Rylee Seavers | Broadcast Reporter
How many hours a day do you spend on your smartphone? Baylor marketing professor Dr. James Roberts’ book “Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?” can help you determine if your smartphone habits indicate addiction.
“It’s eerily close to, the way we analyze an addiction to technology as we would any everyday type of addiction to cigarettes, drugs or alcohol,” Roberts said.
After studying the smartphone habit of Baylor students, Roberts found that women use their phones about ten hours per day and men seven and a half.
Smartphone use also correlates to grades, stress, anxiety and depression, meaning the more phone use the more grades could suffer and the greater chance of experiencing stress, anxiety or depression.
Social interaction is also affected by smartphone use. Roberts said when a phone is present during socialization, a person is more likely to think their companion is not empathetic.
“There’s really something to be said about the interactions that make everyday life more enjoyable that are lost because we have our noses in our smartphones,” he said.
Frances Prewitt is a frequent smartphone user and said an assignment that should take her two hours will take her up to five because she is distracted by her phone.
She answered the 12 question from Roberts’ book to see if she is addicted to her smartphone.
“I had five agrees which means I ‘cross a tipping point and am moving quickly to full blown cellphone addiction’,” she said.
A recently updated version of Robert’s book includes chapters about the tweeting habits of President Donald Trump.
The quiz to determine if you are addicted to your cellphone is available at smartphoneloveaffair.com.
