Introduction

In recent years, an increasing number of people have been spending more time on digital devices, with mobile phones being the most popular among them. Phones have proven to be accessible and easy to use, combining a range of helpful tools which make life easier and more enjoyable for most. However, some features of mobile phones risk causing dependency. With instant communication through chat apps, the notification sound can cause dopamine to be triggered in the brain of the user – similar to a thrill from a surprise. The endless entertainment, from online videos to video games, is designed to maintain the user’s attention with algorithms designed to provide recommended video suggestions tailored to each user’s preferences. These features pose the rise of phone dependency. This paper will examine how mental processes – specifically memory, attention span, focus and emotions – are affected by phone dependency through long-term exposure. 

I. Memory

The mental processes needed to effectively generate or recall memories or information can be interrupted by the presence of a mobile phone. In 2017, Ward et al. conducted a study with 520 smartphone users as participants, divided into three groups: the desk conditions group, who entered the laboratory setting and were instructed to place their silenced phones face down on the desk, had high salience; the pocket/bag conditions group, who could store their silenced phones in their bag or pocket, had medium salience; and the other room conditions group, who stored their phones in a different room, had low salience. All participants were asked to remember randomly generated letter sequences while finishing numerous mathematical problems simultaneously in order to measure their working memory capacity (WMC). Those who were part of the desk conditions group performed lower than those in the other room conditions group, as their ability to focus on the task at hand was compromised and thus their recall was affected (Ward et al., 2017). These findings suggest that removing the presence of a mobile phone could have a beneficial effect, yet that is not the case for someone with a high phone dependence.

Separation from mobile phones can cause severe anxiety for individuals who have high phone dependency, which can in turn affect memory. Tanil and Yong (2020) examined how mental recall can be negatively affected by emotional change. They did this by asking participants to complete a memory recall task, having removed their phones beforehand to ensure an increase in separation anxiety. They found that participants who had higher phone dependency had more negative effects than those with less phone dependency (Tanil & Yong, 2020). Negative effects included anxiety, less accurate memory recall and increased mental strain. When the phone was separated from someone with high phone dependency, they found that after ten minutes of separation, the symptoms of nomophobia (the fear of losing or being separated from the phone) appeared (Tanil & Yong, 2020). 

Furthermore, mobile phones regularly act as an external memory storage device, providing a consistent place for users to refer to information. Kaspersky Lab (2015) explored the concept of this digital amnesia, commissioning 6,000 of their customers to participate in a survey. 52% of respondents trusted their mobile phones with information they could not remember, while 32% admitted they use digital devices as extensions of their memory. Only 21% of respondents used their own memory for basic things, while 53% used their mobile phones for notes, 30% for emails/texts and 32% for online calendars to store information (Kaspersky Lab, 2015). Phone dependency decreases the amount of information stored in our short- and long-term memory as mobile phones and digital devices double as a memory bank. 

II. Attention Span and Focus

With the growing rise of technology has come several controversies and numerous points of discussion. Mainly, how does technology affect attention spans, specifically those of teenagers and children, and does it prove addictive in any capacity? Children and adolescents are at their most malleable, and excessive or downright harmful use of technology can prove detrimental to their development. Furthermore, this is a particularly major concern for those who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is not only tied to concentration but to an increased likelihood of addiction.

Firstly, the risks of excessive screen use in early childhood development should be noted. According to Muppalla et al. (2023), “screens can improve education and learning; however, too much time spent in front of a screen and multitasking with other media has been correlated with inferior executive functioning skills, as well as poor academic performance. As screen time reduces the amount and quality of interactions between children and their caregivers, it can also have an impact on language development”. In addition, the study found that screen time can negatively impact health, both physically and mentally, by augmenting the risk of obesity and sleeping disorders (Muppalla et al., 2023). 

Furthermore, it is worth acknowledging how excessive use of technology affects those with ADHD in particular. Those with ADHD are more susceptible to developing addictive behaviours, which can be exacerbated by technology. For instance, video games offer instant rewards from tasks which do not necessarily require full attention. Weiss et al. (2011) state that “ADHD children may be vulnerable since these games operate in brief segments that are not attention demanding. In addition, they offer immediate rewards with a strong incentive to increase the reward by trying the next level”. Similarly, Cavalli et al. (2021) describe how children with ADHD who have screens in their bedrooms tend to suffer from worsening symptoms of the disorder.

The collected evidence supports the claim that the excessive utilisation of screens and technology has a detrimental effect on the developing brains of children and adolescents, which can lead to addiction further down the line, especially in those who suffer from ADHD.

III. Emotion

The integration of mobile phones comes with growing concerns about emotional wellbeing. Phone dependency, often referred to as mobile phone addiction or smartphone addiction, goes beyond habit; it embodies compulsive usage patterns marked by loss of control, withdrawal symptoms and tolerance akin to behavioural addictions (Shang et al., 2024). Emotionally, the repercussions are far-reaching. Studies such as Zhu et al.’s (2025) research repeatedly associate mobile phone dependency with heightened anxiety, depression and overall negative effects. These emotional disturbances often impair daily functioning, lower life satisfaction and distort one’s ability to manage stress and negative feelings effectively (Zhu et al., 2025). Importantly, mechanisms such as rumination, negative coping styles and impaired emotion regulation have been found to mediate the emotional fallout tied to phone dependency (Liu et al., 2022).

To understand how phone dependency impacts emotions, it is essential to unpack the underlying psychological and cognitive mechanisms. Mobile phone addiction often correlates with elevated perceived stress. The previously mentioned 2022 study involving Chinese and Czech university students found that addictive mobile phone use exacerbates stress caused by an unhealthy pattern of repetitively focusing on negative thoughts, which blocks effective emotion regulation (Liu et al., 2022). Individuals caught in such cycles not only experience emotional distress but also reinforce their dependency, as they use phones to distract from rumination, perpetuating the cycle. Lu et al. (2021) revealed a moderate positive correlation between mobile phone addiction and negative coping styles, such as avoidance, fantasy and denial (r ≈ 0.31). These maladaptive strategies serve as temporary emotional exits, where individuals rely on their phones to “escape” rather than confront stress, effectively diminishing emotional resilience (Lu et al., 2021). Adolescents reacting to negative life events may suppress emotional expressions. This suppression can lead to accumulated negative emotions, which in turn increase reliance on mobile phones as a maladaptive emotional outlet (Ji et al., 2025). Over time, phone dependency may become the default for managing distress rather than healthy emotional expression. In essence, smartphone addiction fosters emotional distress through a trio of mechanisms: rumination that locks in negative thoughts, negative coping styles that avoid emotion and suppression that feeds dependency. Together, these processes compromise individuals’ capacity to regulate emotions adaptively.

Beyond individual psychology, social context plays a crucial role in the emotional consequences of phone dependency. Factors such as lack of social support, fear of missing out (FOMO) and emotional isolation can both contribute to dependency and worsen emotional outcomes. Zhong et al. (2025) found that lower levels of perceived social support and self-control were positively associated with smartphone addiction. When emotional needs go unmet in real life, individuals turn to phones as compensatory tools, which can backfire and perpetuate emotional instability (Zhong et al., 2025). Similarly, the study highlights that the fear of missing out predicts mobile phone addiction, and this relationship is mediated by depression. Loneliness further intensifies the effect, revealing that emotionally vulnerable individuals are more susceptible to phone dependency as they seek connection. When social needs are unmet, individuals may rely on smartphones to fill emotional voids. However, low social support, FOMO and isolation deepen emotional distress and amplify dependency, establishing a feedback loop that intensifies negative emotional outcomes.

Phone dependency does not simply coincide with emotional problems; it also contributes to them, including heightened anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, reduced life satisfaction and even diminished creativity. The meta-analysis from earlier revealed that college students showed moderate positive correlations between mobile phone addiction and anxiety (r ≈ 0.39), depression (r ≈ 0.36), impulsivity (r ≈ 0.38) and poor sleep quality (r ≈ 0.28) (Lu et al., 2021). Moreover, disrupted sleep plays a key mediating role in this chain; poor sleep undermines emotional regulation, heightening anxiety and depressive symptoms. Among college students, mobile phone addiction has been significantly linked to increased negative emotions and reduced life satisfaction (Shang et al., 2024). Depression and negative emotional interference are central to this decline, reinforcing the detrimental emotional atmosphere fostered by device dependency. Additionally, smartphone addiction not only elevated negative emotions (b ≈ 0.568, p < 0.001) but also impaired creative thinking (b ≈ –0.158, p < 0.001). Importantly, perceived social support could mitigate these effects, hinting that emotional context shapes how phone dependency affects cognitive and emotional outcomes.

The effects of phone dependency has revealed how deeply integrated devices can disrupt our internal and social worlds. At the individual level, mechanisms like rumination, dependence on maladaptive coping strategies and emotional suppression undermine emotional resilience. Socially, absent emotional support, loneliness and FOMO deepen emotional vulnerabilities and propel people further into device reliance. This dependency, in turn, manifests in elevated anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, diminished life satisfaction, and even reduced creative potential. A striking feature across all this research is the presence of feedback loops: emotional distress drives increased phone use; phone use then exacerbates emotional distress. For instance, anxiety may lead individuals to seek comfort via their phones, yet this often exacerbates insomnia and amplifies worry. Negative emotions may spur rumination, which again pushes one back toward phone use that prolongs emotional dysregulation. Social isolation drives dependency; dependency deepens isolation; life satisfaction erodes, stimulating further reliance on digital escapism.

Conclusion

The impact of technology and phone dependency on memory, attention span, focus and emotion has proved undeniable. Addressing these challenges requires multi-level intervention.

First, encouraging healthier emotion regulation can help break the rumination-dependency cycle that feeds excessive phone dependency. Recognising negative coping and replacing it with more adaptive strategies is critical. Second, strengthening social support: Zhong et al. (2025) show that robust social networks reduce addiction risk by buffering negative emotions and bolstering self-control. Fostering real-world connections, community and belonging can protect emotional integrity. Third, improving sleep and physical routines: since sleep disruption is a central mediator of emotional harm, interventions like digital curfews, blue-light filters and bedtime routines can aid emotional stability. Finally, people need to be educated on this issue. Awareness campaigns, digital literacy programmes and school-based emotional support could teach healthier technology habits and emotional resilience, particularly among youth.

The evolving research highlights that by mapping the mechanisms, social catalysts and consequences of phone addiction, we gain a blueprint for intervention. Emotional and physical health in the digital age depends not on demonising technology, but on cultivating awareness, balance, human connection and skills that outlast the immediate comforts of digital distraction. As we look ahead, integrating this knowledge into education, therapy, parenting and design (e.g., reducing persuasive digital features) may help foster healthier emotional ecosystems where technology supports our emotional lives.

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