Do You Suffer From “Nomophobia?”

Surveys have shown that 77% of Americans owned a smartphone this year alone, and that number is only increasing. About half of U.S. adults check their phone at least several times an hour, and 11% of them tap their phone awake every few minutes. Hardly anyone has a traditional cell phone anymore, and the flip phone is all but obsolete. Especially for the younger generations, our “cell” phones are no longer predominantly used to call, text, email, or even to level up on our favorite game. Instead, they have become our lifeline — harboring our entire list of contacts, all of our emails and reminders, our precious “artsy” photographs, and even our virtual wallet, to only name a few. More importantly, they have become a gateway to our social circles and a part of our identity, capable of consuming hours of our daily lives and keeping us confined to the comforts of a screen more than ever before. Our phone must always be on our person (most of us are usually within five feet within it at all times), and its condition and battery life are significantly responsible for our stress levels. Realistically, our day begins and ends with a check of our phone, and we usually have a pretty good idea of how sufficiently it is charged at any given moment without even having to look at it. According to Forbes, a U.S. study found that young individuals who were asked to give up their phones for a period of time later felt physiological symptoms of withdrawal, such as an increase in heart rate and elevated blood pressure levels. The study also noted that these individuals, who were likely accustomed to having Instagram or Snapchat accessible at their convenience, felt a particular loss of their “extended self” without their phone, illustrating that the phone is, in many ways, an extension of our sense of self. In short, nearly all of us are victims of “nomophobia,” otherwise known as a smartphone addiction. Therefore, it is likely that, for many of us, reading an entire article is almost impossible without a brief intermission — -a glance at our iPhone. Maybe even two, if you’re like me. The bottom line is that it might be time to reassess our technology use.

Why are we so addicted to our phones? It is because we live on social media. Our personal profiles, information about what others are up to, and our tally of virtual friends travel with us everywhere we go and are accessible almost instantaneously. Many of us, including myself, cannot go minutes, let alone seconds, without having the urge to launch a social media application on our iPhone, either as a method of procrastination or as a way to continuously remain updated about what is occurring in the world without us. In other words, with the tap of a finger, our social life comes alive and our happiness goes on the line. As if our reputation depends on it, we fall prey to the current social media addiction, and many of us likely do not realize how much it is affecting us.

We constantly find ourselves compulsively scrolling through Facebook to forget about our personal problems and feeling restless if our internet is too slow to open Snapchat stories. We look through the photos of others, inspecting their edits. We study the list of names who have liked a post. The list goes on and on. What many of us likely fail to be mindful of, though, is that all of our conversations on Facebook Messenger and emoji messages on Snapchat are actually a detriment to our interpersonal skills. They are also taking away value from our face-to-face exchanges, all the while making us more self absorbed and depriving us of sleep at night. If that is not troubling enough, with the creation of “Snap Map,” our friends can now pinpoint our location at any given moment, so we do not have to call people anymore to ask where they are — we can just check Snapchat. In brief, our social media profiles have become an integral part of our identity and an inseparable component of our daily lives. Our friends check them, our prospective employers scrutinize them, and even those who we do not know can access them, all without us even realizing. Chances are, if you are like me, you experience impulse-control difficulties that make it almost impossible to put the phone away.

Through this project, I examine the interwoven relationship that smartphones and social media platforms have on our mental health, executive function, and communication skills. From a positive point of view, it is clear that Facebook and Instagram have made the world more interconnected and expanded our opportunities to socialize online, yet at a pretty hefty cost: these social media platforms can decrease our productivity and exacerbate symptoms of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and FOMO (fear of missing out), as well as deprive us of the desire to connect with others face-to-face. According to CNN, 50% of teenagers believe that they are addicted to their mobile devices. If I had to put money on it, I would say that that number is only increasing. If nothing else, the reader of this project should be aware of this striking statistic and take steps to avoid unnecessary phone use.

According to a Forbes article titled, “Phone Addiction Is Real — And So Are Its Mental Health Risks,” it is likely that we check our phones around, give or take, four times in a ten-minute period. A more recent study performed in the last month indicated that, between 2010 and 2015, the suicide rates of girls rose by 65% and the number of girls with severe depression rose by 58%. The researchers found a strong correlation between mental health issues and and smartphone use. Roughly 48% of those who spent five or more hours a day on their phones had thought about suicide, versus 28% of those who had spent one hour per day on their phones. Moreover, studies have shown that teens who spend more time participating in athletics, homework, or socializing face-to-face have a lower risk for both depression and suicide. The troubling aspect of the new chilling correlation between phone use and depression and suicidal intention, according to Forbes, is that most phone use today is geared towards social media. Supposedly, constant checks of Instagram “give the appearance of social interaction, but they couldn’t be further away from it,” according to Alice G Walton of Forbes. Studies have also indicated that when subjects view Instagram pictures with more “likes,” particular cells in the addiction circuits of the brain, namely the nucleus accumbens, are activated. Perhaps a ‘digital detox,’ a strategy that reduces the amount of time on social media outlined by the Washington Post, is someone’s best bet to reduce their dependence on their screen. Perhaps we could start by just silencing our phone and breaking the habit of checking it every few minutes (or when it chimes with a text).

Let’s look at the phone again for a minute. Nomophobia, the modern term for a fear of being without a mobile phone, is often caused by an addiction to the internet that connects an otherwise meaningless device to the world of mobile applications. You might be wondering, though, why we are not as addicted to our computers or tablets as we are to our phones if the internet is the main problem. The answer might seem obvious — since a phone is mobile and almost always on our person, we can satisfy our impulse to access virtually anything that is accessible via a desktop computer at any time and any place. Like an addiction to a substance like nicotine, our “fix” from checking Instagram on our phone can release dopamine from our brain and affect our mood. Likewise, we can build up our tolerance to the phone — the more we use it, the longer we must keep it out in the future to derive the same pleasurable reward.

Caglar Yildirim, an assistant professor of human computer interaction and researcher at State University of New York at Oswego, indicated in a CNN article that a severe phone addiction “might negatively affect your social life and relationships with friends and family” and that studies have shown that those who score high on a test for nomophobia, indicating that they likely cannot go very long without checking their phone, tend to avoid face-to-face interactions, have elevated levels of social anxiety and depression, and are probably limited in their ability to tend to work or academic responsibilities. They also have a higher risk of injury. For example, if you live in a populated city, such as New York City, try to observe how many people walk with a connection to their device — it’s likely that you will not have to look very far. According to CNN, “a study of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan found that 42% of those who entered traffic during a “Don’t Walk” signal were talking on a cell phone, wearing headphones or looking down at an electronic device.” Moreover, a study from 2013 indicated that pedestrian injuries related to phone use increased “tenfold” from 2005–2010.

The US Centers for Disease Control and prevention reported that mobile phone use is “partially to blame for the distracted driving that kills an estimated nine people each day and injures more than 1,000. Furthermore, a study released in 2010 by the Pew Research Center, as stated by CNN, reported that about 50% of US adults admit to either reading or sending a text message while driving. For teens, supposedly at least half of whom suffer from some form of nomophobia, nearly one in three sixteen or seventeen year olds have admitted to texting while driving, and 59% of millennials revealed that they text and drive. Other than the immediate risk of injury from an accident, other health ramifications exist from extensive phone use, including neck cramping, poor posture, respiratory functions, and irregular sleep patterns. Furthermore, a study of nineteen teenage boys revealed that those who were addicted to their phone had elevated levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter in the brain that slows down neutrons and leads to poor attention and control, than levels of glutamate-glutamine, a neurotransmitter that helps facilitate healthy brain activity.

So, with all of this in mind, you might be thinking: how do I “treat” my smartphone addiction? Is it even possible? The answer is yes, and there are many ways to reduce your dependence on your phone. First, if nothing else, try to be mindful of how much you use your phone and evaluate why you use it. Next time you hear the “ding” of your phone, give it five minutes before you drop everything and check who liked your Instagram post or sent you a text. In addition, as hard as it might be, turn off your phone at certain times of the day, such as during meals, meetings, class, or while driving, and certainly at least an hour before going to sleep at night. While it’s off, try to engage in some real human contact. Set up a coffee date with a friend. If nothing else, be mindful of how many times you pick up your phone without a clear purpose — us humans are social creatures, and we flourish in social, face-to-face interaction. A phone can simply not match that experience, no matter how many likes your profile picture has. In brief — put the phone down. You might even feel better if you do.

Works Cited

Griffiths, Mark, and Daria Kuss. “Opinion | 6 Questions Help Reveal If You’re Addicted to Social Media.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 25 Apr. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/04/25/social-media-addiction/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f362c1ccb8f2.

LaMotte, Sandee. “Smartphone Addiction Could Be Changing Your Brain.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Dec. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/11/30/health/smartphone-addiction-study/index.html.

Munoz, Kissairis. “Nomophobia — 5 Steps to Ending Your Smartphone Addiction.” Dr. Axe, 22 June 2017, draxe.com/nomophobia/.

“Smartphone Addiction.” Tips for Breaking Free of Compulsive Smartphone and Internet Use, www.helpguide.org/articles/addictions/smartphone-addiction.htm.

“Social Media Addiction .” NetAddiction, netaddiction.com/ebay-addiction/.

Walton, Alice G. “Phone Addiction Is Real — And So Are Its Mental Health Risks.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 27 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/12/11/phone-addiction-is-real-and-so-are-its-mental-health-risks/#6f8c559d13df.