Cross-generational analysis of predictive factors of addictive behavior in smartphone usage

The term “smartphone” first came into use in 1997 when Ericsson, the Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer, described its newly developed Penelope GS88 mobile phone, as a smartphone. This designation came to signify a new category in the mobile phone market, comprised of phones which offered combined services of communication, computerization, voice communication, text messaging, personal information management applications, and wireless communication capabilities (Davey and Davey, 2014). Smartphones offer many additional advantages, notably, that they enable users to communicate unencumbered by the constraints of physical proximity and mobility, as well as their contribution to successful text messaging-based health interventions (such as diabetes self-management and ending nicotine dependence) (Billieux, 2012). Simultaneously with the rising demand for smartphones, and despite their allure to consumers and the fact that they embody significant innovation in the field of information and communication technologies, there is an increasing amount of research into their less beneficial sides, and in particular, addictive usage behavior (Park and Less, 2013) – the phenomenon which is the subject of this study. Significant research has been conducted in recent years on the topic of smartphone addiction, and has produced various approaches to studying this phenomenon as well as a range of variables found to influence the development of the addictive behavior, such as: personality, psychological and emotional parameters, and demographic parameters of education, gender, and age. However, despite a growing number of ___________________________________________________ ה הירפס עדימ ידומילל Library of Information Science רב תטיסרבינוא לארשי ,ןג תמר ,ןליא Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 .לט 972-3-5318163 Tel. Email: [email protected] Website: http://is.biu.ac.il/library studies on the topic, no cross-generational study examining the different causes of smartphone addictive behavior has been conducted, neither has one been done in Israel. Despite the fact that previous studies point to significant variation in the way different generations use new technology (Charness& Bosman, 1992; Lenhart, Purcell, Smith &Zickuhr, 2010) most of the research into the use and problematic use of smartphones has focused on the youth population and college students, a sample belonging to just one generational cohort (Munasnighe, 2016; Ezoe and Toda, 2013; Albarashdi et al, 2015; Park and Park, 2014; Davey, 2014).