What are the figures and statistics regarding this situation? To answer the question, we will focus on studies conducted in the United States, for two reasons: the first is that the respective scientific papers are many, but also detailed (compared to the lack of data from us in the country) and the second is that The situation in the US is possibly the most severe in the world, studies conducted in the EU showing that Europeans use smartphones much more moderately, in their free time, at least.
Therefore, the report on the situation in the US gives us a kind of negative example, something like "look where we could get."
Figures show that about 40 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 spend almost all their time on the Internet. On average, a smartphone user checks their social media account, or other applications, 47 times a day.
About 80 percent of them feel the need to look at the phone within an hour or so of going to bed or waking up in the morning. And the most worrying statistic is that 85 percent check their phones while talking to family or friends constantly.
On average, globally, the smartphone user spends 2 hours and 51 minutes in front of the screen, in total. Moreover, 67 percent of teachers in the United States cited this phenomenon as a major source of inattention during school hours.
In addition, 47 percent of parents believe that their children are addicted to phones, and the situation becomes serious when we consider that minors who spend 5 hours in front of the daily screen are 71 percent more likely to commit suicide compared to those who stay only an hour a day.
At the wheel, the numbers are even more worrying: a study showed that distracting drivers is the reason for 68.3 percent of accidents (905 accidents in the United States were evaluated in the study). The risk of an accident, when the phones are held in the hand, increases 3.6 times, compared to when all the driver's concentration is on the road ahead.
Even if you use the best smartphones and tablets without a handsfree system, this action is illegal and sanctioned, 38 percent of drivers surveyed in a US national study said they type messages constantly while driving, while about 40 percent of the general public even support this practice.
According to age criteria, the most avid users are those between 18 and 24 years old, and then the use decreases constantly, as the age increases.
The situation becomes more worrying when we refer to minors: one in four children under the age of 6 has their own phone in the USA, and half of them spend about 21 hours a week using various applications, or surfing the web!
Note: if you want, there are also online tests to assess your level of smartphone addiction, such as the one here.
A list of problems caused by this addiction Since 2014, numerous studies have identified a number of negative situations in our lives, which can either occur or be exacerbated by the excessive use of gadgets such as tablets and smartphones. In addition to the few situations such as the increased risk of accidents (which is a probability, not a symptom), the most common undesirable consequences of addiction are the following:
A higher level of loneliness and depression : we can talk, nowadays, about a real epidemic of depression and other mental health problems adjacent to this condition.
Social media consumption, spending time online, instead of face-to-face interaction with friends and family, lack of contact with nature and sedentary lifestyle are some sources of these conditions.
You might say, "Hey, there are several factors, not just phone usage!" But, addiction to these gadgets has effects on every situation – how many users prefer to stare at the screen, instead of going out in nature, or looking for the company of virtual friends, instead of real interactions?
Anxiety : unfounded worries, avoiding social situations and the inability to have a conversation with another person, face to face and eye to eye, are just some of the effects more and more common in people today, especially young people. Anxiety is, in addition to depression, a huge problem in recent years.
For this reason, many people are now looking for practices such as meditation to mitigate these conditions and their effects. Of course, this is a beneficial thing, because meditation and relaxation techniques are very effective, but at the same time we must work on the source of the problem, the excessive use of Social Media being among the most obvious causes.
Work stress : almost everyone has a work email account, and through the smartphone ( here our comparative list ), we practically take our job home with us. It is stressful to check our e-mail in our free time, but most of us cannot refrain from this.
For this reason, countries such as France have taken a stand, imposing laws that allow the complete detachment of the employee from work, in his free time (ie the employer can not tell him "see that you will receive an e-mail around 10 o'clock tonight , in which you find out what to do this week. Read it immediately! ").
Also, practices such as changing the password over the weekend by an employee have become popular in the United States.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder : An increasing number of people have noticed that they have decreased their ability to follow an idea for a few minutes in a row, or to watch a movie, without other things appearing in their minds. .
This lack of attention has been correlated with the intense use of the telephone, which bombards us with stimuli and information, to an overwhelming level for the brain's ability to assimilate. Thus, problem-solving skills decrease considerably, which also leads to inefficiency of employees at work.
In addition, the inability to stay focused is also manifested by looking for the phone company, changing position or compulsion to drink or eat something. All of these are human-specific symptoms in the technology-dependent Social Media era.
Worse sleep : experts cannot stress enough the importance of sleep. Even if you can't sleep 8 hours a night, 6-7 hours of deep sleep are quite necessary. Its quality matters, and the constant use of the phone decreases the time spent in the REM stage, which is actually the most restful sleep.
The absence of electronics and blue light in the room is also a factor that positively impacts the way we sleep.
Narcissism : The obsession with Social Media (obviously used over the phone) has led to an epidemic of narcissism, in which each person feels compelled to brag about what he is and what he has, even if they are exaggerated or distorted by lies and photoshop.
The reverse of the medal is the constant state of dissatisfaction experienced by someone who thinks he should have something or look a certain way to be successful. Young people are extremely vulnerable to both situations, hence the alarming figures about suicide, which we presented above.
In addition, narcissism also has a risky side when it comes to following harmful diets, or choosing risky situations, to take a successful selfie (for example, approaching a wild animal or climbing an extremely tall building, for to take a picture).
How do we know if we are addicted? Some experts say that the time spent with your eyes on the screen is not necessarily a reflection or an indicator for addiction. Rather, lowering the quality of other aspects of life can be used to identify a situation of misuse of those gadgets.
If you check several of the following situations, you may need to take action to counter addictive behavior toward your smartphone:
if you have problems finishing homework or chores at work, these are a great alarm signal. Also, if you stay overtime to finish your job, this type of situation should give you food for thought. isolation from family and friends. You feel the need to not talk enough with them, face to face, or to enter social media and approach them with fruitless interactions, such as “how are you? – Okay, but you? ” which will leave you unsatisfied? Then you may lack real human face-to-face interaction, which is absolutely essential for your psyche. It cannot be successfully replaced by texting with a picture in front of it. are you hiding or retreating to use your phone? Do you sneak into the bathroom, or into the canteen at work, to see if you received likes? Both are addictive traits and can be applied to alcoholics or drug users. fear of missing things. If you do not enter certain platforms daily, or if you do not play your favorite games, there is an anxiety that tells you that you missed important events, or generates the feeling that you are lagging behind the world around you. anxiety, horror or panic if you look at your phone at home. In this case, if the gadget is not essential for the service and you experience such sensations, you may even be addicted to the feeling of knowing it in your pocket or bag. Even the well-known phenomenon of perceiving vibrations when they did not occur is an element in the picture of smartphone addiction. What measures are we taking to counter this addiction? That's what almost everyone wants: solutions. But effortless solutions don't really exist, so take the following tips as good starting points for the fight against cell phone addiction.
A first step is to recognize the key moments , or stimuli , when the desire to look at your smartphone appears. For some people, boredom is the stimulating element, for others anxiety. The desire for likes is also very strong, especially for young people, this being the impetus for Pavlovian control of social media posts.
In addition, if you have had problems with some types of addiction (alcohol may be an example), then you will know better your vulnerabilities to compulsive behavior.
A second step is to realize that interaction via online platforms or mobile services is not a substitute for face-to-face interaction . You need to recognize the need to talk to people in the same space, and that in many cases, the obsession with the phone is an attempt to supplement this experience.
After these steps, you will have to move on to the really hard part: changing your own behavior . For starters, you can start with time constraints for interacting with technology.
You have several strategies to choose from: one would be not to use the phone at home , unless you need to call someone, or you are called. In other words, cut from the list of social media activities or check email.
A second strategy would be to leave the phone at home , in leisure time, such as walking or walking in the city.
A third strategy is milder: you intend to look at the phone only once every two hours . Thus, do not eliminate the use of Social Media, but impose some discipline that will strengthen your will and allow you to change your habits.
It follows the return to some more natural behaviors for a healthy human being, who is not dependent on technology such as phones or tablets. For example, interacting with strangers, if you are a young person, get tired of seeing everyone, in clubs, with your eyes on the screens.
It will be hard at first, but 5-10 years ago, people interacted with strangers at concerts or other such events. If you are at work, you can try discussions that are a little deeper than the ones of complacency, but don't go to sensitive topics (politics, religion).
It is very good to have a support network in these efforts. In other words, gather around you several determined people, who in turn are determined to kick the addiction of screen gadgets. It will be much easier this way, and the results of the efforts will be seen considerably faster!
10 symptoms of smartphone addiction
The dependence on the mobile phone has become more and more widespread worldwide, being a field in which numerous researches are made, and which has slowly, slowly included the population of Romania, so it is necessary an information regarding the use of this device both necessary.
Technology has a high rate of growth, evolving rapidly, and mobile telephony is one of the main areas that is changing very quickly. Offering more and more facilities for users, from voice and video calls, to movies and TV shows, music and high-performance cameras, online games, etc., slowly, slowly and especially without realizing it you can easily become addicted to this device.
Although it is a necessary device both for the work you perform and in personal relationships, you must establish a clear line between conscious and addictive use that can seriously affect your interpersonal relationships, decrease your work capacity and has serious repercussions. in your state of health, which can lead to depression, anxiety, panic attacks, etc.
According to several studies conducted both worldwide and in the country, the most affected people are adolescents in terms of age, and as a gender women are more willing than men to develop such an addiction. But let's still present some symptoms with which you will be able to realize if you are already affected by this addiction.
Time allotted to the mobile phone
Try to monitor your activity on your mobile phone for a few days (a week), without restricting yourself, and if you spend several hours (some with an activity of 8-10 hours) or you have over 300 actions such as: SMS, calls, games, email verification, activities on social networks, etc., mean that you are already an addicted person.
How do you spend your free time
If when you are on vacation or on vacation, in the evening when you return from work or school, on weekends you spend more than half the time on your mobile phone, instead of having conversations with friends, playing with the little one, to walk or do various sports activities, you have already developed a mobile phone addiction.
Physical condition
You have more and more certain health problems such as: severe headaches, dizziness and whirlwinds, disorientation and you have found that you spend a lot of time on your new 4G smartphone , then it is good to restrict your activity and also , to turn to a competent person (psychologist) or to those close to you (parents, friends) to help you solve this addiction.
Take extra care of your cell phone
Another symptom developed more by females is the extreme care taken for this device, such as: periodic cleaning of the screen with various products; wiping the fingerprint housing; the need to always be close and the state of emotion that surrounds you towards the device.
When you use the phone
If you have certain emotional states such as joy, sadness, anger, etc., and you feel the need to use your mobile phone either to share the state with others, or to calm down and control your emotions, it is also a sign of addiction. compared to the smartphone.
Installing panic if you do not have a mobile phone
In a study conducted on several adolescent subjects who were asked what would be the biggest calamity that could happen, the vast majority answered that the lack of the Internet. This fear is not only present in teenagers but also in adults who panic if they are without a mobile phone, even during a session or for a short period of time, not being able to detach from this device even when going to the toilet. .
This condition gives you a major dependence on this device, and creates a false impression that you will not be able to cope in its absence, even for certain simple operations. The same state of panic or anxiety will set in when the battery level is low and you don't have an outlet nearby or you don't have the charger with you.
You prefer to communicate online or by calls than face to face
It is another symptom that shows addiction to the mobile phone and that leads to a fear of direct communication, both professionally and personally, which will seriously affect your social life. Communicating through groups with different concerns, on social networks, etc., without having a content, just for the sake of time will put you in serious trouble when you will have to communicate directly with a person.
When you start lying to use your cell phone
If you have become aware that you are using your mobile phone excessively and hiding from those around you, looking for different real or invented reasons to enter it, you have serious signs of concern and you need to start controlling yourself.
Use your mobile phone at night
It is another symptom that shows that you have become addicted to your smartphone. If you sleep with your mobile phone nearby and wake up at the slightest notification to check what you received, or if you just wake up and check the phone to see what activity is in different groups or on social networks, it is a serious thing which can lead to insomnia, lack of rest, leading to other major health problems.
Nervousness when you are warned that you use your mobile phone too much
In case you are in town with friends, on Sunday dinner with family, with wife or husband in the bedroom before bed, etc., and others draw your attention that you spend too much time with your mobile phone and you feel the need to defend yourself and use a higher tone, conflict and a state of nervousness or irritation.
It is also a clear sign that you are addicted to your mobile phone, and you need to take certain corrective measures so as not to cause major breakdowns that could affect your family, personal and professional life.
