How To Break Phone Addiction

Delete Your Most Distracting Apps

How To BREAK Phone Addiction (Get Clean)

Which apps on your phone are distracting you most? You probably know the few apps you check most often. For example, I have no Facebook or Facebook Messenger app on my phone. If I want to check something, I do so in the web version.;

If you find it hard to part with your social media apps, you can put them into folders. I have put all my apps into a folder, with the most distracting apps on the second page of my folder. This increases opening the app by two taps, which may be all that I need to stop my bad habit on some days.;

Considering Alternatives To Using Your Cell Phone

1Understand your triggers to phone use. Triggers are your feelings and thoughts about a situation that leads to a certain behavior . Learning why you are urged to use your cell phone can help you develop alternative options.XResearch source

Are you on your cell phone because you have a strong desire to be social and connect with others? If so, you can fulfill your needs in ways that last longer such as face-to-face contact.

Are you simply bored? Boredom can be a huge trigger for individuals to engage in addictive behaviors. If you are often bored, it may be time to develop hobbies or other activities that sustain your attention.

2Engage in other mood-boosting activities. Using your cell phone has been linked to increases in mood, which positively reinforces cell phone use. XResearch source Instead of using your phone to feel better, engage in alternative activities such as exercise/sports or creative activities such as writing or drawing.

3Keep busy! If you have a specific plan for each day and you are focusing on your responsibilities, you will have less time to spend on your phone. The bonus is that you will spend more time focusing on your goals and being productive.

If you are not employed you can apply to jobs or volunteer at a local organization.

Try taking up a new hobby like knitting, sewing or playing an instrument.

Spend more time doing things that need to be finished, whether it’s chores or parents wanting a family day or time together.

How To Break Mobile Phone Addiction

If youre up for a challenge, count how many times you pick up your phone in a day. Is it dozens of times? Hundreds? The truth is that our phoneswhile amazing tools that open up a world of convenience, entertainment, and informationare addicting. Its way too easy to go from using our phone as a tool for communication and efficiency to feeling the compulsive need to check our notifications every few seconds.

When it comes to kids and teens, the risks are even more serious. Phone addiction can cause problems for their mental health and sleep habits, not to mention all the time they can waste mindlessly scrolling. Our kids time is preciousthey have lots to learn and do!

But having a phone doesnt mean we have to be addicted to our phone. So how do we prevent addiction, and how do we break addiction to phones? Keep reading for info on phone addiction and five ideas for curbing that addiction, both for you and your kids.

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You Might Have A Problem If

Even though smartphone addiction is not an officially recognized psychiatric;disorder , many mental health experts now treat it as one. Website PsychCentral suggests you might have a problem if you:

Feel extremely anxious if your phone battery dies or if you lose service
Use your phone up until the minute you go to bed and checking it the minute you wake up
Sleep with your phone on your bed
Reach for your phone in times of anxiety or depression
Mindlessly pass time by looking at your phone

Put The Phone Physically Out Of Reach

What we know is our phones will distract us even if theyre in sight but were not using them, says James Roberts, a consumer behavior expert and author of Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?

Relying on your willpower is a losing game, so get it out of sight and reach. Roberts, a marketing professor at Baylor University, suggests starting with putting your phone in the trunk or glove box while driving, since that will have an immediate effect on your safety.

To quickly improve sleep and your relationship with your partner, dont charge your phone in the bedroom. That way, it wont be the last thing you see in the evening, the first thing in the morning, or, apparently, a temptation in the middle of the night .

Reintroduce alarm clocks and watches back into your life so that you cant rely on those excuses for using your phone. Subscribe to the newspaper or magazines to read articles; music lovers can go full hipster and listen to music on vinyl instead of streaming apps.

Youre setting up your personal environment to be conducive to your goals, Roberts says. If Im going to cut back on technology, Im going to make it easy to cut back.

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Strategy : Tie Yourself To The Smartphone Mast

You might recall the ancient Greek myth of Odysseus.;As his ship approached the Sirens, he knew that the seductive call of their voices would overwhelm his rational capacities –;that their intoxicating call would lead him to abandon his best interests and jump off the boat to his death.;So before encountering the Sirens, he had his crew tie him to the mast.

Our smartphones are modern-day Sirens.;Theyre intoxicating and utterly addictive.;And that means that we simply cant be trusted to make good, rational decisions in their presence.;Like Odysseus, were best off creating limits around how we use these devices before were in their presence.;

Here are some strategies to consider:

Delete the addictive apps off your phone.;If thats too radical, move them off the main screen or into a folder thats out of sight.
Use the app Moment to monitor your usage patterns.
Put your phone on grey scale so you arent as enchanted by the colorful graphics.
Use airplane mode or do not disturb to silence incoming distractions.
Consider unplugging your router during nights or weekends.
Downgrade to a smaller phone like the iPhone SE.

Get Rid Of Distracting Apps

Sometimes you just cant resist tapping a colorful icon on the Home screen. This is usually the case for games and social media apps. How can one avoid this temptation? Move all addictive apps to the second page where its harder to open them spontaneously. You can also group such apps in folders like Games or Social so theyre always one extra tap away from you.

My Home screen is a place for work, productivity, and travel

I have no Facebook app on my phone. Instead, I check the newsfeed in Safari. Its less convenient than in the native app so I spent significantly less time there. Plus, the browser tab doesnt bombard me with notifications. After visiting Facebook, I always try to close its tab in Safari, so I have some extra work next time.

I also try to stay away from my phone after posting anything on social media. Its so tempting to check your post every 5 minutes to see how many likes and comments you already have! For this reason, I rarely post things that involve a lengthy discussion. Thats how my laziness to check and answer the comments saves me from snagging my phone too often

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Be Addicted To New Healthy Habits:

Joyce Meyer wrote in her book-Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits that, I have learned that concentrating on the good things I want and need to do helps me overcome the bad things that I dont want to do.;You want to stop spending so much time using your phone, try to build new and good habits. You can take interest in studying books and learning new things.;Then, before you know it you will no longer have time for frivolous activities. You will be so busy with activities that will add value to you.

You will notice that anytime youre busy with anything, you tend to forget about your phone and let go of it till you are free. Get busy, develop new interests, endeavor to learn something new and you are a step closer to getting over your phone addiction.

Thats When The Cell Phone Drama Began

How To BREAK Your Phone Addiction || Break Up With Your Phone

First, there was a whole tech tantrum about how the rule was unfair.

When she finally made it to the table, she turned around to look at the phone every time it buzzed. She did not participate in any of the conversations and wolfed down her meal, asking to be excused the moment the last bite went into her mouth.

She didnt even wait for an answer, she just jumped up and went straight to her phone.

The next week, my friend found that the young girl was staying up all hours of the night, sleeping with the phone under her pillow so she could hear any messages. When her Aunt made her shut the phone off, she constantly thought she heard vibrations, even when the phone was powered down.

She appeared uncomfortable and jittery when her phone was not within reach and started lying about when she was using it.

Here Are Some Tips For Getting Off Your Phone:

Dont keep your phone in your room at night. Charge it elsewhere so you dont feel tempted to use it before bed or during the night.
Practice going places without your phone. Youll remember what it felt like during the good old days when smartphones didnt exist and people just went about their days.
Get out and socialize. Many people who compulsively use their phones simply feel lonely or bored. If you replace the time spent on your phone with real-life relationships, youll start to realize how much better you feel living in the real world.
Find a hobby. Instead of being on your phone, why not delve into your creative side or go for a bike ride? With any addiction, you just need to find something else to focus your attention on.

Powerful Strategies To Get Rid Of Phone Addiction

How to stop being addicted;to

a smartphone

Despite all the advantages of technology, your smartphone shouldnt be your only friend and conversation partner in this world. Phone addiction is a kind of addiction similar to alcoholism, drug addiction, and gambling. Of course, it wont injure your health like alcohol but its toxicity affects human consciousness and relations with the world. Some effective strategies will help you and your child to break free from phone addiction.

1. Do not do everything on one device. A smartphone can replace todays books, newspapers, magazines, MP3 player, camera, TV, game console, computer, and many other useful things. Plus, it gives you broader opportunities that the previous generations didnt have. But it doesnt mean that we have to let it replace everything.

2. When you switch between different activities it is good both for your brain and body. This approach makes your life more versatile. And you will be not that much addicted to one device because your likes and feelings will be shared between many different things.;Family dinner or an important meeting is not the best place for you to use your smartphone.

3. Limit your screen time. Installing parental control app on your device will be a great;support for this. If you feel like you might be addicted to your phone, parental control will be of great help for you to become more self-disciplined and self-controlled in this area.

How to help your child;deal

with smartphone addiction?

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What Can You Do

Be very conscious each time you pick up your Smartphone. What is the specific thing you want to accomplish? I cant tell you the number of times I have picked up my phone to make a call or look up a quick fact. Unfortunately, when I unlocked the screen, Facebook was already on. I then spent 15 or 20 minutes scrolling through my Facebook feed before remembering what I needed to do.

Close any apps when you put down your phone. That way, when you turn it on again, youll be presented with your home screen and wont get distracted.

Keep your charging cord away from your bedside for overnight charging. And, whatever you do, dont get the new Mophie Charging Base. That one little device has made it so much easier for me to grab my phone in the middle of the night to check email , then place it back on the pad without having to fuss with cords.

Pledge to use only your computer to check social media, and to use your Smartphone for email and phone calls.

Get a dumb phone for everyday use, and only use your Smartphone when youre traveling.

If these tips are helpful, click the heart below!

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Signs You Have A Smartphone Addiction

If you go pretty much anywhere these days, youll find most people glued to their phones, probably suffering from a smartphone addiction without even knowing it. Smartphones have become more like an extra limb than a tool to access information, and scientists have even come up with a word for the fear of going without your device: nomophobia. This word is short for no mobile phone phobia, and it affects a surprising amount of people.

According to a New York Times report, teens and adults look at their phones around 150 times per day and send roughly 110 text messages. A 2015;Pew Research Centre;study also found that 24% of teens reported looking at the Internet;almost constantly. Surveys done in the United States and Europe discovered that between 1.5% to 8.2% of people suffer from a condition called Internet Addiction Disorder , similar to smartphone addiction.;Other reports have found even higher rates between 6% and 18.5%.;Furthermore, a whopping 46% of smartphone owners say they couldnt survive without their phones.

Using your smartphone too much can cause serious mental, physical and emotional issues over time. Below, well go over signs of a smartphone addiction, and what you can do to break it.

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Clear Out Your Home Screen

In addition to hiding the apps I dont want to use, I place the apps I do want to use in a prominent position: my home screen. Were going to go over good apps later in this guide, but for now know the cardinal rule: never put an app you dont want to use on the home screen. Any apps on the home screen are going to get used more than apps on any other page, so make sure the apps that are there are ones you want to use.

To recap:

Hide apps you want to discourage yourself from using in the second page of groups.

Place apps you want to encourage yourself to use on the home screen.

Leave It In Another Room

On the advice of a therapist, I started practicing leaving my phone in one room while I went into another.;I brought it up and said that I was way too attached. Thought it was making me anxious. I didnt like being in places without reception and would go home if my phone were at risk of dying. Still to this day, Ive never had an iPhone die because I obsessively keep it charged. But my therapist basically had me practice just leaving it in another room for increasing increments of time.;Small increments. Like 15 minutes at a time but getting longer. Im still bad, but much better. And I dont really work on it anymore. ¯\__/¯Yoni Rechtman, investor

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Find Out How Much Time You Waste

Every phone user is different. To break your phone addiction, you must first discover the aspects of phone usage that create your addiction. Determine how many hours you spend on your phone on an average day. Create a baseline and set a goal for improvement. I used the iPhones Screen Time function to identify my average daily screen time. There are some good apps to reduce phone usage that might prove helpful I also used the app Moment to display my number of daily phone pickups and the times of the day I most used my phone.

Next, determine what aspects of your phone usage you want to change. You might intuitively know what areas of phone use occupy most of your time. If you dont know, apps such as QualityTime or the iPhones Screen Time function can help you.;

Important Parenting And Screen Time Issues In Screenagers

How To Break Phone Addiction – 5 Easy Steps!

The impact of screen time on kids and teens. According to a study done by the movies authors an average child spends about 6.5 hours a day at screen and more than 11 hours a week playing video games . Among the problems being addressed in the movie are:

general phone addiction;
teens obsessive desire to take photos of themselves for social media and their worry about how they look;
how too much screen time at a certain age can cause damage to the development of some brain functions;
kids being distracted at school because of their smartphones
problems associated with multitasking and self perception even though kids were performing worse and worse they were sure that they were actually doing well and even improving;
parents and other relatives noticed many times that some kids almost literally turn into a different person while playing computer games;
computer and video game violence and similar issues it is interesting, that some kids think the video game experience is more important and relevant for their future than things like math or school in general.

Parental authority and the way you should assert it, especially in questions of screen time is another important topic of the documentary. This includes exploration of:

Protect your kids

Screen addiction: the Black Mirror lesson

Too much screen time?

Why this plot is crucial

Technology is not guilty. Marie is guilty

Digital education

Limit screen time

AAP

The hard slog

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