Take a step back and ask yourself how important your cell phone is to your day. If your phone use reduces the quality of your life, you may have an addiction. Perhaps you carry the gadget around with you even when you do not leave home; you look at the screen as you walk and constantly check it for missed calls.

Another symptom is you feel the need to have the device with you at the dinner table and look at apps rather than talking to family members over meals. Is your cell phone constantly in your hand or within your line of vision? You obsess over the item; your obsession is a cell phone addiction.

Look at your phone bill. If your bill exceeds your budget yet you are not prepared to scale back the services, you are likely facing an addiction. Another factor to consider is whether the gadget is getting in the way of your social life. Perhaps you cancel lunches with friends in favor of staying home to keep up with social networks via your mobile. When the device gets in the way of your real life events in a negative way, you likely have a cell phone addiction.

There are many causes of the addiction. The cell phone may be just one part of a larger addiction to technology in general. After all, many smartphones are equipped with apps to play games, browse the internet, and send emails.

Online social media networks are growing rapidly. There are several, with the big players including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Your friends and family members are joining networks too. You often “talk” to one another on the networks as your schedules keep you too busy to meet face to face.

If you have made new online friends through the networks, your cell phone provides a way to connect with these people when they live in other cities and even in other countries. You trade media links, such as articles and photos. The interaction is fun and you begin to spend more time daily on your mobile device. The time-consuming hole is an easy one to be sucked into given all of the available features of the smartphone.

Cell phone addiction ties to FOMO, or fear of missing out. You fear something might be happening while you are busy in real life rather than online. You have the fear of missing something more exciting than what you are doing now. That fear certainly helps explain why cell phone use becomes addictive behavior.

The addiction is similar to one of the reasons why teenagers become addicted to cigarettes. There is peer pressure. The next time you leave home, notice how many people are talking on their phones, sending text messages, or checking emails. These activities are common. While high school may be over, you may still have desires to fit in with the majority of the population. You may also want to keep up to date on technology trends and therefore desire the latest gadget.