[JohnJamesRambo]

>Yes I check my phone at last once every few minutes when I'm at home, does that made me an "addict"?

I'd say undoubtedly so.

"Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction

The adverse consequences is debatable but it is very likely we are all missing out on experiences and losing health by checking our phones every few minutes for those hits of neurotransmitters.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5076301/

"Cell-Phone Addiction: A Review"

[Rotdhizon]

What you described is precisely what's not happening though. In that there are no consequences to my frequent phone checking. If I'm playing a game and waiting for a match to start for example, it's not affecting me negatively in any way to just open youtube and watch a quick video. That's one of my points here; in that enjoying smartphones and being addicted to them gets muddled.

[jclos]

It's not affecting in ways that you notice right now, but we don't really know the true effects of never letting your brain be bored.

There is some evidence that boredom is good for you as explained in this post: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170719-how-moments-of-bor...

[jdironman]

Not to mention the people who 'have' to check while say operating machinery. Also, tallied up the time spent checking / browsing the phone or devices which could be used either for rest or learning a new skill, or even just being bored as you suggest.

[majormajor]

If you're checking your phone when you're bored than it seems like you are getting bored still.

Maybe you'd be better off reading a book, or coming up with a creative solution to some big problem, but thinking back to pre-smartphone decades, that's not really what people were doing.

There's a significant difference between people who have replaced their previous time-waster go-tos with phones and people who are truly addicted, and the public discussion has done an absolutely shitty job of distinguishing these things.

The poster above said "when I'm at home," which doesn't exactly specify if it's diversion or addiction, but seems more like the former to me.

[rando444]

>In that there are no consequences to my frequent phone checking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_overuse#Health

There's a reason that the first step in addiction therapy is getting the subject to be able to admit that there's a problem.

[Karunamon]

I thought the defining definition of addiction is that the action causes an interference in your ability to function. I'm not sure this qualifies.

[Barrin92]

If you're looking at your phone every few minutes you are almost certainly interrupting social activities or whatever it is you're doing that requires more than a few minutes of continued focus.

If you're not convinced that any of this applies to you even if you're spending all your time on your phone.. well that too would be a typical reaction of someone who is addicted.

You might also be displacing other activities that require prolonged attention without even noticing it. How many books does the average person read that checks their smartphone every five minutes?

[Karunamon]

Humans aren't single-threaded, most can glance at their phones mid-conversation with no interruption.

Your second paragraph amounts to a kafkatrap (wherein denying the validity of the argument automatically means it applies to the denier).

[Barrin92]

Humans actually are kind of single-threaded, excessive multitasking has a measurable impact on mental performance. It's trivial to observe for yourself. Try to read and book and interrupt reading every few minutes. You will notice that you will both have to spend more time (by definition), and retain less information. Not to mention that interrupting actual conversations to stare at your phone seems kind of rude, asocial and inconsiderate.

>(wherein denying the validity of the argument automatically means it applies to the denier).

this isn't really a great point when it comes to addiction, because it's a genuine behaviour among addicts, not just a way to attack one personally. Addicts will downplay or deny the role their addiction plays in their lives categorically.

[Karunamon]

Unless you have a lot more knowledge about someone than can be gleaned from one or two comments on HN, you lack the context to determine whether someone's use of a thing amounts to addiction.