Smartphone addiction among children, adolescents and teenagers: mapping emerging and future direction

Abstract

This study explores the fundamental knowledge structure of smartphone addiction among young consumers. Smartphone use has been ubiquitous and a norm in today’s society. This phenomenon led to smartphone addiction among users, particularly youngsters, as it imparts negative consequences to their growth, development, and social life. Employing a novel state-of-the-art science mapping approach through bibliometric analysis, the current and future trends of smartphone addiction among young consumers were analyzed. 665 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database and were analyzed using bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. Four emerging research streams produced: 1) Negative consequences of smartphone addiction among youngsters, 2) Parental phubbing and its impact on adolescent smartphone addiction, 3) Smartphone and social media addiction, and 4) Smartphone addiction scale. At the same time, future trends are related to the risk and impact of smartphone addiction among young consumers.