Research – Phone Sabbath
Andrew Lepp, Jian Li, Jacob E. Barkley and Saba Salehi-Esfahani surveyed 454 American university students on their mobile phone usage, personality traits, and dimensions of their experience with leisure activities (the time when students use their phones most), including boredom, challenge, distress and awareness. The researchers found those who used their phones for over 10 hours a day experienced significantly higher levels of distress during their leisure time, and were more susceptible to boredom, than those who use their phones for 3 hours per day. The “Low Use Extrovert” experienced significantly less boredom, greater preference for challenge, and greater awareness of opportunities than the other groups.
Access an abstract here:
Exploring the relationships between college students’ cell phone use, personality and leisure
(If you have any problems following links in our research, then please copy and paste the text from our footnote* into your browser top bar)
Andrew Lepp, Jacob E. Barkley and Aryn C. Karpinski investigated the relationship between total mobile phone use and texting with life satisfaction in a large sample of university students in America. The study concluded there is a strong association between high frequency mobile phone users performing worse academically and having a higher level of anxiety than their peers who use their phones less. This in turn has a negative impact on their well-being and happiness.
Read an abstract here:
Jung-Hyun Kim, Mihye Seo and Prabu David highlight in this study a vicious circle where depressed people often rely on their mobile phones to alleviate stress and negative feelings by spending more time on communication activities. However, their usage tends to deteriorate into engaging in “problematic use of mobile phones”, having a negative effect on their well-being. The author’s found face-to-face communication can help break this negative cycle.
Find the study here:
The Video
Need some inspiration to turn off your phones? Watch this short video:
To see more reasons on why it is a good thing to occasionally turn off your phones then refresh yourself on what the research has to say about digital detoxes (Day 6) and the importance of not comparing yourself to others (Day 7).
Footnote*
(If you have any problems following links in our research, then please copy and paste the text below relating to the article you wish to see into your browser top bar)
Andrew Lepp, Jian Li, Jacob E. Barkley and Saba Salehi-Esfahani
Exploring the relationships between college students’ cell phone use, personality and leisure
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214005822
Andrew Lepp, Jacob E. Barkley and Aryn C. Karpinski
The relationship between cell phone use, academic performance, anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in college students
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262818605_There%27s_Probably_an_App_For_This_How_We_Identified_a_Relationship_Between_Cell_Phone_Use_Academic_Performance_Anxiety_and_Happiness
Jung-Hyun Kim, Mihye Seo and Prabu David
Alleviating depression only to become problematic mobile phone users: Can face-to-face communication be the antidote?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277561685_Alleviating_depression_only_to_become_problematic_mobile_phone_users_Can_face-to-face_communication_be_the_antidote
The Video
I forgot my phone