Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 37, August 2014, Pages 290-297
Computers in Human Behavior

Out of sight is not out of mind: The impact of restricting wireless mobile device use on anxiety levels among low, moderate and high users

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examined anxiety when wireless mobile devices were unexpectedly not available.

  • Participants felt significantly more anxious over time.

  • Heavy wireless mobile device users were more anxious than low or moderate users.

  • Wireless mobile device dependency may cause anxiety when device is absent.

  • Heavy wireless mobile device users may feel separation anxiety when device is absent.

Abstract

Overuse of wireless mobile devices (WMDs) may be associated with a form of psychological dependency, of which a prominent feature may be anxiety arising from separation from these devices. College students, who are among the most avid consumers of WMDs, might be susceptible to the negative effects of WMD overuse. The present study examined anxiety in American college students when their WMDs were unexpectedly not available. Upon arrival, approximately one half of the 163 participants were randomly assigned to have their WMDs removed from their possession; the other half was allowed to keep their WMDs but were required to turn them off and place them out of sight. Participants were forced to sit quietly with no distractions during the study. The state portion of the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was administered three times, 20 min apart, beginning 10 min after the participants entered the room. The results showed that participants felt significantly more anxious over time. However, this pattern was evident only with heavy WMD users and with moderate WMD users whose devices were taken away. Dependency upon WMDs, mediated by an unhealthy connection to their constant use, may lead to increased anxiety when the device is absent.

Introduction

In the last two decades mobile phones have made the transition from being simple communication tools to sophisticated wireless mobile devices (WMDs) commonly referred to as “smartphones.” Recent estimates by the Pew Internet and Life Project (Brenner, 2013) indicate nearly 60% of Americans own a smartphone, and the increased adoption of these devices permeates every demographic, though more young, college-aged people in urban areas own smartphones than older people in rural areas who are not in college (Smith, 2012). The adoption of these devices has reached a level of saturation, and their complex functionality and sophisticated design has played a role in their users’ dependency (Leung, 2008). These devices enable users to locate information instantaneously, access entertainment and make and rearrange plans (Leung, 2008, Vincent, 2006), as well as communicate immediately through social media platforms and text messaging. While the preferred method of communicating among young adults is face to face, the most common method is text messaging using the WMD (Rosen, Cheever, & Carrier, 2012), suggesting that communication through these devices is now an essential part of everyday American life.

In addition to rampant text messaging, people check their smartphones for notifications, email messages, alerts, and social media comments multiple times per hour, and use the Internet on their smartphones multiple times daily (Rosen et al., 2013a, Rosen et al., 2013b). As people use their WMDs regularly, they find it more difficult to be without them (Hooper & Zhou, 2007). Because of the ubiquitous nature of the WMD, it is important to understand how its use affects people’s well-being, and the psychological consequences of having the device taken from frequent users.

With the majority of American adults using smartphones on a daily basis (Brenner, 2013), people’s dependence on these devices has created a culture of connectedness in which users access their WMDs everywhere and at any time. This has prompted educators, researchers and medical professionals to devise strategies to assuage the negative effects of this dependency (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2014, Derks and Bakker, 2012, Kim, 2013, Rosen et al., 2012), and lawmakers to create legislation restricting WMD use while driving, referred to as “distracted driving” laws (Governors Highway Safety Association., 2014).

Recently, text messaging through the WMD has become the most common method of communicating among 18- to 24-year-olds, with an average of 109.5 text messages exchanged per day (Smith, 2012). Research on the psychological consequences of removing the ability to communicate via text has had mixed results. In a study restricting text messaging, researchers allowed participants to self-regulate their text abstention behavior for two days. After the hiatus from their devices, participants reported feeling “annoyed,” “anxious,” and “agitated” when unable to text those they felt close to (Skierkowski & Wood, 2012). Lepp, Barkley, and Karpinski (2013) found through survey research that cell phone use was positively related to anxiety among college students, while Reid and Reid (2007) discovered that anxious participants preferred text messaging over other methods of communication, which mediated the effects of anxiety.

The expectation of being connected 24/7 may lead to higher WMD use. Thomée, Dellve, Härenstam, and Hagberg (2010) discovered through interviews that a common perception regarding mobile phone use was the constant demand and expectation to be available everywhere at all times. This perceived demand of availability was shown to increase mobile phone use. A concept the authors label as “communication overload” is evident in excerpts from interviews that assert feelings of guilt, resentment, and stress attempting to answer and decipher important from less important messages. Thomée, Härenstam, and Hagberg (2011) examined the same concept along with other elements such as mental overload, disturbed sleep, and never feeling free as consequences of high mobile phone use. They found a positive association between availability demands and current stress and symptoms of depression among men and all of the mental health variables among the women. Being awakened at night was associated with all mental health variables for both men and women. They found the highest association to be with accessibility stress in relation to negative mental health outcomes.

Previous literature has explored other possible factors including age, gender and health status as potential determinants of those most affected or likely to be affected by the inclusion of WMDs into everyday modern life. In a study on technology use, Rosen et al. (2012) found that more than 60% of younger people—specifically those in the iGeneration (born in the 1990s) and Net Generation (born in the 1980s)—check their smartphones every 15 min or less, while just 40% of Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1979) and less than 20% of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) engage in this behavior. Further, the study found about 50% of young people reported they felt anxious when they could not check their technology, compared to about 25% of Gen Xers and 15% of Baby Boomers who felt the same. A study on the impact of “keitai” (Japanese cell-phones) on Japanese junior high school students found when restricted from communicating with their friends and family, almost 48% of the respondents experienced a feeling of insecurity, which created the perception of being ignored (Kamibeppu & Sugiura, 2005). The authors concluded this perception could cause great anxiety among children that age. Further, a study of cell phone use among young people found more use related to lower feelings of loneliness, suggesting higher dependency on the devices (Jin, 2007).

Although gender remains an inconclusive factor in studies, researchers have found that women use the devices to remain in close contact with relationships, while men utilize them for more functional purposes (Bianchi & Phillips, 2005; Sánchez-Martínez & Otero, 2009). Walsh, White, and Young (2010) expressed the importance for future studies to possibly attempt a gender equal population to further investigate how the differences affect behavior.

Minimal research exists on the implications of WMD use on psychological factors or psychiatric disorders such as anxiety levels when the device is absent. Previous inquiries into WMD overuse have suggested that being without the device for a period of time may induce anxiety in heavy users, and that the WMD serves as a distraction that may reduce anxiety in certain circumstances. While psychological researchers and practitioners differ in their definitions of anxiety, most agree that people who suffer anxiety have intense feelings of fear and physical discomfort that can range from mild to total incapacitation (Fauman, 2002, Halgin and Whitbourne, 2000, Maddux and Winstead, 2005, Turner and Hersen, 1984). Anxiety is demonstrated by a worrisome feeling of future events in which the person experiencing the problem is unusually tense, agitated, apprehensive and uneasy about the prospect of something unpleasant happening to them or others. Prescription drugs for anxiety are among the most widely prescribed and used in the United States, and it is estimated that every year about 18% of U.S. adults experience some form of pathological anxiety (National Institutes of Mental Health, 2013). No research we uncovered links anxiety to the absence of the WMD; however anxiety as an independent variable had a positive relationship with mobile phone addiction among Taiwanese college students (Hong, Chiu, & Huang, 2012), and had a positive association with cell phone use among American college students (Lepp et al., 2013).

Anxiety has further been identified as a component of fear of missing out (FoMO), which is operationally defined as “the fears, worries, and anxieties people may have in relation to being in (or out of) touch with the events, experiences, and conversations happening across their extended social circles” (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013, p. 1842), commonly associated with WMD use. In a study that examined relationships between technology use and psychiatric disorders, Rosen et al., 2013a, Rosen et al., 2013b discovered a link between anxiety and not being able to check in with various technologies. Having anxiety about not being able to check Facebook predicted increased symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, narcissism, and compulsive personality disorder, while anxiety about checking one’s personal e-mail predicted additional symptoms of antisocial disorder and anxiety about checking work e-mail predicted compulsive disorder. However, the authors discovered the most anxiety was propagated by not being able to check text messages, which was linked to symptoms of antisocial and paranoid personality disorders.

A group of psychiatric researchers in Brazil have defined a new disorder called Nomophobia, which describes people’s dependencies on mobile devices (King et al., 2013). This disorder refers to anxiety or discomfort caused by being out of contact with a WMD or computer, or a fear of remaining out of touch with technology, especially among those who exhibit social phobias. King et al. developed their hypothesis using case studies that described people’s reactions to the absence of their devices.

King et al.’s (2013) findings suggest that technological distractions may ease social anxiety in adults. These distractions have also been documented to ease anxiety among children during medical procedures. Studies have explored distractions ranging from music and video games to virtual reality. For example, Patel et al. (2006) found a significant decrease in anxiety in children about to undergo surgery who were given a video game to play over those who had a parent present but did not play the video game. The same findings were found among children undergoing cancer procedures (Gershon, Zimand, Pickering, Rothbaum, & Hodges, 2004). In Gershon et al.'s pilot study the children for which a virtual reality distraction was provided showed a lower pulse rate than those without it. Both of these studies indicate the significant role distractions play in situations of pain. These findings can shed light on the importance of distractions in other uncomfortable circumstances, such as having their WMDs taken away. This study’s primary goal is to further the inquiry into the WMD’s psychological impact on students by understanding how its absence may contribute to heightened levels of anxiety utilizing an experiment during which there are no alternative distractions to keep people from thinking about their device.

Many of the substance-abuse disorders in the DSM-IV list anxiety as one of the major withdrawal symptoms (Fauman, 2002). The secondary goal of this study is to advance the understanding of anxiety as a withdrawal from technology use, further informing the existing literature on WMD overuse classifications. As a fairly new and important concept among researchers, overuse of the wireless mobile device has been studied and classified in a variety of ways, none of which points to widespread accepted terminology. The existing research wavers on classifying the condition as an addiction, a compulsion or an impulse disorder (Jenaro et al., 2007, Park and Lee, 2011), or correlates addiction tendency measures with smartphone use (Wu, Cheung, Ku, & Hung, 2013). Addiction as a medical concept involves the use of chemical substances and associated behaviors. Some researchers have attempted to apply this term to mobile phone overuse using established scales that measure other concepts, while others have introduced new measures for Internet addiction that are extended to smartphone use. For example, Bianchi and Phillips (2005) examined technological addiction—which develops through behavior change, a symptom of substance addiction. The authors found high construct validity in measuring problematic mobile phone use with the Mobile Phone Problem Usage Scale, which they found was “related to an established measure of addiction—the MMPI-2 Addiction Potential Scale” (p. 47). The consensus reiterated throughout previous research, however, is the need to develop an appropriate measure to assess behaviors that exist outside the traditional concept of addiction (Boca and Brown, 1996, Jenaro et al., 2007). Jenaro et al. (2007) found a lack of significant association between cell phone overuse and additional substance abuse, and suggested that “cell phone overuse or pathological use constitute additional symptoms of broader disorders such as depression, anxiety, and so on” (p. 317). Blaszczynski (2006) asserted the need for researchers to discontinue comparing and adapting criteria of one disorder to assess another on the basis that it is most similar and instead provide empirically supported data that the disorder exhibits the salient features of an addictive disorder before further labeling it an addiction.

To further confound the understanding of WMDs' impact on people’s psychological well-being, the existing literature seems to concede that the common self-report method brings limitations to establishing accurate levels of mobile device use (Jenaro et al., 2007, Jin and Pena, 2010). In addition, Walsh et al. (2010) found that the previous research about mobile phones has focused primarily on frequency of use and does not adequately measure the interactions people have with their device as a mobile computer, and how cognitively preoccupied they were when not using it. Walsh and colleagues conceptualized the concept of mobile phone “involvement” after discovering that young people reported thinking about their phone when they did not have it and when they did have it, the device was prominently displayed, keeping it in constant awareness and causing a distraction from other tasks (Walsh and White, 2007, Walsh et al., 2008, Walsh et al., 2010).

Lortie and Guitton (2013) examined 14 questionnaires published between 1993 and 2011 that purported to measure Internet addiction. Across the 14 measures, factor analysis revealed six distinct components that related to DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence including salience, compulsive use, negative outcomes, escapism, and mood regulation. The authors pointed out the limits of current assessment tools, and suggested that “additional elements could be evaluated in questionnaires to ensure that immoderate behaviors are occurring, such as minimum time spent online” (p. 1213), duration of presented symptomology, and the severity of associated consequences such as a decline in professional or academic performance.

Without a clear label for WMD overuse or dependency, the secondary goal of the present study is to help further define the concept of WMD dependency by measuring anxiety—a symptom of substance withdrawal associated with addiction—when the wireless mobile device is taken away for a short time and there are no distractions keeping people from thinking about it.

The purposes of this study are to: (1) examine students’ anxiety levels when their device is absent—either taken by the experimenters or stowed out of sight at their seat—and there are no distractions; (2) to compare anxiety levels of those with and without their device in local proximity, and (3) to examine how WMD use habits relate to anxiety levels with or without the device nearby. It is posited that removing the mobile device from young people’s possession will cause anxiety over a very short time period, especially if no distractions exist, and that high WMD users will experience the most anxiety from having their devices removed from their possession.

With that, the following hypotheses were developed:

Hypothesis 1

Participants without the use of their device will report significantly more anxiety over time, regardless of whether they had their device taken away or it was turned off and out of sight.

Hypothesis 2

Participants without the use of their device will report significantly more anxiety than those with their device close by, even though the latter are not able to access their device.

Hypothesis 3

Participants who use their WMD more during a typical day will report significantly more anxiety than those who use their WMD less in a typical day.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants (N = 175) were recruited from a large upper division general education social science course at a mid-sized Southern California university. Twelve participants were excluded from the analyses: four participants were dismissed during the experiment because they were being disruptive or they did not follow directions; six participants who were randomly assigned to the have their WMD taken away were removed because they either did not have their phone with them or they would not

Daily WMD use

On average, participants reported spending an average of 13.58 h daily (SD = 10.73) using their WMD ranging from one hour per day to 64.50 h per day. Note that these items were phrased as independent estimates of nine WMD activities and previous research has indicated that many of these activities are done simultaneously by college students (Carrier, Cheever, Rosen, Benitez, & Chang, 2009). Across all participants, WMD usage included the following mean hours in rank order from most used to least

Discussion

This study intended to strengthen the understanding of wireless mobile device use and its classification. We sought to understand whether taking the wireless mobile device (WMD) from university students for a short time in an environment void of distractions would induce anxiety; whether those without their device would feel more anxious than students who were able to hold onto it; and whether the amount of daily WMD use would alter these outcomes. The results of the experiment yielded support

Conclusions and limitations

The goal of this study was to understand how wireless mobile device (WMD) use might cause anxiety in those who were unable to use the device for a short time. The 75-min experiment yielded important results in understanding and classifying daily WMD use. This study found that university students who were unable to use their WMDs and were forced to sit quietly with no distractions became significantly more anxious over time, even when they were aware their devices would be returned to them

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