Before starting, we want to emphasize that this article is not a sponsorship of some applications nor a scientific publication. We just want to shed some light on one sore of the new century and try to help those users who, unlike many others, want to try detox from your smartphone. Smartphone addiction is one of the most serious (and underestimated) problems of the last 10 years. Smartphones have taken a central place in our lives and it is difficult for us not to use them. This led to the phubbing, a trend that causes an estrangement from the real world and leads a person to neglect another one with whom you are engaged in any social situation.
Topics of this article:
How does smartphone addiction arise?
A smartphone is very comfortable. Conveniently, when the whole world is in the palm of our hand including all music and movies. We can do what we want thanks only to a smartphone and the internet. However, this convenience is also associated with what is commonly called "the downside". As the screen size increases, the people's addiction to smartphones has grown. There is a logic in this: Modern smartphones allow you to use multiple applications on one display, hence the dependence on content has grown significantly. Think about when we had a Nokia 3310: did we use it as we use a smartphone? No, it is undeniable.
Why is smartphone addiction dangerous?
Alas, this is the price for convenience and comfort. The smartphone is a source of entertainment and communication. We are so immersed in the virtual world that we forget about real life. And this leads to a complication that we often underestimate: the communication becomes boring, it becomes more difficult to speak over time, because it is easier to write a text. Even the calls have become rare: in 2021 calling someone is a sign of a very urgent matter or a gesture of desperation. I am therefore change the modes through which one person communicates with the other.
Read also: Dark mode on smartphones: does it really work? A study gives us the answer
Our tips to detoxify you
There is no universal rule to detoxify, so we defer to what we read on social media and to our personal experiences. In writing this article, I thought I'd collect some evidence of some friends and colleagues. I do not hide that the80% of them did not recognize that they are addicted to their smartphone. Unfortunately this is a sore that, if there is not a person at our side who points it out to us, it is not possible to correct. And we realize, looking out, that it's hard to find someone like that. But having said that, there are gods economic methods that allow you to help us in this sense.
- airplane mode: It sounds like a silly way, but it's actually the first step in trying to detox. Clearly, like any "therapy" (remember that it is not a scientific method but only of our experience), you have to start gradually. We can start by activating airplane mode for half an hour or an hour a day. Let's do more in the meantime and take back our personal moments
- use an app: it sounds like an oxymoron, but perhaps it is the most effective way. I know people who use apps to remind themselves to drink: what's wrong with using one that makes us use our smartphone less? One of them is StayFree - Time Tracker & App Usage Limiter. As the name suggests, this app allows us to understand the real use of our smartphone through charts, reminders and tables. When we spend too much time on an app, we'll get a notification to start detoxing from the digital world. It could also be a useful way to increase your productivity
- to detoxification we can also add another thing: the awareness that using social media (and it is not an attack on Facebook, Instagram and the like) takes away the useful time to be with the people we care about or even with ourselves. We often underestimate that talking to ourselves is one of the activities that makes our brain reactive. It doesn't make us stupid because we speak for ourselves. Think you are on a desert island without a smartphone: wouldn't you talk to yourself?
- disable push notifications: Think about how much your mood is ruined when you spend a lot of time on social networks. What annoys you the most: push notifications, incoming message sounds, endless scrolling of the feed or constant typing on the keyboard? Regardless of this, we can start eliminating one thing at a time. Attention, we do not want to make you become hermits: this is why it is important to start gradually and not to deprive ourselves of these little “joys” completely.
These are just our recommendations. If you have any more, please leave them in the comment box below. They can be useful to everyone.
