Tips To Free Yourself From Smartphone Habits
· Bring awareness to how youre using your phone and set up what Price calls mental speed bumps for example ask yourself as you got to use it what for? why now? And what else?
· To support this use code instead of a thumb swipe to open it
· Turn the screen to a less appealing black and white display screen
· Turn off notifications that are not essential and instead trust yourself to consciously choose a time to check these
· Allocate a time each day or time limit it to monitor the hours spent and/or use apps that control when you can access your phone to check messages
· Turn it off during selected activities such as driving or eating meals
· Turn it off at night and put it away somewhere
· There is a suggestion to have coping strategies for the existential malaise that Price suggests may arise in response to being without this distraction. It can be very challenging to be fully present with our experience. However, simple pleasure principle can help this
· Play the phone stack game. Spending time with other smartphone addicts? Play the phone stack game. When youre having lunch, dinner, or drinks together, have everyone place their smartphones face down on the table. Even as the phones buzz and beep, no one is allowed to grab their device. If someone cant resist checking their phone, that person must pick up the check for everyone.
What Is Phone Addiction
Phone addiction is the obsessive use of a smartphone. The behavioral addiction is often dubbed as nomophobia, or the fear of being without a mobile device. There are over 3.8 billion smartphone users in the world. Research published by Virgin Mobile discovered that those billions of smartphone users receive 427% more messages and notifications than they did a decade ago. They also send 278% more texts. The rise in phone use seems like a natural necessity for modern life, but its also causing concern. The heavy use of these devices has consumers questioning their cellular habits. According to Google Trends, since 2004 searches for cell phone addiction have been rising.
Put A Hairband Around Your Phone
In one of the most thoughtful personal stories Ive ever read on how to overcome cell phone addiction, Brad Soroka recommends placing a hairband around your cell phone. When placed in the middle of the phone, the hairband allows users to answer phone calls easily, but makes other uses of the phone more difficult .
In his words, Every time you want to use your phone, this brings about a mindfulness exercise and makes you ask what is my intention? If you really want to use the phone, set your intention for why, and remove the hair band.
The hairband trick is not about making your phone impossible to use. The practice is about bringing greater mindfulness to each specific use of it as opposed to mindlessly unlocking your phone every 3 minutes.
When used as a collection of tools to improve my work, health, parenting, and life, cell phones are wonderful and bring countless benefits. But when used mindlessly and unintentionally, they become a distraction from the things in life that matter mostin addition to the negative effects listed above.
Learning how to use our smartphones effectively may be one of the most important life skills any of us can learn.
About Joshua Becker
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Turn Off As Many Push Notifications As Possible
You don’t have to be interrupted by every “like” that your latest Instagram picture receives or with the message that your favorite podcast just released a new episode.
An incredibly simple way to cut down on distractions is to turn off push notifications for as many apps as you can. Just head to Settings > Notifications to control your preferences. Personally, I only left notifications on for email, chat app messages, my calendars, and utility apps such as Lyft or GetAround, which only activate when I’m using them.
Why People Used Their Phones:
- WhatsApp – 22%
- Lock screen check – 17%
- Instagram – 16%
- Email – 6%
Although group chats were considered a âsource of distressâ, users said the messages contained within them were largely unimportant.
Emails were ranked as the most important notification for participants in the study.
Users also spent less time on their phone when with other people, and the longest interactions took place on public transport or at home.
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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.
Here Are Some Statistics On Teen Mobile Use:
Mobile devices are the primary information and communication hub for teens. Text messaging is now the most common way that teens communicate.
Given this reality, its not surprising that teenagers spend so much time on their cell phones. When does this shift from a preferred form of communication to a possible technology addiction?
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Keep Your Phone Literally Away
Its easier to forget about checking your phone when its physically out of sight and reach. After coming home, I just leave the phone in my bag and put it in the cupboard. Nothing terrible ever happens. Ill hear an urgent call or notification, and at the same time, I can cope with most of the sudden urges to check my phone. Who wants to get up and walk to the other part of ones apartment all the time?
The same trick can help you at work, school, and family dinners. When theres no phone on the table in front of you, its much easier to focus on the things you need to do, be it finishing some work or chatting with your loved ones.
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Understanding Teen Cell Phone Addiction
Cell phone addiction is a modern phenomenon. It puts many traditional assumptions to the test. In the past, addiction meant something different to parents. Parents worried about about cocaine or heroin or nicotine. Today, the addiction landscape has shifted. Teens tethered to their smartphones for seven hours on average each day.
Do you allow your child to watch three to four hours of television every night? Is it healthy to be so occupied by screens? The reality is, no, its not. And smartphones are so ubiquitous that managing the behavior is problematic.
Going On A Cell Phone Diet
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Set Your Phone To Grayscale
Make it less attractive to pick up your phone by setting it to grayscale. It reduces the colors and inputs you get throughout the day.
While I dont have my phone currently set to grayscale, it helped me in the past.
You can spend less time on your phone by turning off push notifications, delete the most distracting apps, set app limits, leave your phone in your bag, and set your phone to grayscale.
Cellphones can be wonderful and helpful tools used for a variety of purposes. When you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through your phone, they become a distraction rather than an addition.
Set Limitations On The Usage Of Tiktok On Android Device Or Tablet
To set limitations on Android device or tablet, you can install mobile monitoring app on your device. PanSpy is a smartphone monitoring tool that designed for parental control and mobile monitoring. It helps you track all kinds of activities on the target device and put restrictions on the device usage. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Create a PanSpy account.
First of all, to start with the service, you need to create an account. Go to PanSpy official website and click SIGN UP on the upper right corner to create your account. You need to use a valid Email address and will receive the confirmation email, you may need to check junk or spam folder to find it. Simply click on the link to activate your account. And then you can sign in the account to continue.
Step 2: Install PanSpy on your smartphone.
Once you successfully sign in your account on the console, you will see the setup wizard to walk you through.
Select Android and set a name& age on the page, and then it will ask you to download PanSpy app on your device. So enter panspy.me on the browser address bar, download and install PanSpy app. Open it and sign in your PanSpy account, then you need to authorize the app. All Important permissions need to be authorized, and the Optional permissions are according to your own needs.
Step 3: View all activities on the console.
Step 4: Put restrictions on the device usage.
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Delete Your Most Addictive Apps
Were not saying you cant use Insta, Snapchat, or Twitter at alljust that you may have to check them on your laptop. Okay, fine: Delete just one or two of them from your phone. It might hurt a little, but this will help short-circuit the dopamine loop youre stuck in by reducing the number of triggers at your fingertips. The goal: Make your phone so boring that you resort to thinking deep thoughts in the pharmacy line instead of posting about your mascara purchase.
Strategy : Become Aware Of The Urge To Distraction
How often does this happen to you? Youre in the midst of a busy day filled with back-to-back meetings, emails and pressing deadlines. Then, out of the blue, you have a short, unexpected gap in your day. And then, without even thinking about it, you pull out your phone and dive into email, Facebook, news or some other distraction.
This urge is even more damaging when were at home. Its what causes us to respond to our childs request to play by saying, Just a minute, as we stare blankly at our device. Its what causes us to interrupt a conversation with a friend, a meal or an important event with occasional surreptitious glances down at our phone.
What we now know from the science and practice of mindfulness is that the best response to this urge is to simply become aware. When you feel like you just have to check that score, stock price or text, become aware of the experience of craving. Notice what it feels like. Notice the thoughts that arise.
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Then make an actual choice as to whether or not you will indulge the urge. Even if you do end up on Facebook or Instagram, this micro-moment of awareness changes everything. It breaks you out of autopilot. It gives you back the ability to choose how best to spend your time.
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Considering Alternatives To Using Your Cell Phone
Distract Your Attention From Tiktok
To come out of TikTok addiction, you need to pay your attention more to other activities so that you won’t let TikTok run in your brain. The following remedy you can try:
You should note that it’s always challenging to get rid of any kind of addiction, because you need to fight against your mind and force yourself to leave the comfort zone. You should acknowledge that and make up your mind to try the things above. Always be patient, try to make it gradually.
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