Mobile phone addiction: Is it a disease?
Mobile phone addiction: Is it a disease?Many people use mobile phones so much that it starts affecting their lives. But, can it really be called an 'addiction'? There is a list of diseases that doctors and psychologists treat, called the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5' (DSM-5). This list does not include 'smartphone addiction' yet, because there are not enough criteria to consider it a disease.Until the 1990s, the DSM only included addiction to intoxicants (such as alcohol and drugs). Since the 2000s, researchers have also started talking about 'behavioral addiction'. This includes gambling, gaming and excessive use of the Internet. In 2014, 'Internet gaming addiction' was included in the DSM-5 as a 'condition requiring research', but it is still not fully considered a disease. Research on mobile phone or smartphone addiction is ongoing and it may be recognized as a disease in the future.It is true that in today's era it is difficult to live without a mobile phone, but it is not impossible. We have to decide how much importance we want to give to the mobile phone in our life.Different opinions of people according to ageIn all the countries surveyed, people aged 50 years and above feel that the phone saves their time as compared to people aged 18 to 29 years. This difference is even more clear in Vietnam, tunisia and Colombia. There, most people aged above 50 years believe that the phone saves time, while the number of people who believe this among the youth is very less. It is true that young people use phones and social media more than the elders, but in all the countries except India, this difference is visible even when we pay attention to how much people of different ages use the phone. It is clear that age has an impact on whether people consider the phone to be a time saver or not.