The mobile phone is perceived as socially inappropriate within sport context

The study –conducted by Alfredo Zarco Alpuente, Octavio Álvarez, Isabel Castillo, and Paula Samper García, research staff at the Faculty of Psichology–, was attended by teenagers between the ages of 14 to 19 years practicing up to twelve different sports. The analysis identifies three key factors trough which digital disconnection tends to appear in sports context: the social dimension, the experiential dimension, and the physical dimension.

Within social dimension, analyses show that, in many spaces and sports, the use of the mobile phone is no longer seen as appropriate. Accounts point out that there are shared rules which relate its use to distraction, lack of participation, or limited respect for the group or the sports staff.

Within experiential dimension, the study shows that the smartphone can stop being at the centre of the experience during the activity, even if it isn’t a conscious choice. When teenagers are focused on training or competing, they explain that they “don’t think” about the phone. The sports practised by the young athletes participating in the study are football, rhythmic gymnastics, basketball, or swimming, among others, a 60 % of them being team sports.

Within the physical dimension, the study proves that the phone is usually put away and out of reach of teenagers during the sports practice. Moreover, the phone is not very compatible with physical demands that training or competing involve, reducing its usage possibilities and promoting disconnection.

The study suggests to put aside the widespread idea that disconnection depends only on individual self-control. Conversely, they point out that disconnection is also a situational experience, encouraged by contexts that make it possible, legitimate, and effortless. “Sport increases distance between teenagers and the phone, since it emerges from physical conditions of the activity, social regulation of sports context, and participation in the activity, without being necessarily perceived as a resignation or obligation”, considers Alfredo Alpuente, first signer of the article.

In this regard, it is suggested that sport may offer a context of less-effort digital disconnection within a daily life dominated by continuous connectivity. Research shows that, rather than forbidding the use of the mobile phone, sport creates a series of conditions in which the phone lacks relevance during the activity.

Research suggests that the same logic may be applied in other contexts, and supposes opening a practical reflection for families, schools, clubs, and professionals that work with teenagers and want to reduce the screen usage. “Digital disconnection may be promoted by creating meaningful contexts, which are socially shared and immersive for teenagers. In other words, rather than thinking only about restricting screen usage, it is convenient to ask ourselves which activities can actually get teenager’s attention and create spaces where staying apart from the phone is not lived as a punishment, but as something natural”, mentions Alfredo Zarco Alpuente.

Methodology
In this study, Alfredo Zarco Alpuente, Octavio Álvarez, Isabel Castillo, and Paula Samper-García have conducted a qualitative research with an interpretative approach along with twenty young athletes so as to understand how they live, explain, and give meaning to digital disconnection within sports context. This research has received the FPU22/01588 aid by Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government.

Reference: Zarco-Alpuente, A., Álvarez, O., Castillo, I. & Samper-García, P. (2026). Digital disconnection in adolescent sport: A reflexive thematic analysis of athletes’ experiences. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 85, 103098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103098