You wake up in the middle of the night and instantly reach for your phone. You say to yourself once you check the time you will definitely go back to sleep. As soon as your phone touches your hand, your mind takes over and goes off task. You quickly find yourself going from checking the time to scrolling through Instagram to posting on Snapchat. You check your phone first thing in the morning and right before you go to sleep. You constantly find yourself tapping away as you sit in class or even while you’re sitting in the drive thru. Although it’s embarrassing to admit to these mistakes there’s a huge possibility that you’re not alone. Cell phones have socially changed our lifestyle and have greatly influenced our lives.
Cell phone addiction may not be a formal physiological diagnosis yet, but it functions correspondingly to a gambling addiction. Many technology addiction experts refer to cell phones as “the world’s smallest slot machine”. Slot machines and cell phones are very similar they both function on a fluctuating reward system. Every now and then, you receive a reward from browsing your phone whether or not you realize it.
Your reward may not be cash like a slot machine but it could be a missing piece of information, a text, a phone call, or even a software update. Either way you look at it, something that comes through your phone satisfies you in your own way. This is the same reinforcement schedule as a slot machine. The awareness of a prize is why these items are highly addictive.
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Attached with each prize is a release of dopamine. When dopamine is released it causes one to feel good and makes us crave more of whatever is causing the release. It’s the reason why we are so quick to respond back to a text message after a few seconds or why we are so quick to use a slot machine again. These actions produce a constant release of dopamine creating a loop. This explains why we are thoughtlessly overusing our cell phones.
We all are endangered to our phones’ dopamine exposure. Majority of us are passionately transforming into our devices. In some cases many of us are what some may consider addicted. Addiction is a giant recipe that includes a variety of ingredients. First you must have a need for a material that is “beyond your control and outside the realm of reasonable use”. It must be “impacting your life in some negative way, whether it be your home life, work, school, economics or social relationships.”.
Also, you must have an enlarged tolerance for your cellular device. A tolerance can be as simple as needing more time on your phone. Withdrawal is another key ingredient, withdrawal is when one starts to feel uneasy when they aren’t using their phone. The last ingredient is mood altercation. Mood altercation occurs when you use technology to change your state of mind. For instance, when you’re feeling bored you turn to an app to satisfy yourself or when you post hateful comments on something because you feel irritated.
You may be entirely addicted to your cell phone or just solely wanting to decrease your reliance on technology, there are lots of strategies to break this habit. Outwit your phone by using technology to limit your screen time. There are a variety of apps that observe your phone usage. You can find apps that count the number of times you unlock your phone or how much time you spend on your phone. If this isn’t an adequate amount of motivation to make you contemplate before picking up your phone then maybe you should try removing your cellphone out of your bedroom.
There are many reasons as to why our cellphones should not be allowed in your bedroom. Studies show that using your cell phone within 60 minutes before your bedtime causes one to be sleep deprived. You may also have a high risk of developing insomnia. You are even more harmfully impacted if you wake up during the night to check your phone. Additionally, when you automatically wake up and check your phone before parting your bed you are strengthening the habit for rest of the day. With that being said, you might want to invest in a cheap alarm clock so you resist the urge to sleep with your phone by your side.
Last but not least, you should put yourself on a digital regimen and set up an agenda. Just like when you want to lose weight, you eliminate junk foods. So when you want to cut back on smartphone use, you have to remove junk apps. Cut back on browsing the internet the way a nutritionist might recommend you cut back on sugar. There are several ways to create a digital schedule. You can assign certain amounts of time solely to your phone or you can experiment with leaving your phone in another room while you spend quality time with your loved one.
Sadly, cell phone addiction might become more prevalent as larger numbers of people start using cell phones. There are many pending inquiries as to whether or not cell phone addictions are actual addictions. But until those inquiries are answered, you may have to gaze for the symptoms yourself if you are concerned about being a cell phone addict. There is always something that you can do. Remember cell phones may make life easier, but you should not lose sight of the fact that there is a life without them.
