Addiction to mobile phone or addiction through mobile phone?

The current study aims to distinguish between two perspectives dominating the mobile phone addiction literature, addiction to a mobile phone and addiction through a mobile phone (i.e. addiction to mobile phone application). We extend state-of-the-art addiction literature by building on dual-systems theory and investigating both perspectives in the same theoretical model. We empirically test our model (n=333) and results provide support for all of the hypothesized relationships. Results indicate that addiction to mobile phones can't be fully explained by addiction to mobile phone applications. Theoretical and practical contributions of the study is discussed.