Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction and its Correlates in a Sample of Ain Shams University Students

Abstract

he smartphone, in English, is defined as a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer .they are popular devices capable of processing more information than other phones; they include many features such as games, access to the Internet and social networks, messaging, videos, multimedia, and navigation, in addition to their use for communication. Access to the Internet is increasingly easy due to improvements in mobile technology and the prevalence of smartphones (Abo Jedi, 2008). There were 4.55 billion mobile phone users worldwide in 2014, of whom 1.75 billion were smartphone users (EMarketer, 2014). In a Korean Study, it was reported that 58% of adults owned smartphones, while 84% of college students in Korea used smartphones in 2011 (Park & Lee, 2012). This rate was 56% in 2013 for the United States (Smith, 2013), 79% in 2012 for Switzerland (Willemse et al., 2012), and 72% in 2013 for Germany among 12–19-year-olds (Medienpädagogischer, 2013). The booming use of smartphones and the fact that these phones encompass many features have raised the issue of smartphone addiction (Kwon et al., 2013). Smartphone addiction is similar in many aspects to Internet addiction (Kim, 2013). Yet, there are also some differences, such as the easy portability, real-time Internet access and easy and direct communication features of smartphones which can make it n be much more dangerous than other behvioral addictions (Kwon et al., 2013).