A new study has revealed the countries with the worst smartphone addiction problems, and China, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia have ranked top three.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada studied smartphone usage among nearly 34,000 people in 24 countries around the world between 2014 and 2020, and published their findings in the journal Computers in Human Behavior (via Daily Mail).

Surprisingly, US ranked 18, while Germany and France were the lowest in the list.

smartphone addiction index global

The Smartphone Addiction Scale is widely used to measure smartphone addiction. It includes aspects related to impact on daily life, uncontrolled use of mobile phones, and withdrawal from smartphone addiction.

The subjects were between 15 and 35 years old, with an average age of 28.8 years, and the majority of the subjects were women (60%).

Researchers also calculated each country’s problematic smartphone use, ranging from 10 to 60. China ranked highest, with a score of 36 out of 60.

The possible reasons behind different scores in different countries were speculated to be social norms and cultural expectations related to motivation to stay connected via smartphones. Countries like Germany and France are “individualistic and culturally loose,” making them less likely to promote such norms.

All in all, it was found that problematic smartphone use is growing globally and can result in “psychological consequences.”

“We conducted a meta-analysis of problematic smartphone use, focusing on young adults,” the research team said in the paper, “Problematic smartphone use increased across the world between 2014 and 2020, and we expect this trend to continue.”

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