New Delhi: Internet addiction is defined as any online-related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones, and one’s work environment. Internet addiction has been called Internet dependency and Internet compulsivity.
Internet addiction is the reason why people often snub social companion to concentrate on their smartphones, suggests a new research. According to researchers, addiction to internet has proliferated this behavior — known as phubbing — wherein they are prompted to ‘phub’ as well as experience being ‘phubbed’ in social situations.
The term “phubbing” represents the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by concentrating on one’s phone instead of talking to the person directly.
The findings revealed that internet addiction, fear of missing out and lack of self-control predicated smartphone addiction. This addiction, in turn, was directly linked to people phubbing behavior. ”This experience of phubbing and of being phubbed themselves made people more likely to think that phubbing was ‘normal’ behavior,” said the Varoth Chotpitayasunondh from the University of Kent in Britain.
The study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, was designed to examine some of the psychological antecedents and consequences of phubbing behavior.