Korean Journal of Addiction Psychology

Abstract

This study is an inquiry into the phenomenon of adolescents' dependence on smartphones, and attempted to study the experiences of adolescents, who are the smartphone users, from a phenomenological perspective. Five students who were diagnosed with high-risk smartphone over-dependence on smartphones were selected to express their experiences and reveal their problems according to the "2020 Youth Internet and Smartphone Usage Diagnosis Survey" conducted at a middle school in G city in Korea. The collected data were analyzed and described based on the phenomenological research methodology to derive 26 meaning units, which were summarized into 9 subcategories and 4 top categories. The experiences of adolescents' dependence on smartphones derived through this study are as follows. First, participants have continuously used smartphones for a long time since childhood. Second, participants search for information in fields of interest or explore the surrounding world that they cannot experience in person. Third, participants establish and manage interpersonal relationships such as exchange and information sharing with friends using various messenger applications, and receive comfort from loneliness. Fourth, despite recognizing that there is a problem with their smartphone usage time, participants continue to rely on smartphones due to social changes such as the fun of smartphones, the influence of friends who use them together, and COVID-19, and their willingness to control smartphone over-dependence is weak. Finally, the limitations of this study and suggestions for follow-up studies were discussed.