Are we addicted to our mobile phones?

Are we addicted to our mobile phones?

 

In a very short few years, the way the whole world communicates has drastically changed. I know this is hardly news to anyone, after all you only have to look around when you’re in a public place and you’ll be surrounded by laptops and state-of-the-art electronic tablets, but most of all, by mobile phones. We can’t seem to escape them. I dare you to find one place people would never use their mobile. The loo? Think again. On many websites people boast about “spending hours on the toilet” to settle high scores on their favourite gaming app. In fact 40% of interrogated phone users in the UK (in a 2010 poll) admit to using their phone in the lavatory. And, let’s face it, we’ve all answered our phones in the most unlikely places.

There’s no question we need our mobile phones. Calling and texting people is inevitable in this era. But are they more than just a necessity in everyday life? Are we addicted?

It would be quite easy to limit this -hypothetical- psychological dependence on mobile phones to the younger generations but it doesn’t stop there. I think the worst ‘addictions’ I’ve seen are with smartphone users of any age (which is the equivalent of 43.8% of phone users in the UK).

Of course people can be very dependent on a basic mobile phone but it reaches a completely different level on a smartphone. On these phones you can access Internet wherever you go, play highly complex games with incredible graphics, have your mail updated every second, get all your social networking sites into one folder, play all your music, get directions and maps, take better pictures than some cameras could a few years ago, tune a guitar and find any song by humming, have a torch… sometimes we still even use them to call people. Let’s be honest, once you’ve got this phone that does absolutely everything in your hand how will you ever take it out?

As an experiment, I asked ten people I knew to go without their phone for a whole 24 hours. Every single person I asked categorically refused. Adults, because of their jobs. Teenagers, because of their friends. Even if you wanted to avoid using your phone as much as possible you wouldn’t be able to leave it behind… it goes everywhere with you and you become enslaved. So I decided to go without my own phone for 24 hours. Did I find it liberating? No. It was actually very stressful and that day was quite difficult to survive. First, I was annoyed I couldn’t text some friends and worried I might miss a call I would’ve liked to take. After that I started noticing I wanted to play mindless games on it to pass the time and automatically reached for it. I felt generally annoyed at everyone. As the day progressed I found I became more and more agitated, increasingly stressed and quite uneasy.

Now, some of you may laugh when I say this, but I was displaying mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms because I didn’t have my phone on me. Withdrawal symptoms are the sign of addiction. Ask a smoker not to smoke for 24 hours and you’ll see their stress increase, their irritability go through the roof and their craving for a cigarette skyrocket. Well, you shouldn’t have laughed, because I felt exactly the same way. So I can’t speak for all of you until you switch your phone off for24 hours but, as for myself, I am indeed a mobile phone addict: they say the first step is acceptance.

I’d love to be able to conclude with a solution to this problem I’ve encountered, a ten step guide to rehabilitation, but unfortunately I don’t have the ability to find a cure. However, I would say if you do find you may be addicted to your phone you should set yourselves a few rules. Here are my ten rules:

1) No phone at the dinner table (or lunch, or breakfast). Ever.

2) Don’t let it be the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you look at at night. Maybe set yourself a time past which you can’t look at it, and get out of bed and shower BEFORE you check your phone.

3) Don’t download too many time-wasting games. At the end of the day they waste hours of your day for no bigger achievement than a possible high score. Been there, done that: not worth it.

4) Do not look at your phone (or answer it!) in the loo. Amongst other things, it’s very unhygienic.

5) Try to stop checking it every five minutes and let your main focus become something else. Please.

6) Don’t use your phone for texting or gaming while you’re in the street. It shuts you out of the world and, chances are, you’ll walk into a lamppost or get hit by a truck.

7) If you’re having a conversation with friends, don’t text or play with your phone at the same time. (It’s just rude!)

8) Try not to let holding it in your hand become a reflex. Hold a pen if you need to hold an object. Or a pocket watch. You’ll think of something.

9) Keep it in your bag rather than in your pocket. (It radiates your pants off.)

10) Turn your phone OFF from time to time. Don’t just leave it on standby, turn it completely off. Even if it’s just at night.

I hope you found these tips helpful. I know they sound obvious but if you follow them you’ll have your addiction a little more under control, because you are, most likely, addicted. Your phone is more than just something that enables you to communicate; you have a clear dependency on it, especially if you have a smartphone. Don’t believe me? Turn your phone off for 24 hours.

… I thought so.

Juliette Latham (TES)