AWARENESS IN CHRONIC ADOLESCENT PHONE USERS

Abstract

Contemporary discourse on adolescents who engage in heavy phone use often presupposes they lack awareness of their phone use behaviour. However, research into the link between awareness and phone use remains not only inconclusive, but also often overlooks the adolescent demographic. This study hence tested if adolescents who engage in heavy phone use are less aware of their own behaviour than their peers. We used a longitudinal design, collecting usage data over 7 days, to determine heavy and light adolescent smartphone use. To assess an adolescent’s usage awareness, heavy and light users were compared across two key areas: ability to accurately estimate daily phone use duration, and scores on a habitual phone use scale. Results indicated that not only were heavy users significantly less accurate in making estimates, they also did not rate themselves higher on the subjective measure. Taken together, our findings suggest that adolescents who are heavy phone users suffer from poorer awareness of their own usage behaviour. This study hence provides support for the current direction of healthy phone use programs, and hopefully can lead to useful takeaways for parents and educators.