Massive rise in smartphone addiction; users complain of relationship being affected: Vivo Survey

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health and well-being of the youth and one of the most important reasons being an addiction to smartphones. The key findings of a study by Vivo and Cyber Media Research said that heightened dependency on smartphones has been a reason to worry about for many users in its study titled ‘Smartphones and their impact on human relationships 2020’

The research in its second edition studies the impact of pandemics and how users even with knowing about their addiction towards smartphone are unable to do much about curbing it. Nipun Marya, Director Brand Strategy of Vivo that partnered with Cyber Media in the study said that excessive use of smartphones is impacting human relationships and this is against their brand value.

Even when users had spent more time with family during lockdown and work from home but the average time spent on the phones increased. A daily hour usage of smartphone has also increased since 2019. Where last year average times spent on a smartphone in a day was 4.5 hours, it has increased 39 per cent to 7 hours now, Maurya highlighted.

Increasing work from home scenes is the most responsible for increasing time spent on smartphones, Office work jumped by 75 per cent followed by calling by 63 per cent, video consumption by 56 per cent, OTT by 59 per cent, gaming by 44 per cent and time spent on social media by 55 per cent, Users worrying about smartphone addiction also said that this is impacting their relationship with loves ones.

Moreover, 88 per cent people accepted that people in their company complained about using the phone in a social gathering with others. Nearly 46 per cent said they are bowed down by a compulsive urge of checking phone at least 5 times in an hour. 70 per cent of the sample complained of smartphone affecting mental and physical health, 84 per cent check their phones first thing in the morning, 15 minutes within waking up.

The report further highlighted that users carry the smartphone for all kinds of activity from eating with the family to working out, in the living room or bedroom. It also pointed out that higher age group has more addiction towards smartphones. The devices also impact moods swings as 74 per cent said they felt irritable without smartphones in their hand compared to 33 per cent last year and 73 per cent users feel alienated without their smartphones, a big jump from 39 per cent in 2019.

Surprisingly though, users are aware of their smartphone addiction sand 73 per cent of them accept that they can be happier without it sometimes. Yet periodically switching of phone or not taking it along is done only by 18 per cent.

The study was conducted on a sample size of 2000 people, youth housewives, working professionals of age group spanning between 15-45 years, belonging to top Indian cities which are Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Around 70 per cent males and 30 per cent females were quizzed during the survey.