Problematic Smartphone Use and Its Associations With Personality Traits and Hedonic Motivation

Abstract

Smartphones provide users with a variety of features such as the ability to interact with friends, play games, and update social networking sites. While smartphones can provide their users with considerable enjoyment, they can also result in distractions and unnecessary use impairing daily life. This paper investigates how problematic smartphone use (PSU) is influenced by different personality traits and hedonic motivation. An empirical study of smartphone users (n = 142) suggests that that people higher in openness and extraversion are more prone to PSU. Furthermore, neuroticism is positively associated with hedonic motivation, which again is positively related to PSU. The nature of the smartphone use among 73.2% of the respondents suggest that their use is problematic. Whereas personality traits and hedonic motivation have been studied in the broader domain of technology and human behavior, this study contributes to research by looking specifically at problematic technology use where research is relatively scarce. The paper ends with suggestions for future research.