Understanding Problematic Smartphone Use and Its Characteristics: A Perspective on Behavioral Addiction

The problematic use of smartphones has extensively drawn social attention because of the harmful and disturbing outcomes. However, there has been little comprehensive research concerning the mechanism of problematic behavior in the use of smartphone, particularly for behavioral addiction. Given the specific characteristics of smartphones (e.g., high mobility, instant connection, and ubiquitous access), it is highlighted that smartphone addiction is a behavior that differentiates from traditional addiction behavior. However, in the previous research, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and the underlying mechanism of smartphone addiction. Motivated to systematically theorize this issue, we primarily define addiction in the smartphone context and comprehend the characteristics of smartphone addiction, followed by developing the measures for smartphone addiction. On this conceptual foundation, future empirical research should be able to explain, predict, and test addiction behavior in the use of smartphone