Smartphone habits (NIA)
The balance between smartphone use and daily life. Answer the app’s questionnaire and see your result right away.
Source · National Information Society Agency (NIA), Republic of Korea. Smartphone Overdependence Scale; Survey on Smartphone Overdependence. CareOps English translation of its existing Korean questionnaire. Wording, response choices and descriptive score ranges follow the CareOps version and have not been independently validated in English. English translation of the existing Korean smartphone-overdependence questionnaire; Korean descriptive thresholds are retained and are not English-population norms.
Control, preoccupation and consequences
The Smartphone Overdependence Scale is a 10-item adult measure used by Korea’s National Information Society Agency (NIA) in its national survey on smartphone overdependence. It asks whether you struggle to cut down or control your use (loss of control), whether having your phone nearby makes it hard to focus and keeps the urge on your mind (salience), and whether your phone use has caused problems with health, family, friends or colleagues, or work and study (problematic consequences). You answer about your recent use on four levels, and this page uses an English translation of the Korean questionnaire with its Korean descriptive thresholds.
Reading your results
The total ranges from 10 to 40. The result screen shows 10–23 as lower concern, 24–28 as increased concern and 29–40 as higher concern, and it also shows the three areas of loss of control, salience and consequences. Struggling to cut down and having real problems in daily life call for different approaches. The scale centers less on screen time and more on whether you can cut back when you want to and what you lose because of your phone. A diagnosis is made in a clinical conversation; if you scored in the higher range or conflicts and trouble at work or school keep happening, consider talking with a professional.
A question to reflect on
For the next three days, note five moments when you picked up your phone without meaning to: the time, what you were doing just before and how you felt. Choose the situation that comes up most often, and in that situation start by keeping your phone out of reach.
Frequently asked questions
- How many questions are in Smartphone habits (NIA), and how long does it take?
- There are 10 questions, and it usually takes about 2 minutes. For each question you choose one of 4 answers, from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”. There are no right or wrong answers.
- How many hours a day counts as overdependence?
- The scale doesn’t ask about hours directly. Some people use their phones for work for long periods, so it looks at whether you can cut back when you want and what you lose in daily life because of your phone.
- What does ‘salience’ mean?
- It is how much space your phone takes up in your thoughts and attention, such as finding it hard to focus with your phone nearby or feeling a strong urge to use it.
- Can children use this check?
- These questions are for adults. The agency uses separate versions for different age groups, so a version made for children is a better fit for them.
- Do I need to sign in? Are my answers saved?
- You can see your results right away without signing in. Your answers are used only for scoring and are not stored on our servers.
- Can I bring these results into a counseling session?
- Use the analysis button at the bottom of the result screen to have a short conversation with Maeumi without signing in. After the conversation, you can continue in the app. The web conversation does not transfer automatically to the app.
- Can I share my results with a friend?
- Yes. Use Share at the top right of the result screen to send a friend the check itself, or share your result as a link or story image. A result link carries your scores inside the address only; it does not include your name or account, and nothing is saved on our side.
National Information Society Agency (NIA) · Smartphone Overdependence Scale