Q: I have my
phone with me at all times and check it hundreds of
times a day. Are there any proven ways to treat screen addiction?
اضافة اعلان
Our work, social lives and entertainment have become
inextricably tied to our devices, and the pandemic has made matters worse. A
Pew Research Center survey conducted in April, for instance, found that among
the 81% of adults in the United States who used video calls to connect with
others since the beginning of the pandemic, 40% said they felt “worn out or
fatigued” from those calls, and 33% said they have tried to scale back the
amount of time they spent on the internet or on their smartphones.
Not all smartphone use is bad, of course. Sometimes, smartphones
“make us happier, enriched and connect us to other people,” said Adam Alter, a
marketing and psychology professor at the Stern School of Business at New York
University. But many people want to cut back, and experts say there are
effective ways to do it.
Is it really possible to be addicted to a smartphone?
Smartphone overuse can manifest in many ways. Maybe you
regularly stay up late scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. Or the allure of
your smartphone makes it difficult to be fully present for yourself, your work
or those around you.
Phone or screen overuse isn’t officially recognized as an
addiction (or a substance use disorder, as experts call it) in the American
Psychiatric Association’s official manual of mental disorders. But “there is a
growing number of mental health specialists who recognize that people can get
addicted to their smartphones,” said Anna Lembke, an addiction expert and a
professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
Lembke noted that an addiction is partly defined by the three
Cs:
Control: Using a substance or performing a behavior (such as
gambling) in ways that would be considered out of control or more so than
intended.
Compulsion: Being intensely mentally preoccupied with and using
a substance (or performing a behavior) automatically, without actively deciding
to do so.
Consequences: Continued use despite negative social, physical
and mental consequences.
Many of us can recognize some of these behaviors in our own
phone use.
Alter, on the other hand, doesn’t consider smartphone or screen
overuse as a true addiction, and both he and Lembke noted that there is
disagreement within the health community about this. “I don’t think it rises to
the level of a medical addiction,” Alter said. “To me it’s more of a cultural
malady than anything.”
Regardless of how you define it, both experts say there are ways
to reduce your phone use.
Take a ‘screen fast.’
One approach Lembke has found to be highly effective in her
clinical practice is to completely avoid using all screens, not
just phones, for anywhere from a day to a month. This strategy hasn’t been
formally studied in screen overuse patients in particular, she said, but the
evidence for its use with other types of addictions, such as alcoholism,
suggests it can be effective.
How long you decide to fast will depend on your level of use,
Lembke said. The average person might start with a 24-hour fast, for example,
while someone with a more severe case of screen overuse may want to avoid
screens for longer. Of course, a true fast may not be practical for many
people, whether because of work or personal reasons, but the goal is to get as
close to full avoidance as possible.
Lembke warned that many people — even those with milder screen
overuse — may notice withdrawal symptoms initially, such as irritability or
insomnia, but that over time they’ll start feeling better. In her 25 years of
seeing patients, Lembke has noticed that by the end of a one-month fast, the
majority of her patients usually “report less anxiety, less depression,
sleeping better, more energy, getting more done, as well as being able to look
back and see in a more clear-eyed way exactly how their screen use was
affecting their lives,” she said. Those who fast for less than a month will
still see benefits, she said, although the benefits most likely won’t be as
dramatic.
After abstaining from screens for a period, she recommended
reflecting on how you want your relationship with your devices to look like
going forward.
Set rules around your daily smartphone use.
Besides a screen fast, Lembke and Alter recommended finding
other, less-stringent ways to distance yourself from your phone each day. That
might mean allotting times of the day or days of the week when you don’t use
your phone at all, such as before and after work. It may also mean leaving your
phone in the other room, keeping it out of your bedroom or putting everyone’s
phone in a box outside of the kitchen during dinnertime.
Make your smartphone less appealing.
You can also make your phone less visually engaging, by changing
the screen to grayscale or turning off notifications, for example. Alter
suggested periodically rearranging the apps on your phone so that they become
harder to find and less likely to lure you into a mindless loop of checking and
rechecking simply out of habit.
Both experts advised deleting certain types of apps — especially
the ones you know that you have a hard time avoiding. (If you don’t want to
delete those apps, you can move them to the last screen on your phone to make
them less accessible.)
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