Technically speaking, “phone addiction” isn’t a real medical condition, at least according to the bible of psychiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In the case of “phone addiction”, however, a similar dismissal feels overly flippant, if only because the term has become a part of everyday discourse. Murthy, the surgeon general, condemned social media companies’ “utter lack” of accountability and offered support for an electronic warning label on social media, like those already on cigarette packages. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PABeyond such theatrical comparisons, some scientists have also sought to legitimize phone addiction by surrounding the phrase with a cast of characters. For Hansen, “there’s no question” that creating a diagnosis around phone addiction would promote a similar kind of segregation.

Source: The Guardian January 04, 2024 15:47 UTC