Smart Phone ConsumptionThe cell phone was once a communications device. It has become an essential necessity since the development of the smartphone. It has become very common around the world in recent years, especially in the markets of Asia, the Pacific, Western Europe and America. According to Gartner, Inc. (2013), global sales of smartphones to end users reached 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013, while sales of feature phones continued to decline as users rushed to to replace their old models with smartphones. Moreover, it was the high-speed growth phase of smartphones between 2010 and 2012 (Carson, 2013). This is proof that most of my friends have switched from feature phones to smartphones since 2010 and have become addicted to them. They seemed compelled to check email alerts, Facebook notifications, and updates every few minutes. Although I felt a bit of envy at first, I still thought that, rationally, I didn't need it. However, I gave up and bought my first smartphone in April 2012. My consumption experience can be explained by consumer socialization theory. Consumer socialization The term “consumer socialization” refers to the developmental stages that individuals who acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes associate with their functioning as consumers in youth markets (Ward, 1974). It is a process of knowing how to consume and how to be a consumer, from childhood to maturity. According to Moschis and Moore (1984), consumer socialization can be based on two models: the cognitive development model and the social learning model. The first considers learning as a cognitive psychological process of adaptation to one's environment (Moschis and Moore, 1984). During this time, socialization...... middle of paper ......to participate in the conversation, I felt that I was not part of this group and that I was invisibly excluded, because there had a gap between our friendships. I could not find any similarity or affiliation with them. According to Kandel (1978), similarity is a dominant element of friendship selection and an outcome of friendship interactions. I was afraid that if I didn't have a smartphone, our friendships would be out of sight and other people's friendships would become closer. Erikson (1968) emphasizes that peer group affiliation allows the individual to form closer relationships with peers and avoid psychological dependence on parents while maintaining a sense of belonging . A conflict therefore emerged between family education and peer influence. Peer pressure increasingly undermined my existing conception and caused my spending habits that I had had for years to collapse...