The Link between Digital Disconnection and Death Anxiety: a Preliminary Study

This study considered whether being ‘digitally disconnected’ would provoke death anxiety amongst a small group of smartphone users. 37 undergraduate students completed an online survey and then took part in controlled experiments assessing their death thought accessibility, shyness and sociability in relation to a connected versus disconnected state. Results showed that death thoughts increased with disconnection when the smartphone’s importance to self-esteem was taken into account. Shyness increased with digital disconnection but sociability was unaffected. The implications of how this reframes our understanding of smartphone dependency are discussed.