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<\/a>A new study about problematic smartphone usage by Dr. Jon Elhai, professor of psychology, was published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.<\/p><\/div>\u201cWe know from the past that anxiety is related to problematic smartphone use. We wanted to extend this line of research by examining intolerance of uncertainty,\u201d said Dr. Jon Elhai, professor of psychology, whose research focuses on how some can develop harmful relationships with their smartphones.<\/p>\n
Elhai and his team, which included Dmitri Rozgonjuk, a doctoral student from Estonia who was hosted at UToledo as a Fulbright Scholar, compared scores indicating problematic smartphone usage and intolerance of uncertainty, a type of anxiety where an individual worries about the future and not being able to control things that are beyond his or her control.<\/p>\n
They found a strong correlation between that anxiety and non-social smartphone usage, which includes things such as reading news, playing games, or sorting one\u2019s calendar \u2014 anything that involves little to no interaction with others.<\/p>\n
No link was found between intolerance of uncertainty and using one\u2019s smartphone for social engagement such as texting or sharing links on social media, even if they spent a lot of time using their smartphone. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people know when to put down their devices, and the way we define problematic, excessive use of smartphones is not just based on the frequency of use. If you\u2019re using your phone socially a lot, that tends not to be associated with the excessive use,\u201d Elhai said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re using your phone in a way that it\u2019s interfering with your social life or you\u2019re avoiding people, that\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n