In the US, we spend an average of 4.5 hours on our phone every day. That means that by the end of your life, you could have spent more than 12 years looking at your phone.
Crazy right?
Do you really want to spend that much time in your life looking at a screen? Think of everything you could do in 12 years.
However – we live in a digital era. Most of our work revolves around phones and laptops. Screens are not going away anytime soon. The key is to learn to live with them instead of living for them. Instead of coming home from work where you stare at a screen all day to just stare at more screens, what else could you do?
This blog will dive into the research behind why phones are so addicting to help you ditch the screens and elevate your life – let’s take back those 12 years.
Negative effects of our phones
Before we dive into the research on why our phones are so addicting, we want to go over why this is important. Phones have many positive benefits: they can keep us connected over long distances, make various resources more readily available, and can help people market their business and earn money more easily.
Without boundaries, our phones can have more negative than positive effects on our life:
- Disrupts our sleep: Most of us go on our phone before we go to sleep. The blue light emitted can actually make it harder to fall asleep.
- Increase anxiety, depression, and loneliness: Many people have started associating their self worth with social media. We feel left out and can fall into the comparison trap by seeing what everyone else is doing.
- Disconnects us from friends and family close by: Instead of spending quality time with our loved ones, we are on our phones. Next time you are walking through a restaurant, pay attention to how many people are looking at their phones instead of talking to those around them.
- Distracts us from hobbies and other health promoting habits: Many of us would rather sit inside on our phone than go for a walk. We spend less time trying new things because we just keep mindlessly scrolling or binging our favorite tv shows.
Many of us know going on our phones too much is not good for us. So why do we do it?
Why is it SO hard to stay away from our phones?
Do you struggle to put your phone down or avoid picking it up? The reason why is because of how our brain’s reward system works. Everytime we pick up our phone, we get a boost of dopamine (our brain’s happy hormone). When we get a text, a like on social media, or any other kind of notification, it triggers the same pathway in our brain. Since we never know when these “rewards” are going to come, we start habitually checking our phone. This is the same reason slot machines are so addicting!
Phones have taken away our ability to just be bored. We have a tiny entertainment gadget in our pocket 24/7. When we are waiting in line at the grocery store, in between sets at the gym, or just sitting on the couch at night, it is a habit to just pick up our phones. The problem is, boredom is healthy. It stimulates creative thinking.
So what do we do? How do we stop being slaves to our phone?
Stop being a slave to your phone
We all know it’s not easy to reduce screen time. Many of us have tried and failed repeatedly. The problem is that you can’t rely on willpower. Instead, you need to make your phone less accessible, ride out that urge to pick up your phone for the dopamine boost, and redirect your attention to something else. Here are some tips:
- When you are working, sitting on the couch at night, or hanging out with loved ones, do not keep your phone in arm’s reach. It is so easy to mindlessly pick it up without even realizing it.
- When you feel that urge to pick up your phone, notice it. This is why it’s important to create distance between you and your phone. The closer it is, the harder it is for you to pause and notice the urge. Most likely, it’s boredom motivating you to pick up your phone. Start allowing yourself to be bored.
- When you ride out the urge to pick up your phone, consciously choose what you are going to do next. Maybe it’s reading a book instead of mindlessly scrolling. If you are waiting in line somewhere, try just being bored. You don’t really need that 2 minutes of entertainment when waiting in line at Starbucks.
- Block out times in your calendar to just be bored. This can seem silly, but it’s really great for our brains and our creativity. When you start feeling more comfortable being bored, you’ll feel less inclined to pick up your phone.
- Schedule time to go on your phone. This may seem counterintuitive. However, it can be really helpful when you are first trying to reduce your screen time. Set a timer for 10 minutes to let yourself mindlessly scroll and then put your phone down when the timer goes off. It puts you back in control.
- Create a list of things to do when you start feeling bored. While it is important to feel bored sometimes, we are not used to spending hours at a time doing nothing. When you feel the urge to go on your phone to pass the time, do something on your list instead.
You can do it!
Change is not going to happen overnight. It is hard to disconnect from your phone when it’s become such an integral part of your routine. The key is to be kind to yourself. Even when you are not perfect, come back to these tips we listed above and keep trying. The YEARS you will gain back are worth it!