How to Stop Phone Addiction: 10 Simple Steps to Reduce Screen Time and Boost Productivity
The modern smartphone is one of the greatest inventions of mankind for many reasons. The UN has labelled it the fastest spreading technology in human history, and over 9 billion subscriptions have been recorded. It has made communication, education, finance, health, entertainment, etc., incredibly convenient and enhanced productivity.
Things that took days or months a century ago, can be done in a matter of seconds. You can send everything from a simple message to money around the world using just your fingers.
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Everyone from little children to old people have some form of the smartphone in their hands. And on top of all the productivity boosting features mentioned above, there are countless forms of entertainment in them. Social media and games are the most prominent among these, and although we are saving hours and days with the smartphone's technology, we are losing those savings by over-indulging in its entertainment programs. This has created a new problem for mankind and is commonly referred to as "phone addiction."
What is Phone Addiction?
Phone addiction is the excess, irresistible, uncontrolled use of smartphones, colloquially known as "nomophobia"(no mobile phobia: fear of being without the mobile phone.) If you have a phone addiction, you will have a compulsive urge to look at it often, have it with you all the time, and a fear of losing it. You will often find it extremely difficult to stop using it, and spend hours on it without realizing.
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What is causing Phone Addiction?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and hormone which is released when we do something satisfying, playing a major role in our moods and energy. Also called the "happy hormone," dopamine is being constantly released by our limitless use of the smartphone. Like with drugs and other addictive substances, as we continue to use it, our tolerance level increases and we have to consume more and more of the same thing to get the same pleasure.
We consume too much content and find it hard to feel satisfied by what we're seeing.
Why it's a Problem
Bad Relationships: Phones are giving us a fake sense of security in our relationships. We have reduced meeting our friends and family in real life thinking we are connected online, but that is only driving us apart. Smartphones may have made it easy to connect, but studies show that loneliness has only increased ever since.
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Health Problems(Physiological and Mental): Hunching over phones and increased screen-time, high exposure to blue light emitted by the screens; can cause eye strain, dry eyes, neck pain, back pain, bad posture(a hunch), and insomnia.
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Various mental health problems are caused by phone addiction, with the worst of it being depression. Anxiety, lack of confidence, lack of empathy are some other problems. This is especially prominent amongst younger generations. A A 2019 Journal of Abnormal Psychology study using national survey data found that the rate of U.S. adolescents (ages 12–17) reporting symptoms consistent with a major depressive episode increased by 52% between 2005 (8.7%) and 2017 (13.2%).
Lack of Productivity: Excess, uncontrolled time spent on mobile phones has made us lazy, inefficient, and destroyed our time-management skills. We are constantly distracted by it and find it hard to focus on the task in hand.
Financial Issues: Smartphones are not cheap to buy, and not cheap to own. They require additional purchases, like Wi-Fi, mobile data, credit, covers, frequent repair, etc. A lot of money is paid for other apps and services, especially entertainment, and all of these may accumulate to devour a huge chunk of our earnings. Moreover, online shopping, gaming, and gambling has made it easy to spend huge sums of money in seconds, by luring us into things we normally wouldn't indulge in using colorful advertisements.
10 Steps to Stop Phone Addiction
1. Set a Clear Intention
You have to formulate a firm desire in your mind to stop your addiction; that is step No. 1. You must accept that you have this condition, understand the consequences of it, and be ready for change. Understand, that by reducing screen time, you won't miss out. Being updated is not necessary to live a good life.
2.Set Daily Screen Time Limits
Start small. Set as big as an hour or two of limits in the start, then gradually cut it down. Even if you tend to skip or ignore them, you will be reminded of your intention and slowly start changing yourself. If your phone allows you to press "remind me later" once the time's up, ask someone else to set up a passcode to lock it, or if that's also not possible, use third-party apps and services.
3. Turn Off all Unnecessary Notifications
Most of the notifications you get won't be necessary to you. People very rarely send important/emergency messages through messaging apps. Cutting down your phone addiction is more important than replying to others on time. You will eventually check those apps anyway, why bother allowing notifications and luring yourself into the trap?
4. Delete the Time-Consuming Apps
Most apps, especially social media apps, that take most of your time aren't necessary to you. All of these apps provide the same purpose in different methods. In the end we scroll for hours on each app and add nothing to our lives, except maybe making the addiction worse.
If you get important stuff, you can login through browser or use a laptop when necessary. That way you'll only use these apps for good.
5. Block Apps and Websites
If you find yourself still spending a long time on these apps or websites through browser, you can block them using in-built blockers(if your phone has it) or use third-party services. It'll be even better if you can ask someone else to do it so that it'll be hard for you to find out how it was blocked and remove it. These might be trivial, and can easily be overridden, but adding more and more defenses will make you more weary of trying to access these services.
6. Keep Physical Distance From Your Phone
When you have to do important tasks and assignments, keep your phone away, silenced and in another room or drawer.
7. Create Phone-free Places
Make strict rules for yourself that you won't use your mobile phones at certain places, like your study table, the gym, school, office, etc. This will help you boost productivity and feel more comfortable to be on your own without your mobile phone.
8. Avoid Using Phones When With Others
The phone has managed to sneak into our relationships, even when outside. Couples sit face-to-face at cafes and stare at their phones, instead of talking with each other. This is weakening our interactions, friendships, love, and empathy. We share things online to strangers but barely talk to those who care about us. Keeping the phones away during meet-ups can help reduce this and improve relationships.
9. Replace Texting with Calls
If texting is causing a lot of screen time, try shifting to calls instead. That way you'll be contacting someone only for necessary matters and avoid vain-talk. Hearing someone's voice and replying to it is also way more genuine and real compared to replying to bubbles with text on screens.
10. Learn to Click Off
Doom-scrolling is when you scroll through social media even after you don't enjoy the content anymore. You are seemingly magnetized to the phone, and your thumb's working on its own.
Learn to simply put the phone down and walk away when you're caught in this loop.
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Conclusion
Smartphones are intelligent tools that were made to improve our lives, not destroy it. As the usage increases day by day amongst people of all ages, we should be aware and spread awareness that phone addiction, on top of all the addictions in the world, is also a serious addiction, and everyone should take steps to prevent it and improve their "relationship" with their phones.
The steps mentioned above may seem trivial and ineffective at first, but when done together, they will matter, and compound over time. We should note that there is no magical button to stop addictions or achieve anything in this world; the small things add up and deliver.
Source
Twenge, J. M., Cooper, A. B., Joiner, T. E., Duffy, M. E., & Binau, S. G. (2019). Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30869927/