Follow us on social networks:More and more young people from Malaga are addicted to mobile phones.|ITNews saved in your profileHaving the mobile phone in hand is a habit that is fully integrated into our daily lives.Many young people wake up and go to bed looking at the mobile.They also play, work, socialize and even do household chores with this essential tool.Have you ever had to go home to get your smartphone to avoid being incommunicado all day?In short, the mobile phone has become an extension of our body in recent years.However, the mobile, the one that 98.8% of households in the province of Malaga have and with which 86.9% of Malagans access the internet -according to the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information Technologies and the Andalusian Household Communication of 2019– is generating, in some cases, a serious social situation where adults, but especially young people, are particularly affected.The word is “dependence or hooked”, but not “addicted”, as the researcher and psychologist Christiane María Arribillaga has explained.In fact, in the latest classification of diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) «they still do not use the word addiction and speak as a pathology of a Mental Behavioral Disorder produced by excessive dedication to the Internet, online video games and pathological gambling," he acknowledges.Malagans spend approximately 3 hours and 51 minutes a day on their mobile phones, according to a study by Rastreator.Which translates to around two months a year of your life staring at your mobile phone screen.However, there are young people who spend many more hours.«The excessive use of the mobile is a remarkable indicator to recognize if there is a misuse of the mobile, but it is not the most important.Using it for many hours does not always mean being hooked, there is no need to be alarmed.Society has to be clear about whether they are using it for work or for a specific reason or because of the need it has generated," says Arribillaga.So what is the determining indicator?A study carried out by the 'Applied Positive Lab' group, of which UMA researchers Christiane Arribillaga, Natalio Extremera and Lourdes Rey are part, points out that it has to do with the study of symptoms and the state of mind of people.“It seems that people who are experiencing more negative emotions or have more depression, anxiety, higher stress level, are the ones who are in a certain way more likely to use mobile phones in a problematic way.I feel bad, I start to see social networks on the phone or I see photos that I have on the device or I check all the applications, ”acknowledged the co-author of the investigation, Arribillaga.Although the research is still under study, the psychologist, Christiane Arribillaga, has recognized that she has raised the percentage of problematic mobile phone use to around 30%.The concern does not only reach researchers interested in the subject.In consultations with psychologists and foundations, the growth of this problem has also been noted."Although technology and mobile phones have been part of our lives for years, their rapid evolution and the pandemic have caused these cases to become more accentuated," said the director of the adolescent prevention area of ​​Proyecto Hombre, Virginia Pérez, to which adds that patients do not come to consultation recognizing that they suffer from this dependency: «Mostly they are adolescents who come to consultation forced by their parents or recommended by social workers, but in most cases they do not bring them thinking that their children have a problem with the phone, but because they see negative behavior in them.We must bear in mind that many times, the mobile phone is only "the channel through which we can access other addictions such as social networks or video games," explains Arribillaga.In fact, the director of the adolescent prevention area of ​​Proyecto Hombre has assured that in most cases of girls who come for help they tend to hide behind the networks."They care about giving a good image and being recognized on social networks", while in the case of boys they tend to hide behind video games to "demonstrate strength or power".The misuse of the mobile phone can also cause different health problems and affect the routine.One of the main problems is that it affects concentration both in the academic and work spheres;It causes danger in traffic, looking at the phone constantly, there are risks for both drivers and pedestrians.In the mental case, the time spent on the mobile leads to a state of social isolation that prevents relationships with people, in addition to increasing stress or anxiety.There are also negative physical consequences for health, affecting sight, the neck and even altering the quality of sleep.News saved in your profileNews saved in your profileNews saved in your profileNews saved in your profile© La Opinion de Málaga, SL All rights reserved