Iran ranked sixth in terms of smartphone addiction among 24 countries under review, with China topping the list.
Researchers at McGill University, Canada, used data on smartphone use involving 34,000 users during 2014-20.
According to the report, China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia were the top three countries with the highest smartphone addiction. This is while Switzerland, France and Germany were the last three on the list, Daily Mail reported.
The countries were ranked by the report based on the Smartphone Addiction Scale. SAS is the most widely used smartphone addiction measure that examines the extent of disruptions in daily life due to smartphone use, loss of control and signs of isolation from society.
Participants in this study were of ages 15 to 35 years, with an average age of 28.8 years, such that more than half of them were women (60%).
Researchers gave each country a score of 10 to 60 for addictive mobile phone use and finally, China topped the list with a score of 36.
To implement this project, 81 studies that had previously examined the extent to which adolescents and young people use mobile phones based on the Mobile Addiction Scale (SAS) were also considered.
Brazil, South Korea, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Nepal were also ranked fourth to 10th on the list, respectively. The UK ranked 16th, India 17th and the US 18th.
How Serious Is This addiction?
The difference in lifestyle and the need to do daily work through cyberspace have caused the age of children possessing a smartphone to decline significantly. On average, a child currently gets the first smartphone at the age of 10.
Also, the use of smartphones by teenagers and young people has also increased and these groups of users spend a lot of their time staring at the screens of their smartphones.
Following concerns about this issue, various universities, including one in South Korea, have conducted research in this area and have examined the harmful effects of using smartphones on users' brains.
The results of some of these studies show that adolescents who spend a lot of daytime working with these gadgets are much more likely to develop mental problems such as stress and depression.
The results of other research also indicate problems in the social interactions of people addicted to mobile phones.
But one of the most interesting studies on the behavioral effects of smartphone addiction was conducted by a company called iPass (a WiFi network provider).
The company's research team surveyed a statistical population of 1,700 mobile users in the US and Europe to examine behavioral habits, preferences and expectations of mobile users in these areas.
For instance, according to 61% of respondents, it is impossible for them to cut off access and quit the Internet.
In explaining the recent statistics of Iranian users' addiction to their smartphones, many reasons could be imagined.
In recent years, the Internet Penetration Rate in Iran has experienced significant growth. Currently, a large part of daily activities, from banking and paying bills to taking internet taxis and ordering food is done through smartphones, the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad reported.
One of the main reasons for Iranian youth addiction to smartphones and the constant desire to use them is the restriction of a large part of their recreational activities to cyberspace. Another reason could be the low cost of spending time in cyberspace than performing the same activities in person.
Total Cellphone Imports
A total of 13.06 million smartphones and cellphones worth $2.94 billion were imported in the current Iranian year’s first nine months (March 21-Dec. 21), registering a 42% and 117% growth in terms of number and value year-on-year respectably, according to the technical deputy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration’s Statistics Office.
According to these statistics, premium phones accounted for about 32% of total cellphone imports during the period.
These figures do not include the smartphones brought in by passengers and are only based on IRICA’s official data.
“According to non-oil trade statistics for the nine months, imports amounted to 30.1 million tons worth $36.9 billion. This volume of imports includes 4,630 items [under the 8-digit HS code], which were imported from 115 countries,” Arezou Ghaniyoun was also quoted as saying by IRIB News.
The official noted that mobile phones topped the list of imported goods in terms of value and accounted for 8% of the total imports during the period, adding that the number of imported smartphones was 3.89 million more compared with the last year’s corresponding period.
“On the one hand, one of the most important reasons behind the increase in the import of this product compared with the same period of last year is the rising need for smartphones by students studying at home, as most school and university classes are held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as those of foreign language institutes. On the other hand, the short lifespan of mobile phones [averaging three to five years] is another reason for the market’s need to import this consumer product,” she said.
Ghaniyoun said mobile phone imports reached 9.17 million devices worth $1.35 billion year-on-year.
“The implementation of the mobile phone registry plan has helped prevent the illegal entry and smuggling of the product into the country. This is while low tariff has facilitated the import of this product due to the lack of electronic industries for smartphone production in the country,” she added.
Ghaniyoun noted that due to the high average price of smartphones, the import of mobile phones accounted for 27% of the total value of imported goods during the period under review.
