As the years go by we tend to spent a lot of our time in front of a screen, either because we are working or we are scrolling on social media. This is a trend right not only because everybody has access on smartphone but also because due to Covid-19 our time spend outside is limited and in some countries forbidden. As a result our free time is spend inside and there are not many things to do so we are using our phone to "kill our time". We are using our phones to listen to music, to comment on pictures, to communicate with our friends or family, to play games, to check bank balance and other activities that the phone provides. According to a research in US college students are taking their phones everywhere even in the bathroom and it is not uncommon for a student to come to class with their phone but without a pen or pencil (Emanuel et al 2015). This sounds a bit familiar to everybody as you can also use your phone to keep notes during the class!
So, everybody agree that smartphones or other similar devices are handy to use and are making our lives easier. But what makes them so interesting? Imagine having to quarantine without facebook, or WhatsApp, or instagram or other social media. It is getting easy to conclude that they are necessary because they are helping us communicate with our loved ones that live far or spend our time when at home by watching pictures, sharing quotes or so many other activities. Despite the beneficial outcomes this technology offers, we cannot deny that there are also profound disadvantages arising from the overuse of smartphones or other devices. We tend to spend too much time and often that is not quality time. It is proven by recent research that every time we are receiving a notification or a message our brain elicits more dopamine that makes us temporarily happy (Tymofiyeva et al., 2020). Unfortunately, dopamine is not only a chemical for happiness but also for reward, seeking behaviour. Reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces certain types of behaviour. The seeking behaviour is the one that is motivating us to seek for this pleasure. Imagine drinking alcohol for the first time and you realise how good this feeling is, you will certainly want to drink again. This is what is happening with the phone, you want to have that pleasurable feeling so you are checking it and you see one notification and you feel happy, after a couple of minutes you want to feel it again so you are checking again and that will become a habit. Sometimes, you will not have notifications and that will make you feel unwelcome or even lonely which is of course not true. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGZvNbfrNag) In this video Barbara is comparing this emotional upside downs with an emotional rollercoaster. How often do we feel valued and important when we receive a lot of messages and how often we look at this black screen of our phone and wait for it to shine? The cell phone has profoundly impacted our lives.
The most important question after that is: how can we eliminate the time that we spend on our phone? Think of it as a challenge with your partner or with your friends. In the beginning you will shut down your phone for 20 minutes/day and you will focus on something else. Eventually when you are succeeding with that you will increase this period to 30 minutes a day till you will reach one hour. Sooner of later you will realise that you have gained interest in new activities that you were ignoring before, this can be walking outside, reading a book, cycling, painting, solving a puzzle, talking to your neighbour, engage into sports.
How does this sound?