Why can't we be separated from our smartphones? The vital roles of smartphone activity in smartphone separation anxiety

摘要

Smartphones provide many advantages for people's daily life, which makes the phone become a valuable attachment object. Attachment to a smartphone may have negative psychological consequences, such as anxiety about being separated from the smartphone. Considerable research has been done on smartphone separation anxiety (or nomophobia). However, they are rarely concerned about the impact of smartphone activity on it. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mobile activity on smartphone separation anxiety by emphasizing the uniqueness of the phone itself and the importance of the activity. The present study examined the anxiety levels of 1733 Chinese young adults (mean age = 19.13, SD = 1.28) in four imaginary scenarios in which they could not engage in mobile activity. Our study found that computers did not alleviate the separation anxiety that individuals experience when they interrupt their smartphone activity. Furthermore, smartphone separation anxiety may depend on the type of mobile activity currently being disrupted. The anxiety when interrupting online activities was more related to the unavailability of the phone network, and anxiety level in stopping offline activities was more associated with the unavailability of the phone power. These findings help to understand smartphone separation anxiety.