# Abusive Practices, Self-regulation Strategies, and the Language of Addiction: Narratives Surrounding Problematic Smartphone Use in Southeastern Spanish Youth

## TL;DR

This study explores how young people in southeastern Spain manage their smartphone use, balancing concerns about addiction with personal strategies and cultural narratives.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a cultural framework linking smartphone use to addiction discourses and highlights self-regulation strategies among youth.

## Key findings

- Respondents use individual strategies to manage smartphone use, influenced by maturity and personal context.
- Addiction discourses shape self-perceptions, coexisting with ironic views on agency and technological design.
- Weekend and nighttime smartphone abuse is linked to personal gratification and self-regulation challenges.

## Abstract

The smartphone has become fundamental in areas, such as leisure, sociability, and intimacy, especially for young people. Its impact has led to growing concerns about its effects, in terms of a potential addictive nature. This article approaches the articulation of abuse and self-regulation practices regarding the smartphone, and the presence of addictive explanations as a framework that links such practices to a culture of addiction. For this purpose, 24 young people (between 18 and 29 years) with different socio-demographic profiles (age, gender, occupation) and levels of problematic use of digital technologies were interviewed. The results show how respondents regulate the constant influx of smartphones into their daily lives with individual strategies that attempt to balance the perceived effects of their digital practices. Their effectiveness is modulated by aspects, such as maturity, personal context, or commitment to other activities. In many cases, their self-perceptions are permeated by popularized discourses of addiction, which coexist with ironic positions regarding their agency facing the technological designs and are aligned with logics of individual responsibility. They also highlight emergent aspects, such as the link between weekend binge or nightly practices of smartphone abuse, with their own personal sphere and self-gratification.