Profiles of Problematic Smartphone Users: A Comparison of South Korean and U.S. College Students

There is increasing public concern in Asian countries over the effects of increased mobile media use on individuals and society. Chief among these concerns is the fear that young people are becoming addicted to internet-enabled “smartphones.” The current research seeks to determine the antecedents and consequences of smartphone addiction (i.e., problematic smartphone use), using samples from South Korea (N = 241) and the U.S. (N = 222). In both samples, we find that lower levels of self-control and higher levels of need for belonging are both uniquely associated with problematic smartphone use and that checking social media is the type of phone use exhibiting the strongest association with problematic use. This suggests that problematic smartphone use is not culturally specific, and that self-regulatory and social components both contribute to its development.