How Much Is Fair Usage:
There is no hard and fast rule to decide or differentiate between the two. To actually tell you the real answer to this, it depends on the individual.
If there is someone who uses it for work from the morning to the evening such as a software developer, then it is okay. The key point here is that such people should take proper care of their health and eyes.
For example, performing daily exercises and basic stretching along with a proper diet, sitting in a proper posture etc. are really helpful.
On the contrary if you are somebody whose work is mostly practical that is least usage of mobile phone or gadgets are required, and you still use it for hours and hours then it may be just not right.
This is where an individual decides about drawing a fine line between the two. To know it easily whether you are addicted or not, there are some basic steps to perform.
What Are The Symptoms Of Smartphone Addiction
Tell a phone addict, You are addicted to your smartphone, and you will hear a counter-argument denying what you said. Most people who spend umpteen hours on the smartphone do not realize how deep into the smartphone addiction they are.
If you intend to cure phone addiction, check for the symptoms first.
Getting Treatment To Overcome An Addiction
There are many different treatments that can help you during the process of overcoming an addiction, including medical and psychological treatments. There is no one “right” type of treatment, although some approaches are better supported by research than others.
Cognitive behavior therapy helps many people, and research shows it to be very effective in helping people overcome all kinds of addictions. But CBT is not for everyone. Other approaches may be better suited for those who do not relate well to analyzing their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Mindfulness-based approaches have become very popular and can be easier to relate to for many people. As with CBT, mindfulness is helpful for people with underlying mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression.
A variety of other treatments can be helpful, including couples counseling,;family therapy, and neurotherapy. Medications can sometimes be helpful in the short term or the long term. Talk to your doctor about the options that are available to and appropriate for you.
If you or a loved one are struggling with substance use or addiction, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.
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The Best Ways You Can Fight Teen Cell Phone Addiction
Recently, a friend took in her 13-year-old niece for the summer because her parents fell on some rough times.
At first, she gave the young girl quite a bit of grace with her cell phone. She recognized how overwhelming it must be to leave your home and temporarily move in with someone else.
She didnt say anything when the teen sat on the couch for hours scrolling and scrolling. She didnt pipe in when the young girl walked around the house with her nose in her phone. She tried not to scold her when she repeatedly said Wait just one minute, so she could finish a text instead of responding to a question.
Finally, when the girl tried to bring her phone to Sunday family dinner, my friend had enough. She told her niece to leave her phone at the counter for meal time.
Ways To Overcome Cell Phone Addiction
There isn’t just one, simple solution to overcoming your phone addiction, except for getting rid of your phone entirely. As previously discussed, that isn’t a good option. Below are recommended tips on how you can overcome your phone addiction.
Cell phone addiction can start at a very early age.
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Ways To Break Your Phone Addiction So You Can Focus On What Really Matters
Smartphones are a strong candidate for the most alluring distraction of all time, but you can resist and win back your life.
Entrepreneur
That we are living in an age of near constant digital distraction is now old news.;By this point, you have no doubt read about the studies linking the devices in your pocket to diminished happiness, focus, productivity;and cognitive performance.;
You have also likely heard that the urge to pick up our devices is similar to other forms of behavioral addiction.;Like gambling or shopping addiction, it releases a small shot of dopamine in various regions of the brain and keeps us coming back for more, even when we know its not in our best interest to do so.
So the question is no longer Are we distracted? but How can we overcome our addiction to distraction so we can focus on the things that actually matter?;
As a mindfulness expert and well-being entrepreneur, Ive experimented with all sorts of apps and technical solutions.;And yet, Ive found that the most powerful solutions dont involve downloading new apps.;They involve changing habits.
Here are the four most powerful inner shifts you can use to radically enhance focus, clarity, and productivity.
Dont Use Your Phone In Bed
Studies show that using your smartphone in bed is not a great idea to begin with, because the blue light messes with your sleep hormones. So the first step to kicking your smartphone addiction is to make your bed a phone-free zone. Seriously, for your health. The first few nights will be hard, but eventually you will go from the above picture to this:
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Choose Real Over Virtual Experiences
Make a conscious choice to have real rather than virtual experiences.;Instead of checking the internet for information, head to the library and pick up a book. Instead of playing video games, join a team or a chess club. Get out to see live entertainers, rather than viewing everything online.
You may like the simplicity and efficiency of doing everything from your cell phone, but this won’t provide you with the best or most meaningful experiences.
This will improve your physical and mental health, and reduce addictive patterns of behavior. And you might just find the real world is more dynamic, multi-faceted and;enjoyable than the virtual world.
Figure Out & Work On Your Social Needs
Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube could be fulfilling a social deficit you have in real life, such as loneliness. If that is the case, you could engage yourself in a social mental play that is productive If possible, you could increase the amount of meaningful social interactions you have. Spend time with a person talking on the phone with headphones or meet in person. Try to have a good time in a way you feel your social needs are met. Avoid satisfying all your social needs on social media. Social media use and mental health have a complex relationship, you might want to;learn more about that here. Social support is a defense against addiction.
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Find Treatment For Phone Addiction
Though smartphones are an excellent resource, they are also dangerous tools, especially for children and young adults. The extent of issues that arise from excessive phone use is still not completely understood. However, as science continues to link health problems to cell phone use, it is essential to be proactive.
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If you are worried about yourself or a loved one, there is help available. Do not let your phone consume your life. Take an empowered step towards recovery by contacting a treatment provider today.
- About
Suzette Gomez earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Central Florida. Her desire to help others led her to a Pre-medical track with a focus on psychological and social development. After graduation, she pursued her passion for writing and began working as a Digital Content Writer at Recovery Worldwide LLC. With her background in medicine, Suzette uses both science and the arts to serve the public through her writing.
Causes And Effects Of Smartphone And Internet Addiction
While you can experience impulse-control problems with a laptop or desktop computer, the size and convenience of smartphones and tablets means that we can take them just about anywhere and gratify our compulsions at any time. In fact, most of us are rarely ever more than five feet from our smartphones. Like the use of drugs and alcohol, they can trigger the release of the brain chemical dopamine and alter your mood. You can also rapidly build up tolerance so that it takes more and more time in front of these screens to derive the same pleasurable reward.
Heavy smartphone use can often be symptomatic of other underlying problems, such as stress, anxiety, depression, or loneliness. At the same time, it can also exacerbate these problems. If you use your smartphone as a security blanket to relieve feelings of anxiety, loneliness, or awkwardness in social situations, for example, youll succeed only in cutting yourself off further from people around you. Staring at your phone will deny you the face-to-face interactions that can help to meaningfully connect you to others, alleviate anxiety, and boost your mood. In other words, the remedy youre choosing for your anxiety , is actually making your anxiety worse.
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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.
Turn Your Phone To Grayscale
This is a popular recommendation by Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Human Technology.;
Research shows that colors are attached to emotions and priorities–especially;that little red notification bubble that has controlled us for so long.;Turning your phone to;black and white can reduce the urge you have to view new notifications that pull you into the infinite scrolling vortex.
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What Is Smartphone Addiction
While a smartphone, tablet, or computer can be a hugely productive tool, compulsive use of these devices can interfere with work, school, and relationships. When you spend more time on social media or playing games than you do interacting with real people, or you cant stop yourself from repeatedly checking texts, emails, or appseven when it has negative consequences in your lifeit may be time to reassess your technology use.
Smartphone addiction, sometimes colloquially known as nomophobia , is often fueled by an Internet overuse problem or Internet addiction disorder. After all, its rarely the phone or tablet itself that creates the compulsion, but rather the games, apps, and online worlds it connects us to.
Smartphone addiction can encompass a variety of impulse-control problems, including:
Information overload. Compulsive web surfing, watching videos, playing games, or checking news feeds can lead to lower productivity at work or school and isolate you for hours at a time. Compulsive use of the Internet and smartphone apps can cause you to neglect other aspects of your life, from real-world relationships to hobbies and social pursuits.
Keep Yourself On A Schedule
The most basic step that Rosen suggests for weaning yourself off your phone is literally setting alarms specifying how often you can check it. Start with every 15 minutes, then move to every half hour, every 45 minutes, or every hour. When your alarm sounds, spend one minute going through any and all notifications and then reset the timer.
To reduce response-anxiety and hold yourself accountable, Rosen suggests telling close friends or family that you may not be responding to their messages as quickly as you used to.
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Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This therapeutic approach helps illuminate the links between your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. It can be a very effective type of therapy to help you change certain behavior patterns.
At least one small study suggests that CBT may be effective in balancing changes in brain chemistry associated with cell phone addiction.
If you think this type of therapy may help you, talk with your primary care doctor about where or how you can find a therapist.
Reconnect With Your Smartphone Gradually
To consistently be able to stop looking at your phone, your phone will have to become a tool again instead of a temptation.
Of course, why we use is they do a lot of things wonderfully, James Roberts of Baylor University says. But we over-adopted.
After people break up with their phones, they often slowly reintroduce some apps as long as they are able to use them responsibly. The process can involve some trial and error.
Habits do take a while to form and to break, Roberts says. Dont beat yourself up if you slip. If you spend too much time on a website, thats okay. Go back, reorganize and start again.
Rachel Saslow is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post and Portland Monthly.
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Reasons To Overcome This Addiction
You may want to curtail your phone addiction for a generalized reason – that you are on your phone too much. However, different events in our lives may prove for it to be beneficial to decrease how much we are on our phones. I’ll outline a few reasons, just so you are aware of what you may need to consider in the future.
How To Help Teens Overcome A Smartphone Addiction
Believe it or not, smartphone use can be beneficial for teens. Teens use smartphones to connect with peers, seek help on school assignments, and they can even use apps to help them get organized. Although it might seem like teens are constantly connected, many use their devices within healthy limits.
Its important to empower teens to take control of their own use of smartphones and create and maintain a healthy balance. This isnt a one-time conversation. A few things you can do help provide guidance and support include the following:
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Introspect About Your Expectations
Continuous short-interval phone checking may have a lot to do with what you are expecting out of phone usage. It would help to introspect and ask yourself what you expect is it a rewarding experience? is it a social interaction? are you waiting for some to approach you? are you wishing for some exciting change? do you want a flood of notifications but not getting any? These questions will help you figure out what psychological needs your phone is compensating for. Maybe its the need for belongingness or social approval or a need to feel desired. Try to satisfy those needs in healthier ways. Usually, interacting with people in person and doing some meaningful activity satisfy those needs.
