Smartphones are devices that carry similar functionality with and yet display much higher capabilities of

information processing and connectivity than regular mobile phones. (Ada & Tatlı, 2012). Smartphones

have undeniably dominated human lives in beginning of the 21st century, opening the doors to many

possibilities in the lives of individuals. However, as more and more people start to rely on smartphones

for fulfilling all their daily life needs, cases of overuse have also become commonplace. Some recent

entries in academic literature are prone to classify extreme cases of smartphone reliance and overuse as

a form of addiction and inspect this phenomenon from psychological, sociological, cultural, economic

and pedagogic perspectives (Bal & Balcı, 2020). Smartphone addiction is defined as a non-chemical

impulse-control disorder similar to pathological gambling (Griffiths, 2005; Park & Lee, 2011).

Smartphone addiction also consists of common addiction components such as salience, tolerance, mood

modification, conflict, withdrawal and relapse (Griffiths, 2005). The combination of these results in a

negative impact upon the life standard and quality of an individual. Although numerous studies have

been focusing on the concept of smartphone addiction in the recent years; there also seems to be a

growing issue in the academic literature regarding the way it is handled as a valid form of technological

addiction akin to video gaming addiction or internet addiction (Yu & Sussman, 2020). Some recent

studies that investigate the concept from a critical point of view, concluding that smartphone addiction

as commonly discussed in the academic literature does not meet the requirements to actually be

referred to as an addiction and instead should be considered only as problematic use (Lowe-Calverley &

Pontes, 2020; Panova & Carbonell, 2018). Panova and Carbonell use a metaphor of addicts making use

of needle injections in administering the harmful substance heroin into their bodies and illustrate that

smartphone is merely a delivery agent not unlike a needle that may or may not contain harmful

substances or may or may not be used abusively. Jeong, Suh and Gweon's study (2020) therefore tries to

somehow differentiate the "needle" from the "substance" somehow, investigating the factors

contributing to both smartphone and internet addictions and coming up with conclusions that may be
interpreted as internet addiction being the more comprehensive framework among the two. Supporting

this claim, Chou & Chou (2019) have investigated a sample of Taiwanese students and discovered that

heavy engagement with social networks, online games or online shopping via smartphones is the actual

underlying cause of problematic smartphone use; regardless of gender or household income levels.

Nevertheless, the claim stands that most studies in the literature handling the issue of smartphone

addiction have failed to investigate the etiological origins or causal pathways of smartphone addiction

(Yu & Sussman, 2020). A recent study employing magnetic resonance imaging and handling the issue on

a medical standpoint, however, has investigated brain volume and neurological activity of participants

scoring high on self-reported smartphone addiction scales (while excluding those who have scored high

also on gaming addiction scales); and provided evidence that aberrant neurological activity hinting at a

valid case of addiction is present in these individuals (Horvath et al., 2020). Despite being a disputed

concept, an overall glance at studies conducted throughout the better half of the previous decade shows

that smartphone addiction is an alarming concern that continues to grow worldwide (Olson et al., 2020).

Numerous studies in the recent have therefore especially investigated the phenomenon within an

audience of adolescents and university students. This could be due to generation-z being born into a

world of information technology as digital natives and thus having a greater risk of smartphone

addiction accompanying a greater rate of technology adoption than older generations. Buctot et al.

(2020) investigate the effect of smartphone addiction upon health-related quality of life in adolescents,

which they break into the three categories of a) physical well-being, b) psychological well-being and c)

school environment; and report that smartphone addiction negatively impacts all three elements of an

adolescent's life. The underlying mechanics of smartphone addiction have been investigated and found

to be associated with positive and negative reinforcement aspects of the reinforcement reward (such as

dopamine release) concept; as well as habitual behavior (Chen et al., 2019). This is to say, smartphone

users begin their problematic use patterns due to both feeling of enjoyment during time they spend
using their devices and feeling of relief from negative emotions. In time, these reinforced use patterns

develop into habits and become even more permanent. Moreover, it was also established by the study

that people that find their smartphones as a resort for escaping negative feelings of daily life are more

prone to develop an addiction than those who simply enjoy using their phone too much. Jeong et al.

(2020) studied contributing factors to smartphone addiction in adolescents extensively, coming up with

a list 12 factors that increase the risk in adolescents: a) Depression, b) Anxiety, c) Self-control, d) Life

satisfaction, e) Aggression, f) Parent-Child communication time, g) Parent-Child Attachment, h) Parent-

Child Relationship, i) Domestic Violence, j) Teacher Support, k) Teacher-Child Relationship and l)

Learning Motivation. In another study, which investigated the contributing factor of parental neglect in

adolescent smartphone addiction levels (Kwak et al., 2018), it was discovered that in addition to

improving family relationships; expanding leisure activity grounds for adolescents and helping them

develop healthier relationships with friends in the offline world would help decrease their smartphone

addiction levels. Many studies take into account the factor of gender while investigating contributing

factors to smartphone addiction; albeit coming up with inconsistent results. A recent study conducted

among adolescents in Japan and Thailand has shown that in both countries, smartphone addiction was

more prevalent in females than males (Tangmunkongvorakul et al., 2020). There exist however, other

studies conducted within the same year that indicate opposite results (Buctot et al., 2020). A conclusive

remark has been made by Olson and colleagues (2020), however, by carrying out a meta-analysis

covering 82 studies conducted between 2014 and 2020 within 24 countries and discovering that

smartphone addiction risk seems higher in younger and female populations. Also working with

adolescents, Chou & Chou (2019) have reported that parent-mediated control strategies are not

effective in helping their children overcome problematic smartphone use. Defining self-regulation as

'selfgenerated thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment

of personal goals', Mahapatra (2019) investigated smartphone use in 330 adolescents and concluded
that lack of selfregulation, alongside loneliness, signficantly predicts smartphone addiction likelihood.

Kim et al. (2018) also dealt with the idea and discovered similar results by working with a group of 3380

Korean adolescents, reporting that friendship quality alongside self-control (which has been defined as

'an individual’s ability to control his/her emotions, thoughts, and behaviors against impulses and

temptations') skills help reduce smartphone addiction risk. Researchers in Romania have conducted a

comprehensive study to compare adolescents and university students in terms of smartphone use

patterns within the scope of smartphone addiction (Cocoradă et al., 2018). They have concluded that

high school students are more prone to confessing an addiction to their smartphones and that at this

age group, smartphone addiction is more related to entertainment or communication related tasks such

as heavy social-network-related use, gaming-related use, as well as video streaming and phone calling.

University students, on the other hand, have reported using their smartphones for a greater variety of

purposes and showed greater likelihood to experience a fear of missing out on technology use. In

another study, Meena and colleagues report that in undergraduate students; smartphone addiction is

associated with factors such as loneliness, shyness, social anxiety and external locus of control (Meena

et al., 2021). Nevertheless, university students have been reported to suffer from problems like

academic failure (Hawi & Samaha, 2016; Huang & Leung, 2009; Kibona & Mgaya, 2015), reduced

physical and social activity level (Lepp et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2015; Samaha & Hawi, 2016), sleep

problems (Sahin et al., 2013; Thomée et al., 2011) due to smartphone addiction. Like all other

addictions, smartphone addiction also progresses gradually (Dinç, 2015) and it can be claimed that the

rate of this progress is higher during free time, in which young people engage with their smartphones as

a leisure activity. As discussed before, parental supervision is an important factor in preventing

smartphone addiction in the young generation and yet, it should also be considered that university

students are mostly individuals who have just left the boundaries of close parental supervision. Research

in similar vein have displayed how university students mostly prefer spending time on the Internet
during their leisure (Minaz & Bozkurt, 2017) and as reliance on information technology products such as

social media and digital games as free time activities increases, so will the risk of addiction to these. Free

time may be defined as time during which an individual is capable of performing tasks and activities that

a) lie outside of the boundaries of the individual's responsibilities and b) provide mental or physical

fulfillment alongside a sense of enjoyment (İskender, 2019). For this reason, free time that is typically

outside work hours is highly important for all people (Kuş-Şahin et al., 2009). Inclusion of enjoyable

activities in their daily lives helps people feel vigorous and content. Proper use of free time also helps

people alleviate boredom resulting from tedious daily routines and even helps increase work success

(Yeniçeri et al., 2002). Although free time is highly influential on the welfare of both the individual and

the society, many people fail to properly manage their free time. Whereas the success in free time

management leads to individual and social progress; lack of success leads to individual and social

problems (Yaşartürk et al., 2018). Kır (2007) has studied university students and similarly emphasizes the

importance of availability of free time in character development and societal progress. The case of high

school students is not entirely different, as displayed in Eranıl and Özcan's (2018) work, which reports

that they are not very successful in managing their free time either and that as free time management

skills get better in high school students, so do academic performance and relationship with parents. Free

time management is closely tied with the scheduling skills and it has also been shown that better

scheduling skill in university students is related to higher academic scores (Tektaş & Tektaş, 2010). As it

is evident in the literature, free time is an important aspect of human life. In order to manage free time

well and prevent spending too much time on superfluous activities, individuals need to know their

responsibilities and arrange their priorities accordingly (Aydoğan & Gündoğdu, 2006). Free time

management requires the assessment of an individual's existing needs and demands, the setting of goals

in order to meet these and the scheduling of these into a task sequence based on priority. Task-

planning, scheduling and to-do lists are therefore important in arranging one's free time (Wang et al.,
2012). However, it has been recently observed that the young generation is unable to manage their free

time well and this results in them spending free time mostly by engaging with electronic products such

as smartphones, computers and the Internet. (Tektaş & Tektaş, 2010; Minaz & Bozkurt, 2017). A study,

which associates this phenomenon with personality traits and other circumstances has shown that

young people who suffer from lack of a) choices for spending their free time, b) an active social circle, c)

motivation to engage with any activity or interact with other people due to any number of reasons

resort to technological devices, which are usually cheaper and more easily accessible than most other

options, for avoiding boredom (Dinç, 2015). In today's world, the default choice of entertaining

technological device is the smartphone and the diverse range of mobile applications that it offers. Being

attached to the smartphone as the sole source of entertainment and relaxation is certain to invite the

risk of smartphone addiction. A study by Wang (2019) covers internet addiction, which is another form

of technological addiction, and reports that higher sense of boredom during one's free time is associated

with greater risk of internet addiction and that free time management skills significantly help alleviate

the feeling of boredom during free time. Under the light of such information, it may be extrapolated

that skill in free time management may also help reduce the risk of smartphone addiction.