New Study Finds Phone Use Habits Matter More Than Hours

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Acta Psychologica links excessive smartphone scrolling to poor memory, reduced attention, disrupted sleep, and balance issues.

“Personality alone … does not make someone addicted to their phone”

Key Factors Behind Problematic Phone Use

Researchers at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary found that a weak sense of self-control and fear of missing out, or FOMO, rather than personality alone, were key factors behind problematic phone use.

Study Lead Researcher Explains

Johanna Takács, a senior research fellow at Semmelweis University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and the study’s lead researcher, said in a release that personality alone does not make someone addicted to their phone.

Three Types of Smartphone Users Identified

The researchers surveyed 225 Hungarian university students ages 18 to 34 to identify three types of smartphone users: pure social, light process, and heavy process users.

Pure Social Users

Pure social users mostly used their phones to send messages and keep in touch with people, staying under five hours of daily use.

Light Process Users

Light process users combined socializing with news, entertainment, and scrolling but stayed under roughly five hours of daily phone use.

Heavy Process Users

Heavy process users made up about one-third of participants, spending five or more hours daily on their phones, mostly consuming content rather than communicating.

Heavy Process Users Show Higher Problems

This group showed the highest levels of problematic use and FOMO, along with the lowest levels of self-control, and performed worse on memory and attention tasks.

Heavy Process Users Report Poorer Sleep

Heavy process users also reported poorer sleep and had the lowest levels of self-control among the three groups.