How To Overcome Smartphone Addictionđ±
Do you know the average amount of time we are spending on screens nowadays?
Itâs 6 hours 30 minutes a day.
Do you feel like your phone owns you instead of the other way around?
Do you pick up your phone just to use it for a couple of minutes and end up spending an entire hour on it?
If yes, you are not alone!
Take me for example, my screen time has skyrocketed since the last month, itâs making me homesick, and introverted, and I think it has harmed me more than helped me.
Once I started noticing this, I started going in deep into the reasons this is happening and the ways I can combat this addiction.
This is a long story but it really is worth your time if you stick till the end. And also if you know any other tricks to get out of this rabbit hole, let me know in the comments.
First, letâs understand what the problem is!
The Problem
There is no point denying it, we are at a stage when SmartPhones have become a crucial part of our day. Without it much of our work might not get done. In the beginning, phones were not made to constantly take up our attention every five minutes. A call comes, you pick up, talk, and you reject.
Simple!
So when did the problem begin?
The problem began when Phones became Smartphones, they started being used for more than calling, they started having Internet access, they started showing images, videos, video chats, and so much more.
You must be wondering why am I telling you all this, itâs because I want you to understand the primary reason the phones were invented and what we are using them for now.
Once I understood this, it became much simpler for me. And I started noticing how this tiny device gets me to spend hours on it. And this is what I came up with,
Make sure to read this whole article because itâs just going to get better from here!
The Notifications Trap
Imagine this, you started working on some project, you had some progress and suddenly your phone pings you. You see that there is a notification saying, âYour friend XYZ has tagged you in a photo.â Now this is an inescapable temptation, it has succeeded in planting the seed of curiosity in your mind. And it has created an itch that you really want to scratch.
What Photo is it?
Do I look good in it?
Such questions begin to take form in your head and you click on them. The Smartphone has won its first battle! Now it pulls you in showing some more photos of your friends, and some more posts you might like based on your past activity. And when you get out of this, you realize you have spent the past hour scrolling on your phone.
Now How do you go about solving this?
The Solution -
The most straightforward solution is âUninstalling the most distracting apps!â
But you knew that already if I were to suggest you that solution then what good is my advice?
I didnât uninstall the apps. The thing that worked for me was turning my all nonessential notifications off and keeping the most distracting apps off my home screen and at the last page of the pages. I simply increased the traction between me and the app by doing the above. And keeping the most useful of my apps on my home screen.
Colors are Distracting
A lot of smartphones nowadays come with OLED panels as their screens. They make all the colors look vibrant and punchy, the viewing angles are great and the blacks are pitch dark.
Sorry for the technical jargon. In simple terms, Smartphone Screens have become beautiful, to the point where it is almost tempting.
So the thing that helped me reduce screen time is taking off all the colours on my phone. I mean turning on the Monochrome Mode on my phone. What this does is it makes your phone into a black-and-white box. My brain is really attracted to colorful things. Have you seen La La Land, Poor Things? Man are those movies beautifully colourful.
Those types of things attract me. And the app icons on my screen are way too colorful. I noticed that they subconsciously made my hands go toward the direction of the most familiar Instagram & YouTube icons as soon as I opened my phone.
So What did I do?
I turned the colors off. So if you think you also struggle with the same problem as me, make your phone colorless too.
Remember,
The Hardest choices require the Strongest wills!
The YouTube Trap
The YouTube algorithm has become way too good recently, itâs become way too easy to just spend hours and hours watching Michael pull the most insanely racist comments out of his hat in the office.
[Sorry for that!]
Coming back to the matter at hand, YouTube has become a place to lose track of time. The content creators have become so good that itâs really difficult to not click on some videos after you see their titles and thumbnails. But it also is a gold mine of useful content if you somehow tame this monster. So turning off that button is not an option.
The thing I found is I have subscribed to way too many YouTube channels that are not at all useful to me. How do we bypass this lock?
The way I found to tackle this is by choosing the channels whose content was useful to me, like the channels that actually added value. And Unsubbing from the rest or at least disabling their notifications.
I wanted the algorithms to send me some valuable stuff my way so I clicked off some of the channels that I was wasting a lot of my time on and clicked the ââDonât recommend channelâ button.
It was really hard!
This in no way means you shouldnât watch that thing you just unrecommended for yourself. If you want to watch it, turn on incognito on YouTube, and then search for it and watch the stuff that you want.
This is the approach I use, if someone knows a better way to do this, please let me know in the comments.
Tip : If you want to watch videos without disruptions like study lectures and stuff, just download them offline and cut off the internet. This way, there wonât be any ads and there wonât be any other recommendations on the side to distract you from.
10 IQ move, right?
Thought it would be useful,
anyways, the next way that seems to be working for me is,
Cutting of the Internet
Extreme Circumstances call for Extreme Measures!
Okay, so this is also a thing to consider, if you have some other device like a tablet or a laptop, you could just turn the wi-fi/internet off when you start some work. This will mean no internet access for the phone, no notifications, and no distractions, you will still be able to receive phone calls.
Creating No Smartphone Spaces
This is a thing a lot of people are suggesting on the internet, and I have yet to implement this in my routine. But this seemed to have worked just fine for many people.
Creating No Smartphone Spaces means declaring some spaces where smartphones are not allowed, like dinner tables, Bedroom for example. I am yet to try this but I think it is a good idea.
Picking up a Hobby
The major reason behind our smartphone addiction is the dopamine hits. So why donât we find some other habits that provide us with similar dopamine?
I simply replaced my mobile addiction with reading books. I mean I used to read a lot when I was a child, but picking up that habit again took some time. That is the reason why I switched from YouTube to Medium, because essentially, Medium is YouTube but for writers.
If you want to know why reading is better than most of the media consumption forms available out there, I have just written an article on that a few days ago, I will leave a link at the end of this post. Make sure to check that out too.
For me it was reading for you it can be something else, just replace the Mobile Habit, with something productive.
Using Apps that help you reduce screen time
Know that you are not the only one struggling with this thing. Thatâs what led to the birth of an entire genre of apps that help you reduce your addiction. I think they are called minimalist apps(correct me if Iâm wrong). And if you want to tackle all the above-mentioned features in a single stroke, I strongly recommend using such apps.
Now personally they have helped me a great deal. What that app does is it takes the fun operating system that we have grown accustomed to, and dumbs it down to be minimal. It increases the traction between what your brain craves by making it difficult to find the apps you subconsciously click on. It turns the icon-based user interface into a text-based user interface.
Now the thing is you need the app that works for you, the one that is most suitable for you.
One such app I am using is called,
For iOS,
Conclusion
That was about it, that is all I tried out there were a few more but I think those things are Overkill, and they would probably frustrate you so I deemed it better to spare you the frustration.
Reducing my Screen Time left me with more time at my disposal and that is the reason why I started writing on Medium. Also, the reason why you are reading this post so that is one thing to think about.
I am completely new to the creation side of the spectrum, so I am really hungry for feedback from all of you guys. If you can, Please suggest to me if I need to make any changes to my writing or if any other suggestions are welcome.
With that said, I the host wish you good luck in your battle with addiction,
âMay you all emerge Victorious!â
Sayonara!
Oh forgot to give you the article,
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