Maladies of Infinite Aspiration
Smartphones, Meaning-Seeking, and Anomigenesis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2363729 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Justin J Nelson (0000-0001-6260-8933, Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC, USA, corresponding author), Christopher Pieper (0000-0001-5569-7368, Baylor University), Christopher M Pieper (Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 28-48 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0731-1214 • E-ISSN: 1533-8673 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/07311214221114296 |
| OpenAlex | W4289940527 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
Smartphones have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life, and attachment to these devices is a felt reality for many Americans. This paper describes the link between smartphone attachment and the pursuit of meaning and purpose in life. Analyses reveal meaning-seeking as a positive correlate of smartphone attachment. However, while interaction effects suggest that meaning-seeking through heavy social media and Internet use decreases the odds of smartphone attachment, meaning-seeking is strongly related to attachment at lower levels of daily media use. Also, having a satisfying life purpose decreases the odds of smartphone attachment, though this protective effect is not as strong as meaning-seeking in the final models. We conclude that smartphone attachment, within a context of latent anomie, could be anomigenic, inadvertently exacerbating feelings of despair while simultaneously promising to resolve them. Findings provide a sociological link between smartphone attachment and the negative psychosocial outcomes described in the literature
Anomie · Epistemology · Everyday life · Feeling · Odds · Psychosocial · Psychotherapist · Computer Science · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |