ISEDJ

Abstract: As smartphone ownership has steadily increased there has been a rise in individuals that display Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU). Through a comprehensive literature review of PSU it quickly became evident that research into PSU intervention strategies such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Digital Detox are focused on “collectivist cultures”. However, “collectivist cultures”, such as India and China, account for only 45% of the world’s population, and omit North America, almost all of Europe, Africa and Australasia. Further, our literature review identified that PSU intervention strategies almost all focus on issues surrounding social media use and gaming. Beyond this over-focus on collectivist cultures, we also find that the advent of TikTok has fundamentally changed things. TikTok has a strategy of using AI to feed users short form video (SFV) content that they find interesting. This is a very different form of smartphone usage than before TikTok, and almost certainly leads to a different form of PSU. As such, it is not clear that CBT and Digital Detox strategies developed based on “collectivist cultures” and based on pre-TikTok consumption of social media and gaming is relevant or effective Using a grounded theory approach, this paper is the first to identify the issue of a tilt in the PSU literature and the accompanying CBT and Digital Detox strategies to “collectivist cultures”, as well as the first to recognize the impact on these PSU treatments as a result of the “TikTok Era” and the resulting transition to SFV. The outcome is that a rethink and new research into PSU and accompanying treatments is needed.

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Recommended Citation: Firth, D., Johnson, T., Clouse, S.F., Akello, P., (2025). Treating problematic smartphone usage in the TikTok era: cultural dimension bias in the current research. Information Systems Education Journal 23(5) pp 4-19. https://doi.org/10.62273/RQWN6726