Is Smartphone Usage Linked to Poor Mental Health? Look at What This Study Says

Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, be it for kids, adults, or teenagers there are no boundaries that can define the importance of these smart gadgets in our lives. With the ongoing advancement in technology, the involvement of smartphones is just going to increase.

Since people of all ages are getting addicted to phones, it raises concerns about their health. It is not a hidden fact that there are adverse effects of using phones when you use them excessively and unnecessarily.

Similarly, a recent study by Hanyang University Medical Center in South Korea highlighted that teenagers who are using phones for excessive hours a day have a higher rate of getting into substance abuse and poor mental health.

---

The Study About Smartphone Usage

Using a phone for more than 4 months can affect mental health (Image by Freepik on Freepik)

The study was based on the data taken from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey which was conducted from 2017 to 2020. The study mainly focused on the daily phone usage. The study focused on the data obtained from 50,000 teenagers.

The highlight of the study was found to be that teenagers who used smartphones for more than 4 hours a day showed high rates of stress, more suicidal thoughts, obesity, and substance use. Researchers also found that 85.7 percent of participants used smartphones for more than 2 hours in the year 2020.

Moreover, the study also revealed a shocking statistic that says that teens who used phones for one to two hours a day faced lower chances of facing the issues than those who did not use phones at all.

Thus, 2 hours may be taken as a healthy screen time to use the phone, reducing the side effects of using smartphones.

Jong Ho Cha one of the co-authors of the study said:

“Smartphones have become essential platforms in the lives of young people. Adolescents’ daily lives are connected to smartphones for various purposes, and this trend has been accelerated by school closures and social distancing due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As smartphone usage time increases, growing evidence suggests that the smartphone is related to many adverse health effects among adolescents.”

---

How to reduce screen time?

Reducing screen time (Image by Freepik on Freepik)

Reducing screen time can be quite a hard path to go on. To reduce it one should start by keeping track of your screen time by taking a look at the time you are spending on your phone other than your work.

Not using it while eating and going to the bathroom will help you limit your excessive use of smartphones.

---

The study highlights the important issue of excessive use of smartphones in our daily lives which should be dealt with while there is time. While there are benefits of smartphone usage it has its fair share of detrimental health effects be it mentally or physically.

In a nutshell, we can say that smartphones can be helpful in numerous ways but using them excessively can harm your overall health.