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Psychologists say spending time on your smartphone browsing social media and responding to messages isn’t bad for mental health, as previously thought.
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When analyzing data from Android and iPhone users, UK researchers found that the time people spend on smartphones is a poor indicator, in fact, of anxiety, depression or stress. and they advise to be cautious when it comes to digital detox.
Surprisingly, the time a user spent on a smartphone was not associated with poor mental health. Instead, the study found that mental health was linked to concerns about using their smartphones.
And the researchers didn’t find that in people with high depressive symptoms, they used their smartphones more than those with low depression symptoms.
Experts say worrying about how much time you spend on your smartphone, rather than the actual time you spend there, is more likely to be the cause of negative psychological impact.
“It’s important to consider using the device separately from people’s concerns about the technology,” says study author Heather Shaw, of the Lancaster University Department of Psychology.
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Researchers looked at different ways to measure “smartphone usage” through smartphone usage metrics (PSUs), personal estimates, and objective recordings based on screen time.
The first part of the study recruited 46 people with Android smartphones, and their use was tracked for a week.
Participants were asked about their mental health and completed clinical scales that measure anxiety, stress, and symptoms of depression.
Participants also completed the Smartphone Usage Scale (PSU), which measures how problematic they were with perceiving their smartphone usage and provided estimates of their usage time.
Regarding the smartphone use scale, participants rated how well they agreed with several statements, such as “feeling happy or excited while using a smartphone,” on a six-point scale ranging from from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”, with higher scores. This indicates an increased risk of addiction.
For part two of the study, 199 iPhone users were recruited and completed an online survey asking them to report their smartphone usage from Apple Screen Time settings for the past week.
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IPhone users were asked the same mental health questions in Part 1, and they filled out the PSU scale and provided estimates of their usage.
Despite numerous reports indicating otherwise, the time a person spends browsing a smartphone is not linked to poor mental health.
“Daily smartphone captures or a person’s screen time don’t predict anxiety, depression, or stress symptoms,” Shaw said.
Instead, the study found that mental health was linked to participants’ concerns about using their smartphones.
Source: Daily Mail
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