While addiction is more of an exaggerated term, but seeing the current generation's excessive and almost obsessive use of their mobile phones, there is clearly no sign that we should use a word any less severe. Its pretty much clear, the behavior is outright compulsive. You are working on an important project which you need to complete today but every 5 minutes you keep checking your phone. You are learning a new skill and you know you need to be focused on it but your mind again takes you to your phone after some time for you to mindlessly scroll to the facebook or instagram feeds.
Why do we that? What are we gaining from it? Or are we really gaining anything?
A research suggests that talking about yourself on social media fires up the same pleasure centers as of eating and sex. Think about it again, these two are the things we most likely go back to again and again, and better the experience of them, the more we want it. So, instead of feeling completely satisfied by it, we only feel a temporary amount of pleasure which gets depleted quickly and then we again need a recharge ;)
While sharing personal stuff about yourself feels good, its not the only thing we do on social media. In fact, the majority of the people actually do the opposite. They mindlessly scroll through the feed, checking in photos of others, stalking someone they like, etc. These activities also fire up pleasure centres in our brain which can be addictive or at least is a major distraction. It also plays on our evolutionary need of interpersonal information.
Come on, lets be honest. We know that we should use our phones less, We know that it is stupid to keep checking our phones for new notifications, We know that mindlessly scrolling through the FB, Insta feed is highly unproductive but still almost all the time, we can't help it. Its become a habit we can't get rid of. What, a brilliant work of technology should be an enabler to mankind for better prosperity has limited us to dungeons of our little gadget with blue screens.
Psychological damage of such an increased use of smart phones is not something we can ignore. It is decreasing our attention span. Smartphones increasingly serve us (mostly) mindless rapid pace content which can constantly be changed/switched to one another at one click without waiting for even a second.
Prolonged habit of such use has resulted in massive reduction of our ability to focus and the attention span. There have been enough research which proves exactly that. Our ability to switch from one task to another maybe increasing because of the increase in number of "distraction apps" but it increasingly harms our brain to lead a focused contempt life.
A much bigger problem is that, it can lead to increased anxiety. Simon Hayek in his talk "Millenials in the workplace" notes that in today's life, everything is easily available. You want something? You can order it online in your convenience and you have an option to get it within 2 days. You need advice? you Google. You want romance? You go to dating apps. You need food? Why cook when you can order it online with 50% discount!
And it all happens with a click. This ability is picked up by our brain and as brainless our brains truly are, it applies the same habit to other deep meaningful areas like being truly passionate about your work and be successful at it, forming deep touching relation with someone and hence it is unable to bear the fact that all of this doesn't happen with a click. That's why you are delaying all of this. Because you cannot accept the fact that it's gonna require a hell lot of an effort. And whenever we are forced to face this, we feel anxious. We are not used to this.
Mark Fisher in his work, Capitalist Realism uses a phrase - "depressive hedonia" for habitual use of pleasure devices. While depression is normally associated with lack of ability to feel pleasure, depressive hedonia is state where one cannot feel anything apart from pleasure. One needs a quick easy rush of that small dopamine hit and feels really uncomfortable when not provided one. Always.
A lot of youngsters use it to distract from their personal problems. Recall this, how many times whenever you were thinking about some challenging situation, you checked your phone? How many times instead of thinking about your real problem, you just postponed it for the moment and scrolled your feed? Probably a plenty times and worst almost always. Another big problem is, reduced ability to interact in real life. Well, online you have your control. You can choose to text later after coming with a clever reply. You can choose not to respond. You do not have to face the other person and deal with well, emotions. You do ofcourse have a choice over what communication channel to use but real life conversations are far more meaningful, satisfying and are more likely to have pleasant memories. Think about your close friends, you remember the amazing time you spent together or do you remember the texts you shared?
Another problem - Smartphones are not letting us be completely absorbed in the moment. A study showed a shocking percentage of people checking their phones during sex. Thats a whole different meaning we are giving to the term "phone sex". The stat is gullible. We definitely, almost always check our mobile phones during important occasions and events where we are supposed to be completely absorbed in.
Social media companies are investing heavily on research learning how to keep you (away from what you should really be doing) hooked to their apps, so that they can capture your data and attention to show you ads. They don't want you to actually go out and meet that one special friend but they want you to like photos of them instead. Do you know that studies have shown that people read only about 19 minutes a day on average and most people spend only about 17 minutes in sports or exercise each day? It is unacceptable to see people spending more time on Facebook than they do on exercise and reading for improvement.
Signs of addictive behavior are simple.. Do you check your phone immediately after you wake up? Do you use it to distract your self from your important work you don't want to do right now even if it is important? Do you check for new notifications even when there was no buzz? Do you feel anxiety when its not near you? What should be the used for better access to outside world has actually cut you off from it.
Ways to combat our addiction is first the acceptance of it. "The first step in solving a problem is to recognize there is one". Lets do one thing honestly. Lets be away from our phones for 2 full days (If it looks like daunting to you, you need to do it immediately). You will notice a big good change in your mental state which will include more calmness, more focus and better energy. Just 2 days can bring a good enough change to bring more awareness in our lives on what we are losing out.
Now, obviously I don't intend to bash social media usage completely. But we need change. For better. And we are starting to see it. For example this restaurant started giving discounts to those who sit without their phones and spend time with their family. The opposite of such an addictive and damaging use of something so commonly available and potentially fruitful though cannot be complete shunning it down. It is, the responsible use of it. We have already seen this in gambling industry where betting sites set an upper limit to the amount you can bet on. This enables the person to enjoy his game as well not being ruined completely. We need similar business strategies for social media usage as well like there are several apps which monitor your smartphone use time. Efforts like this should be spread and rewarded.
So....Are you addicted to your phone? If so, what are you doing about it?
A research suggests that talking about yourself on social media fires up the same pleasure centers as of eating and sex. Think about it again, these two are the things we most likely go back to again and again, and better the experience of them, the more we want it. So, instead of feeling completely satisfied by it, we only feel a temporary amount of pleasure which gets depleted quickly and then we again need a recharge ;)
While sharing personal stuff about yourself feels good, its not the only thing we do on social media. In fact, the majority of the people actually do the opposite. They mindlessly scroll through the feed, checking in photos of others, stalking someone they like, etc. These activities also fire up pleasure centres in our brain which can be addictive or at least is a major distraction. It also plays on our evolutionary need of interpersonal information.
Come on, lets be honest. We know that we should use our phones less, We know that it is stupid to keep checking our phones for new notifications, We know that mindlessly scrolling through the FB, Insta feed is highly unproductive but still almost all the time, we can't help it. Its become a habit we can't get rid of. What, a brilliant work of technology should be an enabler to mankind for better prosperity has limited us to dungeons of our little gadget with blue screens.
Psychological damage of such an increased use of smart phones is not something we can ignore. It is decreasing our attention span. Smartphones increasingly serve us (mostly) mindless rapid pace content which can constantly be changed/switched to one another at one click without waiting for even a second.
Prolonged habit of such use has resulted in massive reduction of our ability to focus and the attention span. There have been enough research which proves exactly that. Our ability to switch from one task to another maybe increasing because of the increase in number of "distraction apps" but it increasingly harms our brain to lead a focused contempt life.
A much bigger problem is that, it can lead to increased anxiety. Simon Hayek in his talk "Millenials in the workplace" notes that in today's life, everything is easily available. You want something? You can order it online in your convenience and you have an option to get it within 2 days. You need advice? you Google. You want romance? You go to dating apps. You need food? Why cook when you can order it online with 50% discount!
And it all happens with a click. This ability is picked up by our brain and as brainless our brains truly are, it applies the same habit to other deep meaningful areas like being truly passionate about your work and be successful at it, forming deep touching relation with someone and hence it is unable to bear the fact that all of this doesn't happen with a click. That's why you are delaying all of this. Because you cannot accept the fact that it's gonna require a hell lot of an effort. And whenever we are forced to face this, we feel anxious. We are not used to this.
Mark Fisher in his work, Capitalist Realism uses a phrase - "depressive hedonia" for habitual use of pleasure devices. While depression is normally associated with lack of ability to feel pleasure, depressive hedonia is state where one cannot feel anything apart from pleasure. One needs a quick easy rush of that small dopamine hit and feels really uncomfortable when not provided one. Always.
A lot of youngsters use it to distract from their personal problems. Recall this, how many times whenever you were thinking about some challenging situation, you checked your phone? How many times instead of thinking about your real problem, you just postponed it for the moment and scrolled your feed? Probably a plenty times and worst almost always. Another big problem is, reduced ability to interact in real life. Well, online you have your control. You can choose to text later after coming with a clever reply. You can choose not to respond. You do not have to face the other person and deal with well, emotions. You do ofcourse have a choice over what communication channel to use but real life conversations are far more meaningful, satisfying and are more likely to have pleasant memories. Think about your close friends, you remember the amazing time you spent together or do you remember the texts you shared?
Another problem - Smartphones are not letting us be completely absorbed in the moment. A study showed a shocking percentage of people checking their phones during sex. Thats a whole different meaning we are giving to the term "phone sex". The stat is gullible. We definitely, almost always check our mobile phones during important occasions and events where we are supposed to be completely absorbed in.
Social media companies are investing heavily on research learning how to keep you (away from what you should really be doing) hooked to their apps, so that they can capture your data and attention to show you ads. They don't want you to actually go out and meet that one special friend but they want you to like photos of them instead. Do you know that studies have shown that people read only about 19 minutes a day on average and most people spend only about 17 minutes in sports or exercise each day? It is unacceptable to see people spending more time on Facebook than they do on exercise and reading for improvement.
Signs of addictive behavior are simple.. Do you check your phone immediately after you wake up? Do you use it to distract your self from your important work you don't want to do right now even if it is important? Do you check for new notifications even when there was no buzz? Do you feel anxiety when its not near you? What should be the used for better access to outside world has actually cut you off from it.
Now, obviously I don't intend to bash social media usage completely. But we need change. For better. And we are starting to see it. For example this restaurant started giving discounts to those who sit without their phones and spend time with their family. The opposite of such an addictive and damaging use of something so commonly available and potentially fruitful though cannot be complete shunning it down. It is, the responsible use of it. We have already seen this in gambling industry where betting sites set an upper limit to the amount you can bet on. This enables the person to enjoy his game as well not being ruined completely. We need similar business strategies for social media usage as well like there are several apps which monitor your smartphone use time. Efforts like this should be spread and rewarded.
So....Are you addicted to your phone? If so, what are you doing about it?
