A Study Finds That What People Do on Their Phones May Matter Most

How many hours people spend looking at a phone may not be the whole story. What they do on it may matter even more. That is the message of a study by researchers at Semmelweis University, published in the journal Acta Psychologica.

The team studied students aged 18 to 35. The students answered online questions about how they use their phones, whether phone use made them miss planned activities and whether they kept thinking about their phones when they were not using them. The researchers also measured self-control, fear of missing out on social experiences (often called FOMO) and neuroticism, a personality trait linked to a greater tendency to feel anxiety, sadness, fear and anger.

They found three patterns of phone use. People in the "pure social" group mainly used their phones to talk with friends and keep relationships going. "Light process" users spent less than four to five hours a day on a mixture of social contact, news, entertainment and passive scrolling. The "heavy process" group, about one third of the students, spent four to five hours or more a day, mostly looking at online content, not communicating with people.

The main result is that personality alone does not make someone addicted to a phone. Dr. Johanna Takács, a senior research fellow at the university, said people who are prone to negative feelings do not automatically become addicted. She said the key factors are how good people are at controlling their actions, feelings and urges, and how intensely they worry about missing out.

The study also points to possible effects on the brain and body. Heavy scrolling was linked to poorer memory, less ability to concentrate and disrupted sleep. Long hours on a phone may also contribute to posture problems that can affect balance and reaction time. The researchers say that understanding how people use their phones may be as important as counting daily screen time.