequence of their using social networks more than males and of the role that those social networks play in communication and in creating and maintaining connections [17,40,51].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [40] Bolle, 2015, Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior. The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender, Comput. Hum. Behav.
• Not checked yetcites [51] Sapacz, 2016, Are we addicted to our cell phones?, Comput. Hum. Behav. source

In the paper

“However, despite the existence of problematic use, it seems that the term ‘addiction’ is an inadequate construct when used as simply “Internet addiction”, because: (i) the problematic use does not depend on the mobile phone or the Internet itself, but on the activities accessed on them; (ii) the problematic use can be the symptom of other disorders, not a primary disorder in itself [10,17]; (iii)”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [10] Billieux, 2015, Can disordered mobile phone use be considered a behavioral addiction? An update on current evidence and a comprehensive model for future research, Curr. Addict. Rep. source
• Not checked yetcites [17] Kuss, 2017, Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [50] Billieux, 2015, Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research, J. Behav. Addict. source

In the paper

“It is difficult to compare our data on problematic mobile use with those of other prevalence studies because of the use of different measuring instruments.”

In the paper

“No personal information was requested, and it was not possible to connect any of the data from the questionnaires to academic records.”

In the paper

“We conclude that the diagnosis of technological addictions is influenced by both time and social and culture changes.”

In the paper

“social networks are considered responsible for this increase”

In the paper

“The first was focused on the non-smart mobile phone and was mainly due to two factors: the amount of phone bills that the use led to and the high use of text messages.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [6] Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., and Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults—A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 11. source
• Not checked yetcites [9] Bianchi, 2005, Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use, Cyberpsychol. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [34] Jenaro, 2007, Problematic internet and cell-phone use: Psychological, behavioral, and health correlates, Addict. Res. Theory source
• Not checked yetcites [36] Otero, 2009, Factors associated with cell phone use in adolescents in the community of Madrid (Spain), Cyberpsychol. Behav. source

In the paper

“we wonder if it is still convenient to use both the CERI and the CERM since, at the current time, both measures may be considered equivalent in the context of young people’s technology use”

In the paper

“From our point of view, the concern over mobile phone addiction came in two distinct waves.”

In the paper

“This question reveals to what extent the diagnosis of technological addictions is influenced by time and social and cultural change.”

In the paper

“Another point of concern was the number of text messages (i.e., for women: 11 or more calls or text messages per day, see Thomee, Dellve, Harenstam, Hagberg [6]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [6] Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., and Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults—A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 11. source

In the paper

“Another possible explanation is that women are more vulnerable to this type of problem because it is related to communication practices such as establishing and actively maintaining relationships, which women engage in more than men [38,40].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [38] Mumcu, 2016, Modelling smartphone addiction: The role of smartphone usage, self-regulation, general self-efficacy and cyberloafing in university students, Comput. Hum. Behav. source
• Not checked yetcites [40] Bolle, 2015, Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior. The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender, Comput. Hum. Behav.

In the paper

“Davis [62] offered one of the first theoretical models, which differentiates between a generalized and a specific type of Internet addiction.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [62] Davis, 2001, A cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use, Comput. Hum. Behav. source

In the paper

“Facebook and WhatsApp (as WhatsApp could be considered a social media) could be used as a key component to understand how young people socialize through these applications [57].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [57] O’Hara, K.P., Massimi, M., Harper, R., Rubens, S., and Morris, J. (2014, January 15–19). Everyday dwelling with WhatsApp. Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing—CSCW’14, Baltimore, MD, USA. source

In the paper

“Some studies suggest that there may be different thresholds for males and females with respect to these negative effects [52].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [52] Lachmann, 2016, Life satisfaction and problematic Internet use: Evidence for gender specific effects, Psychiatry Res. source

In the paper

“In fact, online social networking is considered, along with video games, to be the use with the highest risk of becoming problematic [55,56] even though there is a lack of empirical confirmation [13].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [55] Kuss, 2011, Online social networking and addiction—A review of the psychological literature, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health source
• Not checked yetcites [56] Ryan, 2014, The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [13] Carbonell, 2017, A critical consideration of social networking sites’ addiction potential, Addict. Res. Theory source

In the paper

“A large-scale tracking of online behavior showed that the use of WhatApp over the smartphone accounted for nearly 20% of all smartphone behavior, above Facebook use [58].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [58] Montag, C., Błaszkiewicz, K., Sariyska, R., Lachmann, B., Andone, I., Trendafilov, B., Eibes, M., and Markowetz, A. (2015). Smartphone usage in the 21st century: Who is active on WhatsApp?. BMC Res. Notes, 8. source

In the paper

“In the last decade, we have learned that it is convenient to distinguish between behavioral addictions that take place on the Internet (for example, pathological gambling), the specific uses of the Internet that can become problematic (for example, videogames and social networks), and a possible generalized Internet addiction [45,46,49].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [45] Griffiths, 2014, Is excessive online usage a function of medium or activity?, J. Behav. Addict. source
• Not checked yetcites [46] Pontes, 2015, The impact of Internet-based specific activities on the perceptions of Internet addiction, quality of life, and excessive usage: A cross-sectional study, Addict. Behav. Rep.
• Not checked yetcites [49] Griffiths, 2018, Conceptual issues concerning Internet addiction and Internet gaming disorder: Further critique on Ryding and Kaye (2107), Int. J. Ment. Health Addict. source

In the paper

“The terms “internet addiction” and “smartphone addiction” could be ‘misnomers’ [49] which we might not want to use anymore.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [49] Griffiths, 2018, Conceptual issues concerning Internet addiction and Internet gaming disorder: Further critique on Ryding and Kaye (2107), Int. J. Ment. Health Addict. source

In the paper

“which may correspond to a progressive normalization and integration of these new technologies into our daily life.”

In the paper

“Later, more sophisticated models to explain the different levels of the addiction process have been developed, such as the I-PACE model [27], which is useful for understanding the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] Brand, 2016, Integrating psychological and neurobiological considerations regarding the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders: An Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. source

In the paper

“Finally, it is possible that some differences found in this study were more influenced by the cultural differences between the samples than by the temporal differences.”

In the paper

“Firstly, university students have a higher than average level of academic development and their use of the Internet and mobile phones is not necessarily representative of the use that other young people engage in.”