Can your smartphone tell if you’re depressed?
updated the Monday, July 20, 2015Your smartphone habits can reveal your emotional well-being according to a new study at Northwestern University.
You can fake a smile for the world, but you can’t fool your smartphone. At least according to the latest study by researchers at Northwestern University that studies the habits of smartphone users to determine if they’re depressed or not.
By tracking the number of minutes you use your phone, researchers were able to predict with 87 percent accuracy whether or not the individual was depressed. Those who were afflicted by depression used their phone for 68 minutes a day on average whereas normal, well-adjusted people only glanced at their smartphone screens for not more than 17 minutes a day.
Aside from the amount of time spent staring at phone screens, researchers also get clues about an individual’s well-being by tracking their phone’s location. If you’re one who spends a significant amount of time in one place, there’s a high chance you could be suffering from depression. The same holds true for those who go to work at irregular times and hold irregular schedules.
This probably comes as no surprise considering that people who are depressed tend to withdraw and have no motivation to go out and do things. What’s surprising is that the smartphone data was more accurate in detecting depression than any questionnaire or depression survey people answered. This is because people tend to hide their emotions but their phones reveal something else altogether!
While there is still a lot more investigation to be done, researchers believe smartphones could ultimately help doctors monitor people at risk of depression and enable health care providers to intervene more quickly.
Karen George
