Cellphones are everywhere. Some feel they’ve taken over our lives. So how can you break your cellphone addiction?
How phones have an impact on your brain
Dr. Alyson Meister, a professor at IMD Business School in Switzerland, researched the behavioral science behind what has us all glued to our phones and published her findings in the Harvard Business Review.
“So phones are all around us. In fact, you know, a lot of us feel like our phones are an extension of our identities or our brains,” she said.
She says if you check your phone every second you have a break or freak out when you can’t find it, chances are you’re hooked.
“Studies are showing that actually the presence of your mobile phone is actually triggering unconscious behavior, so it can trigger your sympathetic nervous system, your stress system,” Meister said. “Also, did you know one study showed that even having your mobile phone on your desk, face down, turned off, can actually still consume your brain power? And it actually makes you perform worse than if you had it outside of the room.”
So what can we do about it? Are there any hacks to break your addiction?
“We really do need to evaluate a relationship with our phones,” Meister said.
For one, put a timer on your apps. Also track your screen time; you can actually get a report from your phone.
Meister also suggests simply getting it out of your sight.
“Do things like put it away or lock it in a pouch. I know I use a Yondr pouch every once in a while,” she said.
NYC teens ditch smartphones for flip phones
So many of us are already hopelessly stuck on our screens, but is there any turning back from the phone holding you hostage?
Twin sisters Sasha and Lucy Jackson say yes. The teenagers are members of the Luddite Club, a group of Brooklyn high schoolers who are tuning out the screen time while embracing the real world.
“It allows you to see things in your own life that you didn’t see before because you weren’t present,” Sasha Jackson said.
They have ditched their smartphones, instead carrying flip phones for emergencies.
“It’s just, it’s very sustainable. Like, once you figure it out, you get in the groove and then you just can do it forever basically,” Lucy Jackson said.
“You could be a kid or an adult, but especially as a kid, you’re developing your sense of self, and that’s extremely hard to do when you have a phone, when you have social media telling you who to be and what to do, and influencing you in such profound ways that it’s impossible to, like, grow up in a healthy way,” Sasha Jackson said.
“You kinda just dive in headfirst,” Lucy Jackson said. “And if you don’t like it, you know, pop your SIM card out, put it back in your iPhone. It’s not binding.”
“But it’s been two years and I have like, I don’t want to switch back at all,” Sasha Jackson said.
