Adolescents Suspended in the Space-Time: Problematic Use of Smartphone between Dissociative Symptoms and Flow Experiences

Abstract

Based on current digital culture, this chapter aims to provide an updated view of dissociative experiences as no-psychopathological symptoms of flow experiences. It has been hypothesized that prolonged exposures to smartphone screens could be a predictor of altered states of consciousness (flow) and that sometimes these prolonged exposures could degenerate into dissociative phenomena. Participants were 643 high school students aged between 13 and 23 years (M = 16.08; SD = 1.79). They were asked to answer four self-report questionnaires about the habits of smartphone usage, the perception of problematic smartphone use, and the assessment of dissociative symptoms and experiences (e.g., bizarre sensory experiences, absorption and imaginative involvement [AII], depersonalization and derealization). Gender differences emerged both in smartphone usage habits and some dissociative scales. Two gender-specific stepwise linear regressions showed that problematic smartphone use is one of the stronger predictors of dissociative symptoms. Results support the idea that in an adolescents’ community sample prolonged exposition to smartphone screens plays a role in the manifestation of dissociative symptoms. This is closely connected with experiences of AII, which could reinforce the use of devices contributing significantly to establishing a causal circularity between smartphone prolonged usage and AII phenomena.