It is undeniable that the availability of smartphones has positively revolutionized so many things. For one, communication has been facilitated. However, on the other side of the coin, the great availability of such devices has also led smartphone addiction to become a rampant and growing concern.
A study published in the National Library of Medicine aimed to gauge the diagnostic criteria of smartphone addiction. According to this study, smartphone addiction includes dread, irritability, or anxiety when one lacks access to the smartphone. Smartphone addiction also reportedly led to significant interference in a person's relationships or commitments and a dampened capacity to think in-depth.
Addiction in and of itself is already a problematic issue. What makes things worse is that it impacts other areas of life as well.
Smartphone Addiction Affects Creativity
For one, a recent neuroimaging study reported smartphone addiction's negative impact on a person's creativity. The study was conducted by a research team in China and published in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
The study's abstract states that smartphone usage has surged with the global health crisis and led to the rampancy of smartphone addiction. The study further states how smartphone addiction specifically impacts the brain's creative capacity.
Participants of the study were 18 to 25-year-old students from Shaanxi Normal University. They were identified using the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS). Half of the participants scored low and were dubbed as the healthy control (HC) group. The remaining half scored high and were included in the experimental or smartphone addiction tendency (SAT) group.
All participants did not take any medication that could impact the functioning of their nervous system. Other than that, none of them had other behavioral addictions.
The study results showed that the temporal regions and prefrontal cortex had lesser activity in the SAT experimental group compared to the HC control group. Other than that, when it came to useful connectivity in resting states and active tasks, the coupling between the temporal regions and prefrontal cortex was also weaker in the SAT group compared to the HC control group.
Moreover, the researchers also noted how the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-which is responsible for several general executive functions-also, mediated the impact of smartphone addiction on one's creative functioning.
While there are certain limitations to the study, such findings show that smartphone addiction has a negative impact on a person's creative cognition that is worth exploring further.
Ways to Deal With Smartphone Addiction
The case of smartphone addiction has become undeniably rampant. For those who are dealing with this concern, CNN notes a number of tips to combat this. These tips include scheduling timeouts, banning certain apps, going black-and-white, substituting smartphone usage with other activities, and using old-fashion alarm clocks.
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