Posted On: 2021-08-26 08:41:08
What is Smartphone Addiction?
The compulsive use of smartphones, tablets, and personal computers is termed ‘smartphone addiction’. Smartphone addiction is often fueled by the overuse of the internet. This addiction is worse than that of drugs like cocaine, LSD, and marijuana. And the scariest part of this addiction is that it severely affects the mental state as well as physical health of the victim. It gravely distracts the victim and affects their productivity even in doing minimal activities. Irrespective of age, people are getting more and more addicted to fascinating technology.
This has led to the coining of new terms like Nomophobia meaning the fear of going without your phone, textaphrenia meaning the fear that you cannot send or receive any sort of texts, phantom vibrations meaning always feeling that your phone is alerting when it isn’t.
Mentioning the statistics presented by Techjury, a reputable site for unbiased reviews of software solutions, states that more than 66% of the total population shows signs of Nomophobia. The average time spent on the phone is 2 hours and 51 minutes for an average nomophobic. Normally, users touch their phones 2617 times a day whereas a nomophobia victim spends 5427 times a day! 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking up and going to sleep, and 70% of nomophic people sleep with mobile phones beside them and wake up along with them.
Similarity
Using the word ‘addiction’ for the overuse of smartphones might sound incorrect to some. But the use of such heavy words is that the similarity between overuse of phones and any other behavioral addiction is almost the same.
Losing control: Every addicted person tends to be an aggressive person who is unable to keep a track of their feelings, this symptom can be easily seen in smartphone addicts.
Dependency: To feel happy, the person needs to engage in the addiction, which applies to nomophobic people.
Withdrawal: Just like getting free from any addiction makes the victim feel anxious and depressed, the victims of smartphone addiction face the same symptoms. Withdrawing from smartphone addiction is tougher than withdrawing from other behavioral addictions.
Relapse: Even after getting free from this addiction, people often pick up the same habit soon after subconsciously as smart devices are available everywhere and can easily trigger the addiction.
Why does it Happen??
Humans are the species that are vulnerable to distractions and smartphones being Smart-Phones are the best distractions available at our fingertips. The invention of the smartphone was to make life easier for humans. But now, the evolution of new technology has led them not to be restricted as means to communicate but also features that can freeze moments in them (photographs), allow gaming, used as GPS, health tracers, and whatnot. The excess use of smartphones has led to the saying, “humans don’t just use smartphones- they rely on them.”
Impulse control problems
Dopamine and social media- A part of the phone addiction can be blamed on dopamine, the feel-good chemical present in our brain. In many people, the release of dopamine is stimulated by social interactions. Many people use phones especially social media platforms to socialize and as dopamine is released while socializing, people often try to get out there on the social media platforms more, just to get the hit of the feel-good chemical. Many of the social media platforms have the function of “likes” and “comments” which makes people check their phones to check how society is judging them based on a “post” and if the counts of these “likes” and “comments” are low they even feel depressed.
Avoiding reality- Several pieces of research show that people who are addicted to smartphones are generally trying to avoid reality and real-life problems which are difficult for them to solve. They love to live in virtuality than in reality.
Virtual relationship: This is the era where everything is virtual, from attending lectures to buying groceries, which has increased manyfold due to Covid19. The habit of being in virtuality disturbs your bond with reality. People prefer being in a bubble of virtuality and create bonds and relationships on online platforms more than in real life. People are starting to prefer virtual relationships over real-life relationships as they are less complicated and messy. People tend to forget that online relationships are not a substitute for real relationships.
Urge for more: The internet is a wonderful place but it is addictive, it acts as a hindrance in the daily life of individuals. Many nomophobic people are attached to one such thing that the internet provides and they can’t resist the urge of using that thing. Teens are generally addicted to social media and gaming. While adults are generally obsessed with online shopping, stock trading, internet gambling, bidding which might financially and socially damage the person.
Cybers*x addiction: The obsessive use of p**nography, s*xting, adult messaging sites makes a negative impact on real-life relationships and the emotional wellbeing of people. While cybers*x addiction may give a timely pleasure and anonymity, it had hundreds of negative effects mainly on mental health as it develops fantasies that are impossible to fulfill in reality. This Cybers*x addiction often leads to online crimes. According to “Statista”, nearly 777 cases were registered with the authorities in 2019 under Section 354D of the Indian Penal Code across India. The number of cases are higher in reality as people avoid registering cybercrime cases due to the fear of having to reveal their identity.
The negative impact of Nomophobia
Depression and loneliness- Though the usage of the phone might cure your depression, loneliness, and boredom for the time being, but after some time the loneliness will kick in as you’ll always want to be in your virtual bubble but reality doesn’t let you. People who overthink easily get depressed and feel lonely.
Anxiety- According to Dr. Nancy Cheever, head of the research on the relationship between anxiety and phone usage commented that “The more people use their phones, the more anxious they are about using their phone.”
Insomnia- The overuse of phones messes with your brain and disturbs your sleep pattern making you an insomniac, it harms the visual system as using a phone in the dark causes strain to a person’s eye. It harms the mental and physical state of human beings and disturbs their day-to-day cycle.
Stress- As most of the time is spent on the phone, your work keeps on piling up. The stress of the piling work due to the addiction mentally disturbs the individual.
Disturbed concentration- Constantly being on your phone keeps your mind of everything else and even if the person is made to do certain tasks, he/she does not do it wholeheartedly, it severely affects your creativity.
Self-absorption- Social media is a place that makes people narcissists and self-centered which is unhealthy for themselves and the people around them.
How to break the addiction
If you think that your addiction isn’t severe and can try and control it, try doing the steps mentioned below:
1. Remove time-consuming apps which might be the cause of the addiction
2. Try keeping your phone at a distance like let it charge peacefully
3. Spend quality time with friends and family to distract yourself
4. Develop hobbies and engage your free time in exploring new places and art forms.
5. Set a screen time limit and stop using your phone after it.
6. Don’t bring your phone to the dinner table and bed.
If the addiction may be severe one can always opt for CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) which may help you solve the underlying issue and help you change your negative thoughts of yourself and people around you, to positive ones and helps you achieve goals in life. Even support groups help addicted people where each one of them come together, share, and try to help each other.
Crowdfunding
Various crowdfunding platforms believe in funding projects related to removing smartphone addiction by using modern technology.
Taking an innovative step towards the riddance of smartphone addiction, ‘Light’ a unique technology company in Newyork run by Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang raised a campaign on a crowdfunding platform to launch and raise funds for their new $100 product “the light phone”. The slim credit-card-size phone was a creation to be used as a lite version of their smartphone which can be carried to places where you want to limit your addiction to your smartphone and social media. The features of the phone restrict to calling and text messages with the storage of just a 10-speed dial attracted thousands of people to back the campaign. The total amount of $415,127 was raised and the campaign was a success.
Another interesting campaign was launched by Luke Stern and Sam Wander that is based on using a phone while with your friends and still enjoying it. The game is called ‘Game of Phones’ where Luke and Sam are planning to develop a deck of 100 cards like ‘show you best #selfie’ or ‘Find the weirdest Google Image Search result for your name’. Guess using the phone while being with friends won’t be awkward anymore. The innovative game was backed by 563 backers who pledged a total of $16,856.
Smartphones are amazing gadgets that help us get through our day to day life. You can even read about the information and communication in depth in our blog (ICT Link). Things that satisfy our needs are good for us but only within a certain limit, we should keep that in mind. And if you are addicted to smartphones don’t be afraid to seek professional help.
“Sugar is sweet to taste but its overdose can cause diabetes”.
Author : Hritika Singh
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