# Does Persuasive Technology Make Smartphones More Addictive? -- An Empirical Study of Chinese University Students

**Authors:** Xiaowei Chen  
**arXiv:** [2106.02604](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.02604)  
**Date:** 2021-06-04  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/arxiv-id/2106.02604v2/

## Key points

- Computer hardware development has made Persuasive Technology more powerful and influential than ever.
- Persuasive Technology integrates with cutting-edge technologies such as Natural Language Processing, Big Data, and Machine Learning algorithms to make it increasingly intelligent and subtle.
- The dark sides of Persuasive Technology need to be reflected upon urgently.
- A study was conducted to examine the impact of persuasive technologies on young smartphone users aged 18 to 26 years old from Chinese universities.
- Among the participants, 84.70% spend over (or equal to) four hours per day on their smartphone, and 44.26% indicate that smartphones negatively affect their studies or professional life.
- Ten interviewees evaluated that they could reduce screen time by 37% if they could avoid all persuasive functions.
- This study provides empirical evidence that persuasive technologies increase users' screen time and contribute to addictive behaviors among young smartphone users.
- Some commonly used persuasive design principles could have negative long-term impacts on users.
- Toma Todo, Calendar; Zhihu, WeChat news subscription, Qidian online; Music apps, Games, Short video apps, Streaming service are among the top categories for usage among young smartphone users in China.
- Phrases associated with emotions such as "bored", "stress", "relax", "fun", “happy”,"isolated" were used by interviewees when asked about factors causing them to spend extended hours on their phones.
- The study had limitations due to its small sample size compared to the target group population size of 40 million.
- More questionnaires need to be distributed , and data collection methods need to be improved for more accurate screen times .
- Follow-up monitoring needs to be prolonged in order gain a deeper understanding of the long-term impacts of Persuasive Technology on users.
- There might be more negative effects besides addiction behaviors that require further investigation.

## Summary

The development of computer hardware has made computers with persuasive technology more powerful and influential than ever. Persuasive Technology integrates with cutting-edge technologies such as Natural Language Processing, Big Data, and Machine Learning algorithms to make it increasingly intelligent and subtle. However, the dark sides of Persuasive Technology need to be reflected upon urgently. One accusation is that it makes smartphones more addictive to their users. A study was conducted using questionnaires and in-depth interviews to examine the impact of persuasive technologies on young smartphone users aged 18 to 26 years old from Chinese universities. Among the 183 participants, 84.70% (n=155) spend over (or equal to) four hours per day on their smartphone, and 44.26% (n=81) indicate that smartphones negatively affect their studies or professional life. Ten interviewees evaluated that they could reduce screen time by 37% if they could avoid all persuasive functions. Five out of eight interviewees reduced their screen time by 16.72% three weeks after the interviews by voluntarily turning off some persuasive functions on their smartphones. This study provides empirical evidence that persuasive technologies increase users' screen time and contribute to addictive behaviors among young smartphone users. Some commonly used persuasive design principles could have negative long-term impacts on users. The ethical problems that Human-computer interaction (HCI) designers face and users' neglected rights of acknowledgement were discussed. The survey results showed that Toma Todo, Calendar; Zhihu, WeChat news subscription, Qidian online; Music apps, Games, Short video apps, Streaming service are among the top categories for usage among young smartphone users in China. When asked about factors causing them to spend extended hours on their phones, phrases associated with emotions such as "bored", "stress", "relax", "fun", “happy”,"isolated" were used by interviewees . However this study had limitations due to its small sample size compared to the target group population size of 40 million . More questionnaires need to be distributed , and data collection methods need to be improved for more accurate screen times . Follow-up monitoring needs to be prolonged in order gain a deeper understanding of the long-term impacts of Persuasive Technology on users . Furthermore , there might be more negative effects besides addiction behaviors that require further investigation .