A Decision Tree Approach to Understanding How Being Phubbed by Friends Differs from Being Phubbed by Children

Smartphones have become an integral part of daily life. However, unhealthy attachments to smartphones have resulted in phubbing, which can be particularly disruptive for social interactions, psychological well-being, loneliness, relationship satisfaction, and self-esteem. This study combined data from two related studies to compare the impact of being phubbed by one's friends against the impact of being phubbed by one's children. Using data mining techniques, the study found that parents with lower self-esteem are more affected by their children's repetitive phubbing than young people with low self-esteem are by their friends' repetitive phubbing. Additionally, parents with low psychological well-being are more impacted by occasional phubbing from their children than young people with low psychological well-being are by occasional phubbing from friends. Young people with high psychological well-being are more affected by repetitive phubbing from friends compared to parents with high psychological well-being affected by their children's repetitive phubbing. Furthermore, young people with poor psychological well-being and low relationship satisfaction are more affected by infrequent phubbing from friends than parents in a similar state are by infrequent phubbing from their children. Youth with low friendship satisfaction and loneliness are particularly affected by friends' infrequent phubbing. This study demonstrates the need to raise awareness of the diverse experiences of phubbing to promote healthy smartphone use and mitigate psychological and emotional distress.