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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1516869
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Interconnections between Smartphone Addiction Negative Emotions, and Creativity View all 4 articles

Lying Flat and Problematic Smartphone Use

Provisionally accepted
Lishen Wang Lishen Wang 1Shuhua Zhu Shuhua Zhu 2Yulu Gan Yulu Gan 3*
  • 1 Shaoguan University, Shaoguan, Guangdong, China
  • 2 Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 3 Zhejiang international maritime college, Zhoushan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    With the rapid development of their countries, Chinese young people nowadays are facing intense stress. Although some choose to cope with the challenge by spending more time and effort to compete for high-quality resources (i.e., involution), others choose to do nothing and lower their desires (i.e., lying flat), who may also turn to the virtual world and become addicted to digital device (i.e., smartphones). Across three studies (N = 886), we demonstrated the correlational and causal link between lying flat and problematic smartphone use (PSU), as well as the mediating role of self-esteem, using both cross-sectional (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) designs. We also demonstrated the causal effect of self-esteem on smartphone use desire in experimental Study 3. These findings shed light on why and how lying flat affects people's self-esteem and smartphone use behavior and desire.

    Keywords: Lying Flat, involution, Problematic smartphone use, self-esteem, Mediating role

    Received: 25 Oct 2024; Accepted: 30 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhu and Gan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yulu Gan, Zhejiang international maritime college, Zhoushan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.