Smartphone addiction – do you have it?
- autorzy: Joanna i Jarek Burdek - założyciele projektu Offlajnowi.pl
- August 7, 2024
Table of contents
Do you know how much time people spend in front of a smartphone screen?
It is not only your problem. Phonoholism or smartphone addiction currently affects a huge part of society. It is all in the data:
- On average, people in Poland spend 7 hours online, over 3 on their smartphones alone*.
- The number of cases of depression, suicides among the youth, and other effects which scientists associate with overusing mobile phones and social media keeps growing.
- Children spend more and more time on their phones, including the youngest ones.
Let me tell you a sad story…
When my son was younger and we would spend afternoons together after I finished work, when my phone rang – he would throw a tantrum. He knew that this small black device would take away his mum, and the time we were supposed to spend together would not in fact be spent together. That is why he would scream, pull on my clothes and get angry.
At first, it seemed strange to me. But I would leave either way to take care of things. However, when I realized that my child was fighting for my attention against the phone, it made me feel really bad. What mother am I if I cannot give him the most valuable thing: my undivided attention?
Do you also see digital zombies?
From that moment on I have cautiously observed people on the street. Sometimes I see parents pushing a stroller, focusing on their phone. Or sitting next to their children, but in fact looking at a screen.
I have seen whole families or couples who instead of talking are focused on their phones.
What is this magical device and how big is its power if spending time on it becomes more important than anything else?
Are you younger? You have it worse!
But you need to be aware of it. Your brain is not fully developed until 25 (I am sorry, that is a fact). This includes the part responsible for dealing with addiction and dopamine. You simply must conquer addiction and your brain right now. How?
Symptoms of Smartphone addiction – do you experience them?
If you notice that the following symptoms of smartphone addiction affect you, take action. Or maybe someone close to you suffers from addiction? Do not wait and do not promise yourself that it will get better. You must act today:
You are constantly on your phone.
You spend your free time on it. Activities which do not really contribute to your development consume a lot of your time (games, social media, browsing online shops or portals). You do not even control how much time it takes up. Often, You are on your phone for a longer time than you intended.
Your phone is your best friend.
Sometimes you prefer to be on your phone instead of going outside or spending time out with your friends. After some time, you feel uncomfortable leaving your house at all. You isolate yourself.
More often than not, you interact with others using your phone.
It may be that you interact with people a lot online, spend your time talking with others. But you still feel lonely, because most of your relationships (besides those “mandatory ones”, like at work or school) are online.
Your phone takes more of your time than other activities outside of work and school.
Extreme case: you do not need them, because you have a phone.
Overusing your phone takes a toll on the relationship with your family (and other people).
People who are addicted have less time for their family, because they are constantly on their phone. Is it the same for you?
You often feel nervous or down.
People who are addicted often browse social media. It puts them in a bad mood, they feel like they are worse than others, whom they constantly compare themselves with. Frequent use of social media, wherein content and videos change quickly, makes you feel stressed, pumped up. The more you use your phone, the bigger is your “low”.
You reach for your phone when you are stressed or when you want to calm down.
But it does not work, because it does not get better after you use it.
You do not have many other activities and other interests.
You organize most of your free time around your phone. In fact, you do not have any free time anymore (you have allotted it for your phone).
You have trouble sleeping.
Either you go to sleep too late and you are not well-rested or you cannot fall asleep. The blue light emitted by your phone inhibits the release of melatonin, the hormone of sleep.
Using your phone is the first thing you do when you wake up.
When you open your eyes, you instantly reach for your phone and check what you missed while asleep.
You have many apps installed.
Some of them are just for entertainment. You simple like to use them, but if you think about it, you do not always need them.
You constantly search for some information on your phone, because you “need to know”.
Are you sure? You do not remember what you checked yesterday anyway. But the “informational overload” gets to you. You are overwhelmed by the amount of information on your phone.
You spend time on social media at work.
You play games or watch videos while in public transport. Extreme case: you neglect your work and family, because your phone is more interesting.
You cannot focus.
It is hard for you to read more difficult things or to listen to or watch longer content, you are constantly jumping or running around.
You suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out).
People who are addicted are afraid that they might miss out on something, e.g. a discount or something on social media or in a game.
You neglect household responsibilities.
Or you do them sloppily, because you want to get back to your phone. Sometimes you forget about things because you were on your phone.
You tried using your phone less many times before.
But after a few hours or days, everything went back to normal.
Sometimes you used your phone in dangerous situations.
You use your phone while driving or crossing the road. This happened more than once.
You react to notifications like a child to sweets.
Notifications are accompanied by a thrill, excitement and anticipation. Do you ever run straight to your phone as soon as you hear those “pings”?
Warning!
If you can relate to these descriptions, at least partially, it means you have a problem. Just like a large majority of people today. Start acting on it! Do you need precise confirmation?
Take the test below.
How to diagnose smartphone addiction? Take a short test!
Caglar Yildirim and Ana-Paula Correia conducted a study and prepared a questionaire which describes the scale of suffering from nomophobia.
Nomophobia is the fear of the absence of a phone (in English: no mobile phobia).
How to take the smartphone addiction test?
Take a piece of paper (or open a spreadsheet) Write down the question number. Respond to each question with a number from 1 to 5. 1 means that you do not agree, that it does not concern you, and 5 that you totally agree, “it is you”!
Without constant access to information, I feel uncomfortable.
I would be annoyed if I couldn’t check information on my phone when I want it.
I am annoyed when I cannot read the news (e.g. events, weather, etc.) on my phone.
I would get upset if I could not use my phone and/or apps and other features when I want to.
The option of running out of battery on my smartphone scares me.
If I ran out of funds or reached my monthly data limit, I would panic.
When I have no smartphone reception or can’t connect to Wi-Fi, I keep checking to see if the reception is there or if I can find a Wi-Fi connection.
I feel trapped when I cannot use my smartphone.
If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would still want to check it .
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel anxious about not being able to immediately communicate with my family and/or friends.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would worry about my family and/or that my friends would not be able to contact me.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel nervous because I would not be able to select messages and calls.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would be anxious about not being able to stay in touch with my family and/or friends.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would be upset I did not know if someone had been trying to contact me.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would be concerned that my regular contact with family and friends had been severed.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would be upset that I was disconnected from my digital identity.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel uncomfortable about not being up-to-date with social media and online networks.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel uncomfortable about not being able to check notifications and updates from social media.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel anxious about not being able to check my email.
If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel strange and not know what to do.
Scoring:
up to 20 points – no nomophobia
21 to 60 points – mild nomophobia
60 to 100 points – moderate nomophobia
100 to 140 points – severe nomophobia
Source: http://cs.oswego.edu/~caglar/publications/NMPQ_English.pdf,
citation from: Yildirim, C., & Correia, A. P. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130-137.
The causes of Smartphone addiction
Look, it is not entirely your fault that it got you (unfortunately). We all have smartphones and it is very easy to become addicted to them. Why?
Habits and smartphone as a “pacifier” for children
I think that habits do not help. We teach little children that when they are whiny, for example in a car, they will instantly get a phone.
As a result, a phone is something which allows us not to feel more serious emotions since childhood. Only run from them. We are bored – tap, on the phone. We feel bad – tap, on the phone. Stress – you guessed it: phone! Over and over again.
Dopamine – the addiction generator
People have been looking for new information for generations. This is how evolution works. When we acquire new knowledge, we are flooded with dopamine. Dopamine is the hormone of pleasure anticipation. When you use the Internet and social media, your brain is flooded with it, making you want more and more of it.
But the more dopamine you “take”, the more your brain wants of it to achieve the same level of pleasure. It is like stimulants, only in this case the drug is the screen. It is addictive, especially to children, whose brains are not fully developed and cannot fully deal with dopamine or temptations yet.
Easy access
We as humans like simple and easy things. Among such things is smartphone entertainmentsmartphone. It is much easier for us to browse it than to read a book, run, study. That is (also) why we choose it.
Doing things the easy way is human trait. We often do what does not require any effort from us. And in a smartphone, we have everything: a phone, a camera, access to online shopping, making calls, contacting loved ones. It has replaced a lot of our devices. And it also breeds phone addiction.
But think of it as ice cream. It too is delicious. But you can’t possibly eat only ice cream all day. Because it is dangerous to your physical health!
Behavioral addiction – what is it, where does it come from?
This excessive use of the phone often comes from addiction, too. When I do something on my smartphone – check a notification, scroll through posts – dopamine is secreted. It is the hormone of pleasure anticipation. The problem is that the more dopamine the brain produces, the more it needs to reach a state of satisfaction. And so we spend more and more time on our smartphones. As we put it down, we quickly run out of it. It is such a self-perpetuating machine.
As we get used to the doses of dopamine that short posts or videos give us, we cannot focus on reading, watching longer content, we want to have it like that everywhere. As our brain is deprived of a smartphone, we deprive it of that access to dopamine, which it considers essential to life, and the panic sets in….
The effects of smartphone addiction
The list of negative consequences is long. One thing is certain: want a smaller brain? Keep using your smartphone. Researchers in Germany have observed that phone addicts experience a loss in the gray matter of the brain. Phone addiction changes the shape and size of the brain! (source)
Want to be exhausted? Keep using your smartphone.
Did you know that every day you wake up with a certain amount of energy? Seriously, this may surprise you, but you do not have an unlimited amount of it. In the morning, your human battery is full, but those dashes of recharged energy keep flowing out.
Every time you do something, you use up your “charge”. Sometimes you can use more of it, sometimes less. Interestingly, energy is devoured not only by what you do, but also by the things you refrain from doing. For example: I will not eat that piece of chocolate (energy). I will not look at my phone (energy).
And the smartphone eats up an awful lot of our energy
by the simple act refraining from using it. Even when it is turned off, it begs for our attention (uses up energy). The more we refrain, the more energy it drains. And since you have a limited amount of it, it happens that you do not have any energy left for other things: smarter time (not on the phone) with your child, you want to eat things that are more calorific, or you do not know how to restrain yourself.
The brain can do only one thing at a time!
Added to this is our human limitation. The brain can focus on one (up to two) thing at a time. And when it is focused on a phone (what’s going on there? What am I missing?), it does other things worse. It uses more energy, it gets worse grades at school, it does worse on tests.
Other consequences of phonoholism are:
worse sleep and insomnia – the brain does not have time to cleanse itself of toxins, the blue light blocks the secretion of melatonin – the sleep hormone (the brain thinks it does not need to go to sleep yet),
problems with concentration, memory and distraction – on the Internet, we only vaguely jump around information, on top of that we do not need to memorize anything, because everything can be looked up,
problems with empathy – in front of the screen, we do not read body language, and the more time we are online, the less offline, thus we can feel lonely,
self-esteem problems – we constantly compare ourselves with others on social media,
vision problems – looking at a screen increases nearsightedness,
mental problems – stress, exposure to depression,
Health problems – if we do not do sports.
It is a lot. Have I convinced you yet to reduce the time you spend on your smartphone (and on the Internet)?
How to treat Smartphone addiction. Can it be done?
Ok. The test showed that you are an addict. What to do next? Maybe your problem is your child’s addiction? In both cases I have the same answer:
Specialist help – consider it first in the case of addiction.
And this I recommend with full conviction. Because if you want to treat a tooth – you do not do it alone. How much more serious is mental health? A specialist will help to overcome the difficulties, and the addict will receive professional support. Just as dentists treat teeth, so with addiction it is worthwhile to use the help of a specialist – a psychologist, an addiction therapist.
Believe me, today it is nothing to be ashamed of, but a symptom of being a conscious and wise person.
What else can you do?
Check out group therapy – search Google for “behavioral addiction group therapy” or “behavioral addiction groups” + city).
How to help a child with an addiction? If the problem affects your child, go to the class teacher or school counselor to ask for help. There is no shame in this.
Remember. What you or your loved one are experiencing is the problem of a huge number of people today. You are not alone in this. It is not something to be ashamed of. It is worth to talk about it with someone and reach out for support from loved ones. But above all, from a professional.
What can you do today?
Turn off all notifications.
Uninstall apps from your phone, at least those which consume your time and do not have any value.
Use social media exclusively on your laptop, at certain hours.
Do one thing at a time – either work or use your phone (unless you are working on your phone).
It takes time and you will not succeed right away. Just because you fail today does not mean you should not try tomorrow. It can take many days. Phone addiction, like any addiction, requires an intervention. But if you make the effort, there is a good chance that you will stop living only in the virtual world.
The effects of Smartphone addiction in children
I don’t want to scare you. Nomophobia in the case of children is a serious threat. The effects will be felt not only today:
hyperactivity or sadness, or even depression
neglect of school and household responsibilities
trouble sleeping
becoming overweight through lack of exercise
lack of real relationships away from the computer
lack of interests
problems with focusing
problems with concentration
stress
problems with self-esteem, constantly comparing oneself with others
worse grades at school
not reading books
and many, many others.
If your maternal intuition says: something is wrong, my child may have a problem with excessive smartphone use – reach out for help.
How to help your child?
If you see that this is a problem of phonoholism – go to a specialist right away. Do not wait, do not tell yourself “everyone’s like that”. This problem will escalate, because it is a child’s addiction, not just “being” on their phone. Do not downplay the problem of spending time on your smartphone to avoid regrets. In the article above, you will find links to National Health Service (NFZ) clinics and a search engine for private specialists.
Explain to your child what dopamine is and how it affects their brain!
Set a limit on any device with Internet access for them, i.e.: smartphone, tablet, computer, game console and whatever else they have. How to do it? On your phone, install a free app, such as this one: check it out
Write down the Terms of Use of the smartphone. Remind your child that it’s your property, and he uses it on a loan basis. Specify in the terms and conditions the maximum time for using the smartphone and particular applications (e.g. games).
Establish phone-free zones and phone-free times at home. This could be, for example, lunchtime and one day on the weekend (or a few hours during which you play board games without a smartphone).
Spend as much time as possible with your child without a smartphone, preferably actively, outdoors, walking, biking. Talk to them a lot! They need your attention (without a smartphone).
Remove the smartphone from your child’s room, especially at bedtime. Make a hotel for the cellphone (it can be a beautiful, converted box with a mini pillow and a quilt). Let the smartphone get some sleep, too.
Teach the child to be bored and spend time without the phone. Let him know how to daydream and do nothing. So that the brain can rest.
Be very careful that your child gets a good night’s sleep and does not browse the Internet before bedtime. The blue light of the phone blocks the secretion of melatonin – the sleep hormone. It makes it harder to fall asleep and delays it. And during sleep, the brain organizes information, memorizes things and gets rid of toxins. Without sleep, your child lives worse (and so do you!).
Don’t silence your child with a smartphone, let them learn to deal with difficult emotions.
Responsibilities always come first – the task and household chores, only then the smartphone within the set time limit. You ask, what is this limit? I will tell you frankly: the less, the better. My 11-year-old son has a limit: an hour a day on the smartphone (and that’s just so he’s not excluded by his peers).
Finally, a personal plea: Dear Parents, get that smartphone out of the classroom – SERIOUSLY!
It can be turned off, put away – it does not matter. The smartphone is a distraction! Even turned off. I have read studies that people with a smartphone (even turned off) are less focused and perform worse on exams. Their brain constantly has to hold back. And it uses energy for that! Instead of learning, remembering, focusing.
Do you need support? Order a lecture.
Phonoholism is a growing problem. Phone addiction has a negative impact on the lives of not only children, but entire families. The compulsion to use the phone and the lack of control are also an adult problem! Therefore, let’s start with ourselves.
Write to us.
Sources:
- https://explodingtopics.com/blog/smartphone-usage-stats
- https://www.thetreetop.com/statistics/average-human-attention-span
- https://www.brusselstimes.com/232851/people-touch-their-smartphone-over-2600-times-a-day-research-shows
- A. Hansen, Skärmhjärnan (Eng. Log Your Brain Out), A. Hansen
