The recent survey by researchers at the McGill University in Canada was based on usage patterns among 34,000 smartphone users in 24 countries, between the year 2014 and 2020.
The study revealed that Malaysia places third, after China and Saudi Arabia, while Germany and France ranked as the countries least addicted to smartphones.
"We conducted a meta-analysis of problematic smartphone use, focusing on young adults.
"Problematic smartphone use increased across the world between 2014 and 2020, and we expect this trend to continue," the team said in the research published in the Computers in Human Behavior journal.
The study participants were aged 15 to 35, and the majority of them (60 per cent) were female.
Researchers assigned each nation a score out of the maximum of 60 on the smartphone addiction scale, and the top three countries, China, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia, scored 36.18, 35.73, and 35.43, respectively.
Even South Korea placed fifth, with a score of 31.62, after fourth-ranker Brazil (32). Advanced countries like Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States ranked 15 to 18 respectively.
The researchers warned that increasing addiction to smartphones could lead to psychological problems, and expressed hope that the results would help researchers and policy makers to map out smartphone usage patterns and cook up ways to control it.
Source: Astro Awani
Photo source: