Mindfulness as an Intervention for Smartphone Addiction in Adolescents

Abstract

The rapid advancement in information technology around the world has impacted people’s lives significantly. The role that the internet and smartphones played, acted as its primary carrier. The evolution of cell phone technology brought along the emergence of smartphone addiction as a form of behavioral addiction, barring none. India's youth is the most hit by this invisible epidemic, which is increasingly becoming a huge public health concern. One need cost-effective intervention strategy to help fight this battle. An automatic and mindless behavioral addiction can benefit from components of meditation and mindfulness as they bring about a comparable change in areas affected by addiction. An extensive database search on Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar resulted in the systematic review of existing literature on yoga, mindfulness, meditation and smartphone addiction to evaluate their effectiveness for the long-term treatment of smartphone addiction in the young Indian population. This research paper focuses on mindfulness to improve symptoms related to smartphone addiction and provides an extensive literature review for it.