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The digitalization of everyday life has become a common place reality for more than half of the global population. Being connected 24/7 on several devices, being only one click/touch away from a huge amount of digital content, being available for interactions with almost any users from around the globe have become routine. In this paper, we identify the main sociological dimensions of the so-called Homo interneticus—a new manifestation of the human condition—on the basis of new communication technologies. The main research question was: Is time spent online a valid predictor of smartphone addiction? We conducted an experimental survey using a standard online questionnaire incorporating the Smartphone Addiction Scale—Short Version, followed by a request to upload screen captures recording respondents’ phone use during the previous week. We gathered 140 responses between May and July 2019. These were anonymously analyzed. The consistency between self-estimates and phone logs that we found gives encouragement for the development of this approach. A main finding is that the daily time spent on smartphone use is not in itself a strong predictor of addiction. Our research suggests that future studies should distinguish types of usage and investigate motivational springs.
Nadolu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.