In a world that relies on people having smartphones—from work emails to cashless businesses—developing an addiction to your device is becoming increasingly difficult. While some think it’s only a mental issue, a new study suggests that this constant usage physically affects your brain the same way drug addiction does.

Regions in the brain known as grey matter showed changes in size and shape for people with social media addiction, according to a study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Grey matter controls a person’s emotions, speech, sight, hearing, memory and self-control. Other studies have reported similar brain alterations due to drug usage.

In the U.S., over 24% of kids from 8 to 12 years old have their own smartphone and 67% of their teenage counterparts do, with younger teenagers using an average of about six hours’ worth of entertainment media daily.

The average American spends around four hours a day on their smartphone, according to a RescueTime survey.

Companies like Apple and Android provide features that help users manage their screen time, while other apps like Moment and Freedom help smartphone junkies block access to certain apps and websites.

German researchers examined 48 participants using the MRI images — 22 with smartphone addiction and 26 non-addicts.

Writing in the study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, the researchers write: ‘Compared to controls, individuals with smartphone addiction showed lower gay matter volume in left anterior insula, inferior temporal and parahippocampal cortex.’

Decreased grey matter in one of these regions, the insula, has previously been linked to substance addiction.

They add that this is the first physical evidence of a link between smartphone use and physical alterations to the brain.

The authors, from Heidelberg University, write:

‘Given their widespread use and increasing popularity, the present study questions the harmlessness of smartphones, at least in individuals that may be at increased risk for developing smartphone-related addictive behaviours.’

Smartphone addiction is a growing concern among scientists and medical professionals as children especially spend more and more time on the handsets.

A damning report recently found most children (53 per cent) own a mobile phone by the age of seven years old.

The report, which was based on a survey of 2,167 five to 16-year-olds in the UK, goes on to say that by age 11, nine in 10 children have their own device.

Phone ownership is now ‘almost universal’ once children are in secondary school, it revealed.

It also found 57 per cent of children sleep with their phone by their bed and almost two in five (39 per cent) youngsters say they could not live without their phone.

Researchers said the findings show the extent to which phones can ‘dominate children’s lives’.

The ubiquity of phone use in society is a cause for concern as the physiological and health implications remain poorly understood, experts of the latest research warn.