We have to admit that we are not better our self without a mobile phone. I have been in and out of addiction a few times, but have tried to control myself as much as possible. It takes a lot of willpower to avoid getting away from mobile phone addiction. However, making an effort is better than letting mobile phone addiction completely bring us into the darkness.

If you are in doubt about whether you are addicted to your phone, you can find a quick test on The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction’s website: TEST YOURSELF

Why do we constantly check the phone?

It artifices in a way to our mind expected in the way that we love wins – large or minor – win is a win and our mid feels each notification like a small victory. It’s like winning a casino game. We feel great from winning and bet again and again. It develops into an addiction. Every time we post something on the internet or on social media, we want people to see it and to respond to it. It can be simply explained: People feels and enjoy when they treated special. Even the developers of this addictive technology know it. In the book “I turn off now!” Catherine Price writes that “our phones are deliberately designed to create anxiety by giving us new information and evoking new emotions every time we pull it out. […] Developers know that humans have an inherent desire for confirmation. ”

We are not only addicted to all the responsiveness, but also to the latest news. Understood in the sense that the reason we pull the phone out of our pocket or check Facebook a thousand times is that we want news. New information, new pictures, new likes. We are afraid of missing out on anything. I have already checked Facebook twice as I write this article.

“Every time you check a new post on Instagram or Facebook to see if there is anything new, it’s not even about the content. It’s just about seeing something new. You become addicted to that feeling. ”

Aziz Ansari

“Looking at multiple screens at the same time makes users less effective at their work – they are increasingly hungry for something new. It provides more opportunities for social media companies to capture their attention. ”

Consumer Insights, Microsoft Canada, 2015

Influenced and unrestricted

I remember when I saw Wall-E. A fascinating film that I only really understood when I got older. It was scary then (seen with my new vision), but it’s even scarier today. What should have been an eye-opener became a reality instead. Take a close look at these photos and tell me it has not gone the wrong way. It is similar to our everyday life in the hi-tech world.

Our behaviour is not much better than the behaviour of the characters in that movie. We are also well on our way to a world where more and more news is being offered out because we have to have news all the time. When the phone or other devices become “outdated”, there will be something new. New, new, new! Even if it still works as it should. But we let advertising, society, and our own manipulated mindset convince us that it’s time for something new. Perhaps the mindset is not identical for everyone, but for many, it’s the reality.

Just because your current mobile phone has slowed down a bit and the battery runs out faster, it is not a reason to spend thousands of dollars on the latest mobile. In a year or two, your new mobile will still be just as slow and have a battery that runs as fast as the old one. It’s an even worse reason to buy the latest mobile just because it’s new. A repair is probably cheaper than a brand new phone.

I do not think Wall-E projected to inspire a more high-tech and materialistic world but to inspire to rejoice in what we have.

I’m not against smartphones and other new technology, but I do not like that it has so much control over us.

“The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves know very well that they are not free.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

What are the disadvantages of Depending mobile phone?

As there are plenty of good things about technology, but also we need to realize the disadvantages. We are more connected to mobile phones than ever before, but it also makes more people feel like they are lonely. Not only that, but we also destroy our ability to be present in reality. There are so many things we have to keep up with that we completely forget how to be human. Most people cannot even relax on a holiday without requiring the hotel to have Wi-Fi. Maybe they think they are relaxing, but inside they are hungry to check out various digital media. As a result, they sit by the pool under an umbrella with an ice-cold drink in 35-degree heat at a hotel in beautiful Dubai, deeply focused on what’s going on on the phone.

Isn’t the point of going on vacation just to relax? Are those around you not company enough? As Imram Rashid puts it so nicely in his book “Turn Off”: “Remember that every time you turn on the screen, you risk turning off the presence.”

Therefore, holiday photos can sometimes annoy me. It is nice to share them when you have come home and enjoyed your holiday. But some find it necessary to share every moment while they are there. Besides, it probably will not make your friends react as well as one hope. Yes, they might write some cute things for the pictures, but deep down it probably makes them more jealous than happy.

1. The ability to concentrate is weakening

We are ruining our own ability to pay attention by spending a lot of time switching from one screen to another. Many people think that they can easily follow several things at once, but this is cognitively impossible.

We can listen to the radio and take bath at the same time because the two things are not demanding your brain in the same way – they use different areas of the brain. On the other hand, try to answer text messages while listening to the friend on the couch talking about his day at work, it is immediately more difficult. Both answering text messages and listening to a conversation use the same areas of the brain. There are small lightning-fast shifts in attention. This means that we are not paying much attention to some of the things. The truth is that the brain needs 25 minutes to be able to involve in a subject correctly and efficiently.

“The brain cannot accommodate two thoughts at once. See if you can think of two things at the same time. Reach? Is it possible?”

Haemin Sunim

2. Smartphones make our life easier

Smartphones will not only make our lives easier but also it makes our life much harder to live without it. We used to say that we do not have time for certain important things, but also we used to hide that our precious time has been wasted on the phone mobile phone scrolling for the latest news feeds. Now You have quickly discovered a large void. You have now discovered how much time you are wasting on the mobile phone. This wasted time could be e.g. use to write a book or in another creative way. The truth behind our addiction is probably that we are afraid of ourselves. We are afraid of silence because it might result in us thinking some of the thoughts which we don’t like. Maybe memories from the past pop up or maybe you discover that you are not really in touch with yourself.

Even if the power goes out in the house, we become restless, because then we cannot charge the phone or play the television. Just the thought that one day we could lose all the technology and be sent back to the Stone Age, which is imaginarily very scary. We have forgotten how we lived in a world without Google and all the information at hand.

3. See the creativity bubble

Although we are afraid of ourselves and our thoughts, there are benefits to letting thoughts flow. When the brain is allowed to get bored, the ideas start to emerge. All the ideas that have otherwise been suppressed by constant entertainment. The imagination runs free.

Think of all the innovative ideas that emerged before the smartphone came along. We invented cars, aeroplanes, cameras, and so on. We created the society we see today. But it is as if we have reached a limit of creativity. There are not any great and innovative ideas coming right now. What you see most are upgrades of things we already have. Films also suffer from a lack of creativity. How many reboots, re-creations, byproducts, prologues, and developments do we need?

However, understand this and put aside the disruptive elements in favour of innovative and creative ideas that benefit everyone.

10 advices to escape from mobile addiction

1. Check your screen time,

First of all, I would recommend taking a good look at your phone usage. There is probably some way to record screen time. How many hours do you spend on the phone? How can you use your time more efficiently?

2. Do something without the phone

When was the last time you sat down to drink coffee without doing anything else?

3. Enjoy the food without the phone

Leave your phone in your pocket when eating with someone. It should not be on the table.

4. Control your sharing desire

Remember, you do not have to share everything with everyone. Have you invited a couple of friends to dinner? Well, that sounds nice. But why take pictures of it and share them with the rest of your circle of friends? Is it so they can feel less worthwhile than the ones you are with at the moment? What is the reason you feel the need to share this experience? If it’s so important that your friends and family see it, why not just invite them all? Is social media worth more than those around you?

5. Turn off all notifications

You will not be disturbed and feel obliged to check the phone immediately if you turn off the notifications. It’s like a stressful burden lifted from your shoulders. Even better is to use the Do Not Disturb feature. I use it myself and it has given me a lot of peace. Especially calm from all the annoying telemarketers.

6. Remove troublesome apps

These apps could e.g. be such as Twitter, Facebook, and other things you can check online instead. This also helps reduce the flow of notifications.

7. Remove the colors from the screen

Some phones have a feature that lets the owner remove the colours. It makes the phone more boring to look at and therefore you also get less urge to take it out.

8. Buy an alarm clock

One of the things that have helped me a lot in leaving the phone on in the morning is a good old-fashioned alarm clock. An alarm clock does not tell you if there have been new likes on Instagram or something else that is completely indifferent in the morning. The morning should be spent on oneself, not on everything else.

9. Leave the phone at home

Leave the phone at home when you go somewhere. It can be uncomfortable, but try to go for a walk without. Eventually, you get used to it. It’s nice not to be able to feel the weight of the phone in your pocket for every step you take. I feel freer without it in tow.

10. Take a break from your smartphone

Take a good break from the phone. Save it or buy a simple phone so people can still call you. You know, one of them with push buttons.

Conclusion

The blog post was just a little longer than I expected. Sometimes it surprises me how much I have to say on a topic. It is also an important topic, because I think it is important to teach ourselves – and especially children – that a smartphone is only a tool and that there is a life outside it. We have to take back our mind control and demand our freedom. There is so much more that is more important than the phone. When you first wake up and see the world as it is and realize what the phone is doing to us, you will find out how much you have missed out on in real life.

Of course, it’s your own choice what you do. All I ask is that you at least think about everything I have written. It would be such a shame a development to see if it ended up with people in 50 years walking around with humpbacks and a phone in their face without actually accomplishing anything in life.

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