Mental Health News — Simply Having Access to a Smartphone Increases Anxious Thoughts

Here’s evidence from lived experiences that research confirms; Gen Z is most at risk

Lata Kokal (formerly Neha Sonney)
ILLUMINATION
Published in
4 min readJun 14, 2024

--

Photo by cottonbro studio

The other day my partner and I ran out of the house to catch the 7:05 am bus that gets us to work on time. On the way down the little hill, I slipped my hand into my handbag. Upon finding my phone missing, I thought, “Oh, I left my phone on the dining table. Never mind, I’ve lived without a phone for more than half of my life, everything will be fine. I trust God.” I told my partner I forgot my phone and we left it at that.

When I was about to reach school (my workplace), I felt something hard in my lunch bag that was the size of my phone. I reached into my bag and found my phone. “Oops, haha. I slipped my phone in my food bag upon leaving in a hurry,” I thought. I quickly sent my partner a message that I had my phone after all. It was about 8:15 am.

While I’m busy at work, running between classes, I have no time to check my phone. My partner is hardly ever far from his. He usually responds pretty quickly, even to the most trivial messages between us.

At 12 noon, which was lunchtime, I finally looked at my phone and heard nothing back from my partner. I looked at his WhatsApp chat last

--

--

Lata Kokal (formerly Neha Sonney)
ILLUMINATION

Heals narcissistic abuse, tries not to worry much & defuses emotional time bombs for fun | Free resources: NehaSonney.Gumroad.com | IG & YT @latakokalofficial