Mobile phones have become the most prevalent communication devices which are utilized

for interpersonal communication, socialization, and professional tasks. According to

International Telecommunication Union’s report (2014), global mobile-cellular penetration
rate reaches 96% in 2014 and the Asia-Pacific region leads the growth. With 3G/4G network
advancements, affordable smartphones which integrate feature phones' communication
functions, mobile internet, and mobile applications diffuse rapidly in recent years. Industry
reports forecast that nearly 63% of all mobile phone users globally will own a smartphone by
2020 (GSMA Intelligence, 2015). Among various demographics, youths and teens lead the
growth of smartphone ownership worldwide (Ericsson, 2014; Nielsen Newswire, 2012).
However, the increasing significance of smartphone activities among the youth are likely to
result to a high degree of dependency.
Following the lines of game and Internet addiction studies, scholars who consider
mobile addiction pathological define it as a maladaptive pattern of mobile device use
resulting in psychological impairment (Leung, 2008a; 2008b). Some argue that mobile
addiction shows less severe pathological symptoms than substance addictions such as alcohol
and gaming addiction (Carbonell, Oberst and Beranuy, 2013). There are no definite criteria to
classify mobile addiction across age groups. When social interaction of digital natives is
usually interwoven with mobile phones, Hyman (2013) argues that staying constantly in
touch with social circles is an emerging norm rather than an addiction. This study selects to
investigate smartphone dependency in order to avoid the inherently negative notion of mobile
addiction which lacks measurements to detect addicts in different age groups and contexts.
More and more young people are used to keeping perpetual contact of mobile phones,
which shapes their social connectivity and turns into dependency of these personal gadgets
(Rice and Hagen, 2010). Excessive mobile phone use has received increasing media and
research attention which primarily focus on contributing factors and negative outcomes of
mobile addiction on teenagers and youths (Leung, 2008a; Hyman, 2013). Young age is found
to predict elevated actual use of mobile phones and show more dependency symptoms
(Billieux, Van der Linden and Rochat, 2008). Many studies have examined the relations
between young people's personal traits and their addiction to feature phones (Bianchi and
Phillips, 2005; Harrison and Gilmore, 2012) or text messaging (Atchley and Warden, 2012;