Smartphones often cause its users to have an obsessive need to check every incoming message or notification (Deal, 2015). This obsession has caused some users to feel ghost vibrations from their smartphones for incoming messages or notifications that never occur (Sanglap, 2012) . Such obsessive behaviour has resulted in smartphone stress (Sanglap, 2012). According to Samir Parikh, smartphone stress can lead to stress-related disorders , poor lifestyle choices, disrupted sleep cycles and social alienation (Healthmania, 2016); which in turn result in higher stress levels. Samir Parikh’s theory is further supported by Koivusilta Leena’s study, which shows that there is a strong association between smartphone usage and poor lifestyle choices. In her study, users with higher smartphones usage tend to have poorer lifestyle choices as they are more likely to consume alcohol and smoke (Leena, Tomi, & Arja, 2005). [Maybe I can replace this part with ANOTHER experiment that shows smartphone usage of poorer lifestyles in terms of sickness,,,...diet…, etc.] Sara Thomee and ther team’s findings of her team also came to a similar conclusion that smartphone usage can lead to an increase in sleep disorders, and depression (Gustafsson, Thomee, Grimby-Ekman, & Hagberg, 2016) .





Smartphones worsen our interpersonal relationships
The proliferation of smartphones has resulted in a new social phenomenon known as “Phubbing”. Phubbing is a term created by the combination of the words phone and snubbing. It refers to a person interacting with their phone rather than interacting with a human being. In a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre, about 90 percent of the participants admitted to phubbing in social settings, at the dinner table and even the bedroom (Austin, 2015). Phubbing is a serious problem that can ruin not only ruin our relationships but also caused depression. This is proven in a study conducted by professor James A. Roberts with 450 participants, whereas 22.6% of the participants said ismartphones caused relationship problems and 36.6% of participatns reported feeling depressed (Roberts & David, 2016).
Smartphones have also led to the decline in the quality of real life interactions. In a naturalistic field experiment, researchers found that conversations in the presence of smartphones were less fulfilling and more shallow (Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan, 2014). People who converse without pulling out their smartphones are more empathetic and felt stronger connections with each other (Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan, 2014). A study by Przybylski and Weinstein showed similar results that proveding that smartphones do ruin interpersonal relationships. In the experiments, the researchers noted that smartphones have negative impacts on closeness, connection and conversation quality, especially during very intimate moments (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2012).
Smartphone use can also negatively affect one’s interpersonal skills, preventing them from building quality relationships. It first affects one’s interpersonal skills by reducing the opportunity of one has to have face-to-face interactions with people. A study conducted in 2010 showed that the more members of our society spend using their smartphones, the less time they spend in person with family and friends (H. Nie & Erbring, 2002). Although communicating via smartphone is convenient but, it lacks non-verbal social cues and consequently lacks the social presence (Sproull & Kiesler, 1986) that is are critical elements of developing good interpersonal skills.