How to Quit Your Smartphone Addiction, According to Science
We spend an average of 4 hours and 37 minutes a day on our smartphones. We check our phones around 58 times. We like to tell ourselves we do it to socialize, for work, or to read the news. But most of us are addicted, and we know it.
You can find out your level of addiction with this online test (in English).
How prevalent is smartphone addiction? Several studies confirm that people are becoming increasingly addicted—in every country tested and at all ages.
In the US, for example, 43% of respondents in a recent survey admitted to addiction.
"There is evidence that problematic smartphone use negatively impacts many people's lives. There are associations between problematic smartphone use and mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety," says Zaheer Hussain, a social scientist at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom.
And, as is often the case with addictions, people are increasingly tired of it.
However, those who want to overcome it may find it as difficult as a smoker trying to quit. It's a tremendous psychological battle. Apps, boredom, or simple daily habits can cause you to reach for your phone frequently without realizing it.
However, the long-term health benefits of reducing smartphone use are enormous.
Studies show that smartphone addiction is associated with a range of health problems, including sleep disturbances, eye strain, a sedentary lifestyle, and neck and back pain. Mentally, it contributes to depression, anxiety, loneliness, and affects attention and memory, especially in adolescents.
Smartphone addiction can also be caused by these same mental challenges. Therefore, overcoming smartphone addiction can also help overcome these other issues.
Cause and consequence of mental health problemsSmartphone addiction carries all the characteristic symptoms of a behavioral addiction: craving, dependence and withdrawal symptoms. It is similar to gambling or video game addiction in that there is no addictive “substance” like a drug like cocaine.
Apps and websites are designed to keep our attention focused, using gamification—the use of game elements to engage people—as a tool to get us hooked.
Many people report using smartphones to escape stressful situations at home. It's an escape valve that can distract the mind from depressive thoughts and feelings of anxiety.
But it's difficult to know whether smartphone addiction is a cause or a consequence of mental health problems.
That's why an important part of overcoming smartphone addiction is understanding why we become addicted in the first place.
Try different methods to quit the addictionThere's no quick fix for overcoming smartphone addiction. Different people need different methods, often more than one. And that requires a lot of dedication.
But there are scientifically tested and proven methods to help combat addiction. Most are similar to tools used to combat other behavioral addictions and often involve behavioral retraining.
Below are some of them:
- Leave your smartphone outside the bedroom at night, or at least out of reach, in a corner of the room.
- Put your phone in another room when you're studying or working, so you have to get up to check it.
- Reduce notifications. Try using your phone's "Do Not Disturb" feature, or disable all sounds and vibrations for incoming messages and notifications.
- Simple measures like setting the screen to black and white, removing social media apps from the home screen, and creating longer passwords can all work to create barriers to phone use.
- Use apps to help with self-control. Tools like Space, Forest, Flipd, and Screentime can limit daily smartphone use, block distracting apps, and help you manage your habits.
The scientific consensus is that the more methods you use at once, the better your chances of overcoming smartphone addiction in the long run.
A clinical trial tested a ten-step behavioral program called “cue-based intervention,” which used several approaches like those listed above.
"The measures aimed to make phone use a little less rewarding, add some friction to using it, and reduce the number of reminders. This stimulus-based intervention aimed to reduce problematic smartphone use without relying solely on willpower," the study's lead author, Jay Olson, a psychologist specializing in addiction at the University of Toronto in Canada, told DW.
This method has been shown to be effective in the short term, returning problematic smartphone use scores to normal levels for at least six weeks. "However, we have less data on which interventions work in the long term," Olson says.
Other clinical trials have shown how physical interventions also help: replacing smartphone use with exercise or sports effectively reduced addiction in college students, for example. This can also help reduce the loneliness, anxiety, and stress levels that often accompany smartphone addiction.
Hussain noted that simply being more in touch with nature can greatly benefit your mental health. "If we don't get out into nature, our cell phones—and consequently, social media, notifications, news, and scrolling—take over our lives. This can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues," says the expert.
Know why you are addictedSmartphone addiction has become a health issue among students with mental health issues. Addiction can fuel and exacerbate these problems.
Studies show how people addicted to smartphones often become bored quickly, become more socially isolated, and are more likely to feel lost without their smartphones.
If you feel like your smartphone use is affecting your mental health, relationships, and everyday life, it may be time to seek professional help.
“Several therapies have been shown to be effective, such as mindfulness therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy,” Olson lists.
Talking therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, can provide ways to stop compulsive behaviors and change your perceptions about your cell phone. These therapies can help you identify why you're addicted and address these issues at their source.
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