Types of smartphone usage and problematic smartphone use among adolescents: A review of literature

Abstract

This review aimed to provide an overview of the influence of social and process smartphone use on problematic smartphone use (PSU) among adolescents aged between 10-24 years old. Social smartphone use comprises three types of smartphone features: social networking sites, chatting/texting/instant messaging, and video/phone calls. On the other hand, categories of process smartphone use include watching videos/television/movies, web surfing, playing games, listening to music/podcasts/radio, and educational learning. There were 42 studies with a total of 139,389 adolescents met the criteria for inclusion after a thorough search of academic databases. Overall, the evidence from the studies included in this review revealed that chatting/texting, video/phone calls, watching videos/television/movies and music/podcasts/radio were positively and significantly linked to and predicted problematic smartphone use. Social networking sites use, instant messaging, gaming, web surfing and educational learning yielded inconsistent results. They could have a positive or negative relationship with PSU and play a role in predicting PSU. More research is needed for music/podcasts/radio and video/phone calls because the results are still scarce.