PhD candidate Morgan Ross and external collaborator Kostadin Kushlev received a Top 4 Paper Award from the Human Communication and Technology Division for the paper "Antecedents and Consequences of Smartphone Self-Extension" at the National Communication Association 109th Annual Convention in National Harbor, Maryland, Nov. 16-19. 

The study examined why people consider their smartphones to extend what they do (functionality) and who they are (identity) as well as the benefits and risks of this type of thinking. It found that both the functionality and the identity aspects of self-extension contributed to perceiving smartphone use as more enjoyable.

The study also revealed that frequent and habitual smartphone use influenced functionality self-extension, while identity self-extension was influenced by using the smartphone to pass time when bored, problematic smartphone use and considering the smartphone as a reflection of oneself (and contributed to lower autonomy).