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Did you know that 15 million people are getting different sleeping patterns.

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Did you know that 15 million people are getting different sleeping patterns.

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Shekinah Luximon reports on the increase of communication fixation

A Global Mobile Consumer Survey conducted by international audit firm Deloitte has revealed that people in the UK have never been more addicted to their smartphones.

The survey analysed the phone habits of more than 4,000 people in the UK, and found that four out of five UK adults now have a smartphone.

On average about 37 million people are smartphone users but Deloitte warned that despite, their popularity, the smartphone market was reaching its peak.

About one in three adults check their phones at night and the average person checks about 85 times during the day. This equates to about a third of the time they're awake, according to research published in the Daily Mail, while 15 million are having their sleep patterns disrupted over checking their phones.

Research company Science Direct found that women are more likely to develop addictive mobile phone behaviour than men; possibly because women are more prone to social stress and anxiety than men.

However Deloitte's Paul Lee, Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications believes that the overuse of smartphones is a 'temporary thing' driven by the newness of the technology.

"We're getting used to how to use this tech which, let's remind ourselves, is just nine years old. When we have something new we tend to overreact to it."

If you or someone you know is suffering from mobile addiction there are organisations which can help such as Port of Call.

What do I think
As a teenager who has a smartphone I think people are not addicted to their smartphones, but addicted to staying connected. People regularly check their phones for notifications from social media such as Instagram or Snapchat. In my case, I don't really check my phone that much as I don't find it that important. The novelty of having a smartphone has worn off.

Shekinah, who is a student at Hornsey School for Girls, isn't sure if she wants to be a criminal psychologist or a spy. So is currently torn between the two worlds.

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Phone addiction on the rise - but it's only temporary | Exposure

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Shekinah Luximon reports on the increase of communication fixation A Global Mobile Consumer Survey conducted by international audit firm Deloitte has revealed that people in the UK have never been more addicted to their smartphones. The survey analysed the phone habits of more than 4,000 people in the UK, and found that four out of five UK adults now have a smartphone.

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Do you know that you should stop being addicted to devices by changing your "phone lifestyle" into "healthy/normal lifestyle"?! 

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Do you know that you should stop being addicted to devices by changing your "phone lifestyle" into "healthy/normal lifestyle"?! 

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For example, instead of reaching out for your phone when you wake up, you should take a shower or go outside and have a walk in the morning.

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Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture

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I'll admit that some mornings I have an instinctive reaction, which will perhaps seem weird, and probably hypocritical, but I'll confess it anyway ...

Right after my alarm clock goes off, I grab my phone while I'm still in bed and take a quick look at my messages, emails and notifications. I'd be better off if I got up instead, because this habit means I often have to rush to get everyone to school on time. Okay, I know this is nothing unusual; it's a well-established practice in the daily lives of many millennials.

But-and this is where it gets bad-as soon as I hear cute little steps approaching (since they're usually running, luckily, I hear them from a distance!), I have a Pavlovian reflex. As quickly as possible, I put my phone on my bedside table (sometimes interrupting an intense discussion in a chat group). There's no shame in chatting (it would be worse to be caught in the act of reading Twitter!), nor do I fear severe punishment. It's simply evidence that, deep down, every parent intuitively knows that their example-or in this case, their bad example-has a real impact on their children.

Imposing limits on your children (such as "no smartphone in the bedroom!") while you yourself are addicted to your phone is a lack of coherence and credibility. If we act that way, there'll be no escaping the question, "If mom does it, why can't I?" The secret lies in being an example-a good example, not like me.

So take a shower instead of reading your e-mails when you wake up, put your phone on airplane mode during meals, limit your own use of screens when you're in the presence of your children, disconnect from your device when you have a real discussion with them, avoid turning on the television as soon as you have a second of spare time ... It's precisely by adopting a healthy use of the screens for yourself that you can inculcate good screen habits into your children, and teach them a healthy lifestyle.

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You can't keep your kids from screen addiction unless you do this one thing

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I'll admit that some mornings I have an instinctive reaction, which will perhaps seem weird, and probably hypocritical, but I'll confess it anyway ... Right after my alarm clock goes off, I grab my phone while I'm still in bed and take a quick look at my messages, emails and notifications.

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Do you know that one of the most simplest but a very effective hack for stopping distraction from phone is that   you can turn your screen into "gray scale" so that you won't be distracted by the colorful colors?! 

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Do you know that one of the most simplest but a very effective hack for stopping distraction from phone is that   you can turn your screen into "gray scale" so that you won't be distracted by the colorful colors?! 

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If you're one of those people who can't stop checking their phone every five minutes, then this life hack is for you.

Most of us are extremely dependent on our smartphones, but it's all too easy to become addicted to constantly checking them for notifications and updates.

In fact, polls have suggested that the average Brit can't go for an hour without checking their smartphone.

If that sounds all too familiar, then this hack could revolutionise your relationship with your phone and boost your productivity at the touch of a button.

This funny video from The Atlantic explains that the solution to your phone addiction could be as simple as dulling down your iPhone display.

The video explains that colourful phone screens encourage us to check our devices constantly - and it's no accident that red is the universal colour for the notification bubbles which pop up from social media apps.

The colour red excites our brains, prompting us to tap the app right away to check the notification.

But this can all be beaten by setting your iPhone display to a boring - but useful - greyscale.

The grey doesn't stimulate our brains in the same way that bright colours do, reducing the temptation to be distracted by our phones.

And, whilst it may be a bit depressing at first, greying-up your iPhone could work wonders for your productivity.

You can find this sombre option in the settings menu, under the general options.

Click on the accessibility menu, and turn on greyscale to take the colour out of your display.

This only affects the screen itself, meaning that if you take a screenshot, it will still come out in full colour.

As the video explains, this useful hack will revolutionise your relationship with your iPhone but, unfortunately for Android users, the greyscale option doesn't come with every device.

James Hamblin, senior editor of The Atlantic, says: "There's a reason that every notification on your phone is red.

"It is a colour that stimulates excitement in the brain.

"Say you find yourself checking your phone too much and you want to break the habit.

"Put it in greyscale and you'll end up checking your phone much less and appreciating more of the beauty in the natural world."

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This one little trick will break your phone addiction

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If you're one of those people who can't stop checking their phone every five minutes, then this life hack is for you. Most of us are extremely dependent on our smartphones, but it's all too easy to become addicted to constantly checking them for notifications and updates.

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Start Slow
For example if you always start at 8:00 using your device start using your device from 12:00.

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How to Beat an Addiction to Cell Phones (with Pictures) - wikiHow

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Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use.…

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Heavy social media users may get quicker respondence skills from checking and responding to feedback or comments they get.

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Heavy social media users may get quicker respondence skills from checking and responding to feedback or comments they get.

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The popularity of mobile devices is at an all-time high and the desktop is arguably playing second fiddle to the likes of the smartphone and tablet. But has this obsession changed the way we consume information?

Thanks to those portable time wasters the average attention span has fallen by four seconds in the past 13 years, which makes for impatient site visitors who flick between sites until something tickles their fancy.

The smartphone and lightning fast internet speeds at the touch of a button has skyrocketed video consumption statistics to an all-time high. And our equally great obsession, social media, means there are a magnitude of ways to place your brand within arm's reach of the entire online world.

How Far Has the Addiction Reached?

Not surprisingly, 96% of Americans own a mobile device. They spend an incredible three hours a day on them, almost twice as much time as they did in 2008.

That may not be breaking news to anyone, but mobile digital media time in the US is now significantly higher at 51% compared to desktop (42%). Earlier this year, ComScore reported, for the first time ever, mobile-only internet users outnumbered desktop-only internet users in the US.

Not only are people ditching the traditional desktop for mobile devices, but the volume increases dramatically year after year. The volume of data downloaded via mobile devices had increased by 36% from 38,734 to 71,572 TB in the space of 12 months between 2014 and 2015.

How you can make this epidemic benefit you?

Now before we go panicking that we'll have mobile devices implanted into our brain soon enough, think about how you can make this obsession beneficial to you:

1. Immerse Your Business in Mobile-friendly Features

According to a mobile behaviour report from ExactTarget, 27% of people will leave a site if it is not mobile-optimised, and a mobile marketing survey conducted by Chief Marketer in 2012 found 61% of companies have created a mobile site or optimised their existing site for mobile.

"Research reveals that by 2015, over half of people browsing the web will be on a mobile device. And roughly 80% of mobile searchers say if they don't like what they find on one website, they'll leave that website and look for another, more mobile-friendly solution."

A recent survey by Qlik's found 85% of American respondents and 77% from the rest of the world said they used multiple devices simultaneously. Whittington suggests using a using a responsive website design to ensure all of the consumer's needs are met, regardless of what device they're using.

A responsive website design only involves the creation of one website. It detects different device screen sizes and automatically reformats the content and design to best suit the screen size it is being viewed on.

2. But Don't Ignore Desktops... They're Not Dead Yet

Some have mentioned the spike in mobile usage may in fact lead to the fall of where our internet addictions began: the desktop. But do not fret- statistics show desktop numbers are constant. Moz founder, Rand Fishkin believes mobile usage will barely "cut into desktop's usage". He instead believes we will continue to use both almost equally.

"I think we may have reached the peak of desktop/laptop decline, and I expect that in 2016, desktop usage rates will stay largely unchanged. Most everything that mobile was going to replace or take away from desktop use has been taken, and I'm skeptical that things like creative work, programming, long-form writing, computer gaming, and other tasks that big monitors and full keyboard+mouse inputs were made for can be successfully cannibalized by the screen that fits in our pockets." - Rand Fishkin, Moz.

So we're basically going to spend all of our spare time in front of a screen and be reduced to square-eyed zombies. I can live with that.

3. Get to the Point! And Make It Snappy

The increase in technology as a whole and human's ability to multi-task has decreased the average American's attention span from 12 seconds in 2000 to just eight seconds in 2013 according to Bloomberg Business - that's a second less than that of a goldfish.

A recent Microsoft study found a positive spin to this laughable, and slightly embarrassing, discovery though. It explained we have developed better multitasking skills and our attention spans had suffered as a result.

"While digital lifestyles decrease sustained attention overall, it's only true in the long-term. Early adopters and heavy social media users front load their attention and have more intermittent bursts of high attention,"

the study read.

"They're better at identifying what they want/don't want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory."

Perhaps this kid was just in a rush to multi-task somewhere else...

With a lower attention span also comes higher expectations of user experience. The less interested or entertained a consumer is, the less likely they will be to stick around. This means simple and clear websites and sites that directly identify the consumer's needs will trump complicated and confusing designs.

Founder and principal of Whittington Consulting, Rick Whittington said regardless of how well presented and targeted the website is " if it takes longer than 10 seconds to load it won't achieve your marketing goals ".

4. Know Your Consumers & Rethink the Inbound Marketing Funnel

Closely related to our ever decreasing attention spans coupled with the increased availability of the smartphone and its features has increased our impulsiveness and 'quests for information'. Interim checking, glimpsing (with the help of the new smaller devices like watches), 'snacking' on content or constantly exploring the online realm has a direct effect on how we search.

As Ogilvy Group UK Vice-Chairman, Rory Sutherland tells us, users search for content that they want at that particular moment. It greatly evolves marketing strategies and downplays the importance of the target market, and highlighting the importance of market research.

"For the most part, the way to use the mobile is just the opposite of what we think of as advertising - it's "asked-for" content, timely, relevant to context, possibly location-specific, and possibly personalised. This means the target audience, instead of being a "how many", should be a "who", a "when", and a "where"."

It almost questions the importance of the current inbound marketing funnel doesn't it?

5. Tap into Social Media... Another Precious Resource

If there's one thing that can be predicted it's our love of social media. If our love for mobile devices was like going to the cinema our love for social media would be the popcorn. It may only one be one of its many features, but it's definitely one of the best parts.

As of January this year there were just over two billion active social media accounts. That's a whopping 29% of the world's population checking that photo of your lunch you posted on Instagram.

I don't have to state the obvious and tell you how much free exposure that can lead to for your brand. When a piece of your content is shared it further improves its reach, which gets back to Google HQ. As Seer Interactive CEO, Wil Reynolds explains the more the shares, the more Google likey your page.

"Today, I need to worry about people on social, that, if they like [content], they share it. Because if they share it, it sends signals to Google. But more importantly, the people who didn't originally see [that content], will look at it and say, 'This was good."

We don't like to be referred to as sheep, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander. The loyalty from one customer (sharing something on social media) can lead others straight to awareness and consideration (see the funnel isn't dead just yet!). But you will definitely have to alter the way you map out your content strategy and steer clear of the rigid, set-in-stone funnel.

6. Deliver Your Content by Video & Watch the "shares" Roll In

Right, now that we're actually discussing how the progressive change in human behaviour can be of benefit to you and your business, we can't go past video consumption. The average consumer with an internet connection watches roughly 206 videos per month and Nielsen claims 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future.

Pictures are said to paint a thousand words, as the old saying goes, so in this inquisitive-natured, yet inattentive culture we live in videos are the perfect medium.

The upsurge of video consumption can also be taken advantage of in more ways than one. According to a recent study by Usurv, delivery by video is the best way to get site consumers to share and interact with your content on social media. Consumers are 39% more likely to share content if it's delivered via video, 36% more likely to comment and 56% more likely to "like" the video.

In the old methods of marketing television advertising was a strong focus, but according to Nielsen traditional television viewer numbers are slowly declining. So where does that leave video marketing? Think with Google recently revealed 46% of 3,000 US campaigns would have increased their reach using combining TV and YouTube combination.

The rise in popularity of digital television platforms, such as Netflix show utilising the online realm could become paramount in years to come. Unlike traditional TV advertising digital marketers are presented with a range of targeted data about their users. Ah the possibilities!

7. Prepare for "Advertising bombardment" in the Future

MOZ's Rand also noted 2016 may see the wearables, virtual reality, "Internet of Things" and smart home products at the top of everyone's Christmas list. But he believes we may have a bit more time to prepare ourselves for ads yelling at us from our fridges.

"There may be a few niche opportunities, but my prediction is that none of these new trends will create marketing/advertising platforms or potential in the $50mm+ range. - Rand Fishkin, Moz.

But this could be a day-to-day lives soon enough if Google gets its way:

Ensure your content and marketing strategies are up to scratch and make a name for yourself before advertising literally bombards your consumers in every aspect of their lives.

Summing Up... What You Need to Know

We know the age of mobile devices is now. Consumers are at an all-time high, rapidly increasing year by year, but still light-years away from their peak. They have changed the way we think, concentrate and receive information and marketers are forced to keep up or be left by the wayside.

A shorter attention span is the result of increased and improved multi-tasking. Responsive website designs are recommended to ensure sites are mobile friendly, and make the information presented quick and easy to digest. The importance of target research is more important than ever as consumers become more random in their searches.

Almost a third of the world has a social media account and thanks to the limitless opportunities it provides for a brand it has become one of the biggest pieces of inbound marketing arsenal and video-based content is the easiest way to attract a magnitude of "shares".

Could you live without your phone? Leave your response below!

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7 Simple Mobile Addiction Benefits | Kwasi Blog

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The popularity of mobile devices is at an all-time high and the desktop is arguably playing second fiddle to the likes of the smartphone and tablet. But has this obsession changed the way we consume information?

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Change your thinking of your device usage.

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Do you know that at school if you are bringing devices that are not necessary to be used, you can turn it to "airplane" mode?!

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Do you know that at school if you are bringing devices that are not necessary to be used, you can turn it to "airplane" mode?!

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There's no bigger classroom distraction than a student using a phone. Teachers struggle with cell phones in school on a daily basis. On one hand, teachers want students to learn how to manage their phones on their own. On the other hand, the distraction phones create can be detrimental to both students and teachers. Power struggles ensue, wasting valuable class time. Because of this, teachers need practical and enforceable strategies for dealing with phones in their classrooms.

The Good

Most schools allow students to have cell phones for safety, which seems unlikely to change as long as school shootings remain a common occurrence. But phones aren't just tools for emergencies; they can also be valuable tools in the classroom. If there's a word or concept a student doesn't understand, the student can find information instantly. Phones have calculators as well as spelling and grammar checks. Most importantly, phones allow students to communicate with one another and with experts in fields of interest. The question remains, however, whether the use of cell phones in school outweighs the distraction they cause.
Further Reading: Quiz: Are You a Tech-Savvy Teacher?
The Bad

Most teachers will tell you that cell phones adversely affect learning in the classroom, and research backs that up. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that promotes safe technology and media for children, reported that "50 percent of teens 'feel addicted' to mobile devices." The report also stated that 78 percent of teens check their devices at least hourly, and 72 percent of teens feel the need to immediately respond to texts, messages on social networks, and other notifications. The paper also found that multitasking-for example, toggling between multiple screens or between screens and people-impairs a child's ability to learn and work effectively.

Students tend to be highly susceptible to the kinds of distractions smartphones provide. My colleague caught a student watching Grey's Anatomy during her class. Other students tweet, text, and listen to music when they should be on task. According to Jeffrey Kuznekoff, who conducted a study on phone use by college students, "You're putting yourself at a disadvantage when you are actively engaged with your mobile device in class and not engaged in what's going on." Saraswathi Bellur, a researcher at the University of Connecticut, found that multitasking in class "is likely to harm academic performance."

The Solution

Some of my fellow teachers and administrators say that students need to learn how to effectively manage their phones in the classroom on their own. Personally, I think my students need a little help with this. This year, I implemented a phone storage system in my classroom. Students were required to place their devices in a pocket with their name on it when they entered the classroom. I made this procedure an official classroom policy, and I explained my rationale to students in a frank discussion.

Parents and students both had to sign off on the policy. Storing phones was a game-changer in my classroom. Students didn't balk at it, and they actually seemed to appreciate the time away from their phones. They realized that they could be without their phones for a whole class period without the world ending.

Researcher Jesper Aagaard suggests that in order to pay more attention in class-or even outside of school-students should try to obstruct their habits by turning phones off or putting them in airplane mode to keep from constantly checking them. If you share this advice with students, it may help them to see the issue and work to change it. When I explained the research on the negative impact of cell phones in schools to my students, they more readily agreed to store them during class.
Further reading: The Pros and Cons of Digital Tools for the Classroom
The use of cell phones in schools is not going to go away, so learning to effectively manage and handle them is a valuable skill for students to learn. I became more in tune with my own cell phone addiction through this process. Now, along with my students, I'm working to enjoy my life without my phone a bit more.

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There's no bigger classroom distraction than a student using a phone. Teachers need practical strategies for dealing with cell phones in school.

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Did you know that you should make a family phone box to stop yourself and your family from using their/your own device during occasions like family activities!?

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Did you know that you should make a family phone box to stop yourself and your family from using their/your own device during occasions like family activities!?

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Unlike driving, there's no set age for kids to start having access to a mobile phone phone. The age at which parents hand a phone over to them will depend on their child's maturity. But even the most responsible child can fall into screen addiction if not guided on how to use it healthily.

Here are some screen addiction facts :

šAmerican Teenagers receive their first smartphones at the age of 10

šspend an average of 4.5 hours a day on it (excluding texting and talking times)

š78 percent of teens check their phones at least hourly, with half reporting they feel "addicted" to their phones

Kids who spent three hours or more a day on smartphones or other electronic devices were 34% more likely to suffer at least one suicide-related outcome (journal Clinical Psychological Science,)

If your kids are in the age group where they will soon be getting a smartphone then here are a couple of tips to stop them from getting addicted :
1. Set priority
When your child comes home from school, they need to rest, do their homework, play outdoors, etc. All chores need to be completed before any screen time

2. Set a screen time limit.
Screen time is defined by the amount of time they spend online on entertainment purposes. This does not include screen time for doing homework or research.

It is difficult to determine what is the right amount of screen time. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) children older than 6 years old should be limited to 2 hours of screen time a day or less.

There are different apps that can help you parents to control screen time by locking your kids phone during certain hour of the day, for instance bed time or dinner time.

If they are watching TV then use a physical alarm clock and set the timer on. Once it goes off your kids know that their time is up. This way you avoid arguing or negotiating for more screen time with your children.

3. Uninterupted family time.
Children will model their parents behavior. If parents keep checking on their phone then children are more likely to follow the same pattern.

Create a family phone box where during certain hours all devices will be kept in the box. For instance, during dinner or family time. This will help parents control the urge to keep checking on their notifications and lead a good example for their children.

4. Engage with your children
If you already have gadgets like Alexa at home then your children might get used too getting answers instantly. Kids also seem to rely on devices like Ipads and Google to entertain them.

Depending on what your kids search for online, Google might not always come up with the best solution to their questions. It might lead them to sites that may not be appropriate for their age group.Don't let Alexa parent your child.

Talk to your children often and let them know that Mum and Dad can also be a source of wisdom. It is important for your child to know that parents are their trusted problem solvers and not Alexa or Google.

5. Charge your kids devices in your room
When it is bed time, take the phone away and charge it in your bedroom. Devices kept in their room might disrupt their sleep. Remove the source of temptation and let them have a good night sleep.

6. Lastly educate yourself
Follow me on Instagram, join the digital parenting community or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest digital parenting news.

If you are in Scotland and would like to host a parent workshop or want me to speak at your kids school then get in touch with me.

Conclusion

Technology is not necessarily bad as long as we teach our children to use it in a healthy and responsible way. Guide your child not just in the real world but also in the virtual one. By doing so you will help them gather the skills and habits to become responsible digital citizens.
Here are other tips to you keep children safe in the digital age : 3 simple ways to keep children safe online Stop Google from tracking you and your kids every movement 5 exciting Youtube channels to get kids interested in Science Finally dont forget click below:

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5 ways to prevent screen addiction for 8-13 years old - Kids n Clicks

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Unlike driving, there's no set age for kids to start having access to a mobile phone phone. The age at which parents hand a phone over to them will depend on their child's maturity. But even the most responsible child can fall into screen addiction if not guided on how to use it healthily.

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Companies such as Apple Facebook and Google are trying to make people use it very often

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Companies such as Apple Facebook and Google are trying to make people use it very often

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Do you know that you can use one of the most popular app, "moment" to solve device addiction little by little?! 

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Do you know that you can use one of the most popular app, "moment" to solve device addiction little by little?! 

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Cell phone addiction (also known as 'nomophobia') is on the rise. Everywhere you look, you'll see people checking their phones, scoring small rewards of dopamine for every email, text, and like. According to data collected by, a time tracking app with nearly five million users, we spend four hours a day, on average, interacting with our phones. And when we're not interacting with them - or worse, when we're physically separated from our phones - we tend to experience classic symptoms of anxiety: increased heart rate, shallow breathing, sweaty palms. And while it may seem counter-intuitive to use technology to beat a technology addiction, there are some apps out there that can help you detox. Here are some of our favorite apps that keep your phone obsession in check:
Moment
Arguably the most popular screen time tracking app, Moment tracks how much you (and your family!) use your phone and tablet each day, automatically. Find out how often you pick up your phone, what apps you use the most, and set daily limits for yourself and your family. Moment even lets you schedule screen-free time! Want your kids' attention during family dinner? You can program an annoying alert that goes off every time Junior picks up his phone or tablet! Once set up, Moment continuously tracks your phone activity; as long as the app is running in the background, you never have to open it again.
Forest
Combining the Pomodoro technique with gamification, Forest encourages people to "be present" by planting a virtual seed and watching it grow into a tree. The user can select the amount of time they want to stay focused on a task - whether it's just 10 minutes or 2 hours - and the longer you can concentrate on the task, the more coins you earn that you can use to unlock new kinds of trees or even plant a real tree. If you drop your task and leave the app, your tree will wither. While the virtual gardening concept may sound silly, it's a surprisingly effective yardstick to measure and visualize your productivity on a day to day basis.
Onward
The goal of Onward is to achieve "Tech-Life Balance" via tracking, reporting and blocking so you can take control of your screen time. Whether it's a Facebook, online gambling or shopping addiction, Onward helps you block problematic sites and apps and allows you to schedule reports that detail your overuse behavior in simple, easy to understand graphs. Created in conjunction with UCLA-based clinical advisors, Onward leverages the latest in data and behavioral science to bring behavior-changing solutions to smartphone addicts.
Flipd
Another popular distraction-blocking app, Flipd removes or blocks distracting social media, games, and other apps and lets you can set a timer so you can lock yourself out of all phone functions except for basic texts and phone calls. Designed primarily for classroom use, Flipd discourages students from using their phones while they're in class and collects data to uncover trends around learner engagement and participation so teachers can discover whether their students are crushing algebra - or merely crushing candy.
Mute
Like its name suggests, Mute is another screen time tracker but it's the app's handy push notifications that make it stand out from competitors. Mute can be programmed to send you notifications when your phone usage becomes excessive, and to motivate you when you've spent a good chunk of time offline. Leveraging the dopamine burst that comes when you receive push notifications about new texts or likes, Mute uses a similar technique to make you feel good when you're not on your phone by sending you words of encouragement like "Boom! 2H23M break from your phone!"

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5 Apps To Help Break Your Phone Addiction | ChargeItSpot

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Cell phone addiction (also known as 'nomophobia') is on the rise. Everywhere you look, you'll see people checking their phones, scoring small rewards of dopamine for every email, text, and like. According to data collected by Moment, a time tracking app with nearly five million users, we spend four hours a day, on average, interacting ...

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one third of the teens actually try to reduce the time they spend on their phones. However, most of them fail doing it.

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Teen cell phone addiction has become an important issue facing parents. For parents with a teenager, this is not surprising. Have you had frustrating confrontations with your child about their cell phone usage? Probably more than a few.

Cell phone addiction is so common. It's hard to overcome because using mobile devices is now an endemic part of the modern world.

Understanding Teen Cell Phone Addiction

Cell phone addiction is a modern phenomenon. It puts many traditional assumptions to the test. In the past, addiction meant something different to parents. Parents worried about about cocaine or heroin or nicotine. Today, the addiction landscape has shifted. Teens tethered to their smartphones for seven hours on average each day.

Do you allow your child to watch three to four hours of television every night? Is it healthy to be so occupied by screens? The reality is, no, it's not. And smartphones are so ubiquitous that managing the behavior is problematic.

Cell Phone Addiction=More Than Talking

Teenage cell phone addiction goes well beyond texting and talking. It includes apps, games, and, in particular, social media. For teens, cell phones have become a way to comment and criticize, approve and admire. They are not always communicating with friends. Often, they are commenting on their activities. They are checking for likes and responses to their own posts.
There's a biological component to this behavior. The brain reacts to the cell phone as if it were a drug. Studies have shown that both the phone ringing and the alert of a new text cause the brain to release dopamine.

What could be a benefit has descended into an obsession for many teens. Take the smartphone app Snapchat-a photo-sharing service. It boasts that teenagers use the app more than 18 times a day.

Teen Cell Phone Addiction-A Behavioral Disorder

The clinical community defines cell phone addiction as a behavioral disorder. Such a disorder means obsessive use that affects everyday functioning. Like any addiction, once triggered, it can be quite difficult to stop.

Cell phone addiction goes beyond actually using the phone to talk. Talking on cell phones is less common among teens than adults. Teen smartphone addiction includes repetitive, compulsive use of the device for other activities. Such behaviors are perfectly normal in moderation. They become dangerous when tied to an obsessive compulsion.

Regular smartphone use can descend into cell phone addiction. As a result, these behaviors get in the way of being part of the real world.

Signs of Cell Phone Addiction

Does your teen repeat any of the following behaviors over and over again? They could be an indicator of cell phone addiction:

Texting with friends and checking for incoming texts

Listening to music and watching videos using headphones

Checking e-mail and social media accounts

Playing single-player video games and interactive multi-player games

Worrying about cell phone battery life and access to electrical power.

If you believe smartphone addiction is affecting someone you love, you are not alone. Teen cell phone addiction is a serious issue for the whole family.

A recent poll reveals that 50 percent of teens believe they are addicted to their cell phones.

More than a third of teens try to cut down the amount of time they spend on their mobile devices, but most fail to change.

The symptoms of teen cell phone addiction are contradictory. The teen can't imagine being without the phone, but they also feel it's a burden.

Teen Cell Phone Addiction Statistics

Here are some statistics on teen mobile use:

1. 59 percent of parents feel their teens are addicted to their mobile devices

2. 78 percent of teens check their mobile devices at least hourly

3. 72 percent of teens feel an urgent need to immediately respond to texts

4. 44 percent of teens believe they spend too much time on their cell phones

5. 77 percent of parents feel their teens get distracted by their cell phones. For example, they fail to pay attention to other people at family events

6. 30 percent of both teens and parents claim to argue about mobile devices and cell phones on a daily basis

7. 44 percent of teens use their mobile devices at the dinner table.

Mobile devices are the primary information and communication hub for teens. Text messaging is now the most common way that teens communicate.

Given this reality, it's not surprising that teenagers spend so much time on their cell phones. When does this shift from a preferred form of communication to a possible technology addiction?

Teenage Cell Phone Addiction Takes Kids Out of the Moment

Cell phone addiction drains our attention. Teens' intense focus on cell phones distracts them. They are not present in their everyday life. Once cell phone addiction sets in, behaviors can change.

Grades at school can drop and participation in extracurricular activities can diminish. Did you know that 61 percent of kids say smartphone use has had a negative impact on their schoolwork?

The comedian Louis C.K. doesn't let his children use cell phones. "I think these things are toxic, especially for kids," he says. "You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not do anything. That's what the phone is taking away-the ability to just sit there. That's being a person."

He does not like the idea of kids being tethered to their phones. It makes people less reflective, less empathetic, and less human.

Teen Cell Phone Addiction and Co-Occurring Disorders

Teen cell phone addiction goes hand-in-hand with mental health and substance use issues. For example, anxiety increases when the cell phone is not readily available. Moreover, depression deepens with a lack of human contact.

Look at a recent study on mobile device addiction. The study was done by University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras. It was published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

The study surveyed more than 300 university students. The goal is to examine high engagement with the Internet and mobile phones. Do they affect the user's psychological well-being?

Lleras says, "People who self-described as having really addictive-style behaviors toward the Internet and cellphones scored much higher on depression and anxiety scales."

Teen cell phone addiction is related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Constant cell phone use is a powerful driver for making this condition worse. The cell phone becomes a focus of OCD-oriented behaviors.

Very often, those with OCD need to have things organized in a certain way. Cell phone addiction fosters compulsive behavior pattern. Teens feel the need to use the smartphone all the time.

Teen cell phone addiction means the smartphone is always needed. The cell phone, like a drug, becomes a way to escape stress and reality. It alters the perception of the user and builds a barrier between the addicted teen and the real world.

Cell Phone Addiction and Driving

Driving could be the most dangerous manifestation of teen cell phone addiction. We all know the dangers of driving while texting or talking on the phone.

Unfortunately, teen smartphone addiction increases the chances of this happening. Like any addiction, cell phone addiction leads to recklessness and poor decision-making. When combined with motor vehicles, cell phone use can have frightening outcomes.

1. 52 percent of teens talk on a cell phone while driving and 32 percent text while driving

2. 25 percent of teens respond to at least one text while driving, every single time they drive

3. 11 teens die every day because they were texting while driving

4. 21 percent of teen drivers in fatal accidents were distracted by cell phones

5. 94 percent of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving. 35 percent admit to doing it anyway

6. Cell phone use reduces the brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent

7. Distraction is a key factor in 58 percent of crashes involving teen drivers.

8. Reaction time for a teen using a cell phone is the same as that of a 70-year old not using one, per a University of Utah study

9. Teen drivers have a 400 percent higher chance than adults of crashing when texting.

The final statistic is based on an analysis of video footage of 1,691 moderate to severe crashes. The crashes were examined six seconds before they occurred. Each crash involved teen drivers and resulted in injury or death.

Typing text messages and talking on the phone reduces a driver's capability. They can't direct attention to the road. Teen drivers are even less likely than adults to respond to important traffic events.

Teen cell phone addiction and driving are a deadly combination.

Other Negative Health Consequences of Teen Cell Phone Addiction

There is more than the flood of potential co-occurring disorders outlined above.

Teen smartphone addiction leads to other negative health consequences, including the following:

"Text neck"-chronic strain from looking down at a cell phone

Eye strain and blurred vision as a result of focusing on a small screen

Decreased neural connectivity, leading to poor emotional regulation

Poor dietary habits, as junk food is consumed to a greater extent

Phantom vibrations of a non-existent cell phone going off. This happens to nine out of 10 cell phone users.

Cell phone addiction is turning more and more teenagers into walking zombies. They are glued to their screens and removed from their lives by their focus on a mobile device.

A teenager addicted to a cell phone craves the next incoming text or social media update. They are more likely to ignore face-to-face interaction. As a result, they fail to communicate with their families.

Teen Cell Phone Addiction Warning Signs

As a consequence, it's good to know the warning signs of teen cell phone addiction. By being aware of these red flags, you can catch an initial problem before it becomes a serious addiction.

These warning signs include:

1. A drug-like withdrawal when not allowed to use the cellphone. The effects can include shaking, sweating, headaches, and nausea

2. Weight loss when eating becomes secondary. Weight gain when the quality of the food eaten nosedives

3. Insomnia and negative shifts in sleeping patterns

4. Increased anxiety and misplaced worry connected with the cell phone

5. Physical isolation from friends and family. Such isolation leads to mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety

6. Increased aggression in connection to control of the cell phone.

Teenage Cellphone Addiction and Bedtime

The location of a teen's cell phone when they go to bed could be an indicator of potential cell phone addiction. Teens who keep their smartphones under their pillows or by the bedside are more likely to become cell phone addicts.

Let's take a look at some recent statistics:

62 percent of teens say they use their cell phones after bedtime

77 percent of teens say they text and tweet messages while in bed

21 percent of teens say they wake up whenever a text comes in

66 percent of teens say it negatively affects their sleep.

There are ways to combat these behaviors at home before seeking professional care.

Stratagems for Responding to Teen Cell Phone Addiction

Without question, treating cell phone addiction is not easy. Some limitations, boundaries, and structure may help.

Applying strict data limits reduces cell phone usage.

Cell phone providers offer inexpensive, password-activated programs. These programs shut off cell phones at night.

Tech timeouts for the family in the evening and on the weekends can help.

Try using a "Be Present Box" at the dinner table. Turned-off cell phones stay in the box during family time.

Create a cell phone moratorium one day a week, or even one afternoon or evening per week.

If boundaries aren't working, professional help might be warranted . By accessing, such help, parents could end up saving the life of their teens. We all want to prevent a tragedy from happening. Successful cell phone addiction treatment is possible.

Teens relearn how to get comfortable without their mobile devices. As a result, they become happier and healthier. Indeed, such teens are more connected to themselves, others, and the world around them.

When a teen loses their cell phone privileges, they often feel and act like it's the end of the world. Such dramatic responses pass more quickly than you would expect in the majority of cases. Still kids, teens often are unable to make the best choices for themselves.

Cell phone addiction is replaced with healthy alternatives and engaging activities. As a result, teens' initial negativity fades. The stress of constant connection and comparisons is replaced by calm and even a smile.

Relieved of the cell phone burden, the teen experiences the joys of life like a kid once again. The gift of presence in the real world is the very best present of all.

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Teen cell phone addiction has become an important issue facing parents. For parents with a teenager, this is not surprising. Have you had frustrating confrontations with your child about their cell phone usage? Probably more than a few. Cell phone addiction is so common.

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How to Beat an Addiction to Cell Phones (with Pictures) - wikiHow

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Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use.…

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Did you know that parents should educate their kids about the effects of device addiction so that they might be more aware of their device usage time?!

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Did you know that parents should educate their kids about the effects of device addiction so that they might be more aware of their device usage time?!

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Did you know that parents should install educational unlock apps for their kid's device to make sure they did  their homework before using their device!?

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Did you know that parents should install educational unlock apps for their kid's device to make sure they did  their homework before using their device!?

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of TOPs Balance. All opinions are 100% mine.

It's Saturday morning, a day of rest and relaxing. Or at least that's the theory. My bedroom door flies open and my sons run in. "Can we play games? Can we play games? Can we play games?" No "good morning", no "hello, I love you mum!" no snuggles or cuddles. I find it beyond frustrating that my kids are so addicted to those little electronic devices, mobile phones.

There is no doubt that we live in the modern age of technology and "devices". Years ago, when my son was little more than a year old, he could access an iPhone without any help. Now my children seem to be addicted to playing games on any device they can get their hands on, iPods, iPhones, iPads. Even though we have screen rules, they still nag and nag to play games on a cell phone.

It drives me crazy.

They are not alone. More and more people, adults, teens and kids spend hours and hours on mobile devices. You know what? I know about it, I know how addictive they are, I try hard to restrict my own phone use but at times I find myself reaching for it just because I'm bored. I too am hooked to my phone.

So how do you find balance? How can you balance allowing your kids time to play on mobile devices without it taking over? Without your kids getting addicted to playing on your iPhone?

Addictive Mobile Devices

According to a recent CNN story:

"Half of teens think they're addicted to their smartphones".

A new poll by Common Sense Media (a nonprofit that focuses on helping kids, parents, teachers and policy makers negotiate media and technology) confirming just how much teens depend on their phones is slightly shocking.

The poll found that fifty percent of teens feel they are attached to their mobile devices. A large number of parents, 59%, said their teens were addicted. The poll involved 1,240 interviews with parents and their children, ages 12 to 18.

According to NBC News, teens spend nine hours a day in front of screens and children ages 8-12 spend six hours. Wow! That's amazing and horrifying.

Mobile Devices Can Be Educational

But, mobile devices ARE fun and they can be educational. The American Association of Paediatrics used to recommend that kids only have 2 hours of screen time a day. They have recently revised this advice saying that screen time can be educational. However, they DO emphasise that kids need to be mobile and physically active, not just sit there like a sack of potatoes exercising their thumbs.

How Can I Help My Kids Balance Real Life with Cell Phone Use?

Do not despair! It is possible to enjoy an active and healthy life and still let your kids enjoy time on mobile devices. And for that time to be educational. Win win win!

Get Active. Make sure your kids do something active frequently. Even if it's just 10 star jumps every half an hour, bodies need to move and habits form young. So get them in the habit of being active. I aim for 10 minutes of running around in every hour. It's good to break up screen time rather than allow your kids to sit there for hours and hours.

Work First. If your kids have homework, reading, house work to do, make sure they do it before they get on the mobile device.

TOPs Balance Educational Unlock Device. When your child unlocks the device, they are given a "knowledge burst" (a 10-second infusion of grade-specific educational content) prior to unlocking the home screen. Parents can set the delivery method to either high intensity or low intensity. My son has been trying it recently and he loves it.

"Did you know that you produce 10 billion gallons of saliva in your life time?...I reckon that if you eat enough cherries, it would be purple spit!" He says as he plops another cherry into his mouth.

(The TOPs Balance app is available in both the App Store and the Google Play Store for $4.99. As an introductory offer, the app will be available for FREE at the App Store. The idea is provide educational content to help combat technology addiction and cell phone addiction )

Not Right Before Bed. Kids need sleep and screens can keep you awake. Not only do you get addicted to whatever you're doing, the artificial light can interfere with your sleep patterns. Best not to use mobile devices for the hour before you go to sleep.

Set Family Rules Perhaps they have to behave well during the week, not squabble and bicker with each other to be allowed the privileged of playing with a mobile. Or actually turn it off when their time is up. Set rules and stick to them.

Agree Limits. When children nag it's easy to slip into letting them spend hours and hours playing on a mobile device. If you agree what the limits are, there is no room for manoeuvre. Just calmly state the limits.

Natural Stop. My kids get so frustrated when they have to stop a game in the middle of a level. I give them a 5 minute warning before they have to stop. Enough time to get to the end of a level. When that time is over, they know they have to turn it off. And if they don't, they get 10 minutes deducted from their next allocated session.

Family Fun Time. Spend your weekends doing fun family activities. We love roller skating, walking, swimming. Have fun being active together and your kids will get into healthy habits. Then you won't worry about them chilling out for a bit on a mobile device.

Smart Phone Free Time If you have older children who are more in control of their own phone, it's good to teach them to have some smart phone free time to show them that the world does continue even when they aren't hooked up.

A Bit of Peace and Quiet

At times I'm tempted to ban mobile devices for good. As appealing as it is, I know that I never would. I know that mobiles are educational, but you know what? I have a confession to make. Mobile devices also earn us parents a short time of peace and quiet. Why do you think my kids have got into the habit of asking for them on Saturday morning? Precisely because their exhausted parents want them to be quite for a little longer.

Remember when a "lie in" was exactly that? You could actually sleep until midmorning without a child landing on your head. Times change and now we all snuggle in bed, my husband and I, bleary eyed, sipping coffee whilst our kids battle strange monsters in silent mode.

Letting your kids play with mobile devices and earning a little well earned rest is fine, as long they don't get addicted, as long as we can teach our kids to use mobile phones sensibly, as long as we can find balance between real life and cell phone addiction.

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9 Easy Ways to Help Your Kids Control their Cell Phone Addiction

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of TOPs Balance. All opinions are 100% mine. It's Saturday morning, a day of rest and relaxing. Or at least that's the theory. My bedroom door flies open and my sons run in. "Can we play games? Can we play...

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You should stop scrolling down on social media apps like Instagram, since it has infinite scrolling systems which allows you to look at more and more uploads or posts.

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day.

There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices. The millennials surveyed said that their devices have created better work-life balance, contributing to better communication and relationship-building.

Clearly there's a lot of good that comes with frequent use of our devices, but there's also a downside.

Research shows that as we grow more dependent on technology, our intellect, attention levels and social skills weaken. In fact, with just the mere presence of our smartphones, our ability to focus on a task and solve problems decreases.

But don't beat yourself up about excessive smartphone usage. The reality is, your smartphone addiction may not be your fault--the designers of these devices are rewarded for using techniques to keep you glued to your screen for as long as possible.

Luckily, there is hope. If you're trying to improve your relationship with your device, here some ways that you can take back control of your time and attention.

1. Track Your Usage

Addicted to your smartphone? There's an app for that.

Ironically, you can try to stave off addicting smartphone apps with another app. While not ideal, there are apps like SPACE and Moment helps you find your personal phone-life balance by monitoring your smartphone use and setting limits.

2. Stop Scrolling

Many of the most popular mobile apps (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more) are designed with infinite scrolling functions, where you can consume an endless feed of information.

However, infinite scrolling can make it easy to lose track of time. Nothing holds our attention better than the unknown. A bottomless stream of social media posts motivates you to continue the search for the element of surprise; seeking things that captivate, engross, and entertain. Our brains can't get enough of trying to predict what's next and, like a loose slot machine, the infinite scroll gives you fast access to what psychologists call variable rewards.

Although social media apps can be difficult to live without, try deleting the apps that have infinite scroll and see how much time you can earn back.

3. Calm Your Mind

There is a very real euphoric sensationwhen you get a social media notification, such as when someone likes a photo you've posted to Instagram or Facebook. These moments trigger a dopamine release in the brain, a chemical that creates feelings of pleasure. It's an essential part of our brain's rewards system, which is why it's also gets blamed for addiction.

Meditation, yoga, exercise, and other mindfulness activities have been proven to create a natural release of dopamine, reducing the craving from the dopamine rushes your phone provides.

4. Use the Physical Versions of Useful Apps

Yes, having everything in your pocket is convenient. Your smartphone has almost completely diminished the need for calculators, calendars, cameras, notebooks, alarm clocks and so many other things.

We've all been there before: you unlock your phone to check the weather or make a note and the next thing you know you've been in your Instagram feed for 20 minutes. To avoid this problem, try replacing as many digital tools with physical ones.

For example, using a real alarm clock (and keeping your phone out of reach while sleeping) can help prevent you from wasting time before bed or right when you wake up. Carry a physical notebook and pen to take notes. Read paperback books and avoid the digital versions.

The key is to avoid unlocking your phone as much as possible to prevent getting unintentionally pulled into the digital vortex.

5. Get by With a Little Help From Your Friends

As is the case with any addiction, the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Admitting to those around you that you want to reduce your smartphone usage can create a necessary feedback system.

Ask them to hold you accountable. You might not notice when you're scrolling through the screen during a family gathering, but others do. Your friends and family can call you out to bring you back to the present moment.

6. Turn Off All Notifications Unrelated to Communication from Real People

Our devices were meant to increase our connectivity to other people; so keep it that way. Turn off any notifications from apps unless they're alerting you that a coworker, friend or family might need your attention in real-time.

You might even consider deleting social media apps from your phone altogether and only accessing them via a computer. The constant friend and family updates can wait until later, I promise.

7. Turn Your Phone to Grayscale

This is a popular recommendation by Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Human Technology.

Research shows that colors are attached to emotions and priorities--especially that little red notification bubble that has controlled us for so long. Turning your phone to black and white can reduce the urge you have to view new notifications that pull you into the infinite scrolling vortex.

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7 Ways to Curb Your Smartphone Addiction Right Now

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day. There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices.

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Do you know that if you are going on a very short trip, make the habit of leaving your phone behind?! 

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Do you know that if you are going on a very short trip, make the habit of leaving your phone behind?! 

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You've tried your best but no matter what you do, your child's favorite activity is to spend all day on their smartphone or tablet. If bribery, discipline, and intervention have not worked, it's time for you to face the truth: Your child may have a technology addiction.

Like most parents, I also struggle with setting boundaries with technology that my family will respect. Before setting boundaries, though, it's important to understand why our kids are on their devices so much. Unfortunately, the truth is that we, as parents, are partly responsible. If you are struggling to manage your child's screen time, learn how Net Nanny's parental control software can help.

Things to Consider About Technology Addiction

It's pretty easy for many of us, our kids included, to spend too much time on our screens. It now feels like second nature, to pick up your phone or tablet when you have a second of free time or spend the evening relaxing with TV or your computer. But this becomes a problem when in the absence of screens, we react negatively.

And that's when you start nearing technology addiction territory. An Internet addiction is when you have a dependence on technology and find yourself constantly reaching for your phone or checking for new notifications. This can lead to a myriad of issues including neglecting other important activities for screen time and developing health issues as a result of a sedentary lifestyle. Technology is so deeply-rooted in everything we do now, that you or your kids can develop a digital addiction without even noticing.

While managing your own screen time is tough enough, overseeing your child's digital use can be even more difficult. We want to teach our kids healthy habits and help them find balance from tech addiction but supervising every second of their time is impossible. Parental control tools, like Net Nanny, provide parents with an easy solution to their family's screen time issues by helping you keep track of just how much time your kids are actually spending online and allowing you to set schedules that work for your family.

Here are a few things to consider before limiting your family's screen time:

Examine Your Own Tech Usage

I never used to watch too much TV, but my husband was used to turning on the TV on when he woke up each morning and keeping it on until bedtime. I'm guilty of habits like this too. Games like Candy Crush relax me and I can easily overindulge. I've also exchanged books for Kindle e-books- while I know I'm reading a book, to my children it often looks like more screen time.

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend using screens around your children? Children observe much more than we think and learn not only from what you tell them, but also from your own behavior. Teaching your children better tech habits and setting boundaries begins with practicing what you preach. If you want to improve your kids' tech addiction, you're going to have take a good, hard look at your own tech usage first.

Overuse of Smartphones

In many families, landlines are now nonexistent as they've been superseded by smartphones. In this transition however, many of us now feel like we need access to our smartphones 24 hours a day. We use them for so many of life's details, it feels like we can no longer get along without them. How else would we keep up with our schedules or navigate when driving somewhere new? Not to mention the convenience of being able to capture a photo whenever the moment arises.

Even though our phones have become increasingly practical and handy, many of us have lost the ability to leave home without it. Take stock of your own dependence on technology: How often do you use and rely on your phone? How does it feel when you leave your devices behind? Think about which devices aren't necessary and consider ways in which you and your family could spend time without screens.

The Myth of Boredom

Since our smartphones have granted us constant entertainment and distractions at our fingertips, boredom has become altogether intolerable and we've taught this to our children as well. Without a screen, most people don't know what to do with themselves if they find themselves with any amount of free time.

Interestingly enough though, a 2019 study by the Academy of Management Discoveries, found that boredom can actually spark creativity and productivity. If you or your children are struggling to be creative, solve problems, or think outside the box, you may be spending too much of your downtime with screens.

Try reminding yourself that it's okay to be bored and that your first instinct shouldn't be to turn to a screen, and teaching your kids the same. It will not only be good for reducing the amount of time you and your family are spending online but it can also help nurture your creativity.

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

I have a secret: I was actually thrilled when my learning-disabled daughter began playing an age-appropriate video game. She struggled for years with these games, but almost overnight, seemed to have mastered one her dad also likes. Pretty cool, right?

The downside is that, like most kids, she would rather play lots of games than read a single chapter in a book. I'm still happy with her accomplishment but it must be balanced with other offline activities. So as great as it is that she's finally found something she enjoys, I still have to remind myself to encourage screen-free time as well. What lies are you telling yourself that encourages your child to spend more time on tech?

6 House Rules for Setting Boundaries

Once you've taken a good look at those very difficult questions and answered them honestly, you can begin creating boundaries for your child. Technology addiction often takes place among all family members, so make sure that you and your children abide by these 6 rules:

1. Create Tech-Free Zones
We have one big rule: NO phones or tablets while we're eating; that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. In our home, after-dinner snacks are a time to turn off the TV and read together. We also keep all our devices on the first floor to ensure that our kids aren't sneaking in extra screen time. Using a family contract can keep everyone in the family informed of your house rules for digital devices and tech-free times.

2. Turn Wi-Fi Off
Turning of your Wi-Fi is an easy way to create "tech-free" times in your home. Limiting your phone's data plan is also an option rather than having an unlimited package; keep in mind, though, that overage charges are possible and can be expensive. Using a parental control solution gives parents the option to manage their child's screen time by selecting days and times of the week they can access the Internet on their mobile or electronic device - at home and remotely.

3. Optimize Screen Time
Your family members are going to use smartphones and other devices, so do your best to encourage educational activities that engage the whole family or boosts a skill.

Try suggesting some new apps or interests to your family that are outside of their norm; there are millions of e-books available on every topic and apps that encourage everything from STEM to creativity. For example, my daughter loves photos so I'm teaching her to take pictures with her tablet and using apps to hone that skill.

4. Plan Tech-Free Family Activities
While it's fun to play a video game or watch a movie together, it's also great if you can come up with activities that involve zero screen time. In my family, for example, a daily walk after dinner is something we do together whenever the weather is nice.

Sunshine and fresh air can positively counteract too much screen time; playgrounds, swimming, hiking, bowling, laser tag, trampolines, library or bookstore events, seasonal activities, sports events, etc. are all good ideas. Libraries and community groups are also a great resource for finding age-appropriate local events that the whole family can enjoy.

5. Leave the Phone Behind
For any trip that's under an hour, just leave the phone at home if you can or leave it in your car. Don't give it to the kids while you're waiting for food to arrive at a restaurant, are waiting in line at the grocery checkout, or other "wait" times for activities. You'll set yourselves up for a bad habit that is very difficult to break down the road.

Make sure you keep this rule for date night too! Even though you'll need your phone for babysitter emergencies, resist the temptation to use it at all while you're connecting with your significant other.

6. Create Boundaries
Creating a list of what your children must do before they turn on the TV, gaming device, tablet or phone will help enforce the idea that screen time is a privilege.

This doesn't just have to include chores and duties but it can also include other activities that they find enjoyable, like crafts, reading, or indoor and outdoor playtime. You could even take this one step further by encouraging learning and finding time to help others through volunteering. My family loves using this printable list of summer screen time rules to ensure that there is a bit of structure when our kids have extra free time during time off school.

How Parental Controls Support Healthy Screen Time

Managing your family's digital addiction may not be an easy task but taking advantage of parental control software, like Net Nanny, can make a world of difference in setting boundaries around technology use. Net Nanny gives parents the visibility they desire into what their kids are doing online as well as the ability to make decisions regarding their child's digital life with ease by offering a number of tools that keep kids safe and healthy online.

For families striving to lessen technology addiction, Net Nanny's screen time management feature will be a helpful asset in doing so. Limiting screen time and setting regular schedules can help your family manage their dependence on technology without the fights. Technology is a great tool for children, but like everything else, moderation is key. Don't let them spend their entire life in front of a screen when a whole world of activity awaits them.

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Setting Boundaries for Tech Addicted Kids (and Parents)

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You've tried your best but no matter what you do, your child's favorite activity is to spend all day on their smartphone or tablet. If bribery, discipline, and intervention have not worked, it's time for you to face the truth: Your child may have a technology addiction.

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Use and actual alarm clock to prevent you from touching your smartphone really quick at the start of the day. Temptation will make you want to use your phone. This will prevent using a phone at the start of the day, or even accidentally throwing your phone somewhere and breaking it.

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Smartphones are pretty amazing. But when your grandmother tells you to put your phone away at the dinner table, maybe you should listen to her.

Smartphone addiction is a real thing! We obsessively check our smartphones when we're talking, working, walking, and driving, even though we know we shouldn't. We just can't help it! But you know what they say: recognizing you have a problem is the first step to fixing it, so congrats on reading this far. Here are 10 tips you can use to help you kick your smartphone addiction, reclaim your place in the real world, and possibly even venture outside without a phone glued to your hand (thanks a lot, Pokemon Go).

Don't use your phone in bed

Studies show that using your smartphone in bed is not a great idea to begin with, because the blue light messes with your sleep hormones. So the first step to kicking your smartphone addiction is to make your bed a phone-free zone. Seriously, for your health. The first few nights will be hard, but eventually you will go from the above picture to this:

Get a real alarm clock

It's tempting to reach for your phone first thing in the morning, especially if your phone is the thing that woke you up. Banish temptation and decrease the risk of expensive smartphone 'accidents' by dropping $10 on a real alarm clock.

Make meals a phone-free zone

Challenge yourself to make non-smartphone-enhanced conversation with friends and family members for an hour or more. No cheating! If someone mentions a funny image they saw on Reddit, make them describe it using words and/or a pen and paper.

It's a bonding exercise!

Turn off notifications

No notifications = no reason to check your phone. In theory, anyway.

Delete unnecessary apps

Most of the apps on your phone are probably just clutter, anyway.

Plus, imagine how productive you'd be if you weren't checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, six email accounts, and Reddit all the time.

Complicate your lock code

You can't check your phone if you can't get into your phone! Set up your phone to lock immediately, and make your lock code a password (not a PIN or a pattern). Include both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Make it 18 characters long.

Focus on the person you're talking to

Make a conscious effort to keep your phone out of your hands during real-life conversations. Focus on the person you're with. Really focus.

(Eventually you may make them uncomfortable enough that they'll leave and you can check your phone.)

Put your phone on airplane mode

If turning off your notifications doesn't work (maybe you're getting some phantom phone vibrations), try turning off your connection to the Internet. All of the Internet. No service = no reason to check your phone.

Have a phone-free day once a week

Once a week, do something crazy and leave your phone at home. For an entire day (maybe half a day if you're just getting started). Go outside! Read maps! Drive without GPS! Go wild!

Then come back and catch up on all the emails and texts you missed.

Take it slow

Remember: The goal is to curb your smartphone addiction, not go completely Stone Age. Quitting your smartphone and the Internet cold turkey will likely get you lost and fired and will lead to a quick relapse.

This may surprise you, but there is a middle ground between checking your phone 3,165 times a day and not owning a smartphone at all.

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10 tips to help you beat smartphone addiction

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Smartphones are pretty amazing. But when your grandmother tells you to put your phone away at the dinner table, maybe you should listen to her. Smartphone addiction is a real thing! We obsessively check our smartphones when we're talking, working, walking, and driving, even though we know we shouldn't.

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Give your cell phone away to prevent using cell phones. (Give it to you trustable person)

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How to Beat an Addiction to Cell Phones (with Pictures) - wikiHow

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Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use.…

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Do you know that for some people, it's better to use phones to stop device addiction instead of not using devices to solve it?! 

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Do you know that for some people, it's better to use phones to stop device addiction instead of not using devices to solve it?! 

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This is because for some people, they feel more comfortable ending device addiction using devices so it won't increase their stress without it.

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Chances are, you have checked your email, your Facebook feed, and your fantasy football roster in the past few minutes. We're more connected than ever before, and our dependence on our devices is getting worse. Over 40 percent of us check our phones within five minutes of waking up in the morning, and nearly half check up to 25 times a day, according to a 2015 study by Deloitte.

You might be hesitant to call your reliance on technology an addiction, but it's true that your partner has asked you to put away your phone on more than one occasion. Want to detach your phone from your hand? We promise this will only sting a little.

1. END IDLE MOMENTS.

It's usually in your idle moments that you reach for your phone, says Jamison Monroe, founder and CEO of Newport Academy, a comprehensive treatment center for teens. So Monroe suggests creating a list of what you can do in your idle moments instead of scrolling.

"If your first impulse when you get a quiet moment is to reach for your device, remind yourself of half a dozen other things you could be doing instead that would be more meaningful and relaxing: taking a walk, writing a love note with paper and pen, dancing to your favorite song, doing a few stretches, meditating for 10 minutes," Monroe says. The key is to come up with options that appeal to you.

2. USE TECH TO HELP YOU STAY OFF TECH.

There are apps that tell you how many times you've checked your phone that day, that warn you if you're going over your self-imposed Internet limit, that lock your phone for a specified amount of time, and block distractions like games, Monroe says.

3. DON'T RELY ON WILLPOWER.

While putting away your phone or turning off the computer is the simplest way to unplug, doing so is usually easier said than done. "If left to our own devices, we'll always be on them," says David Ryan Polgar, a tech ethicist and co-founder of the Digital Citizenship Summit. Your willpower is no match for the savvy startups and multi-billion dollar companies fighting for your attention. "We should own up to being over-matched, and find better ways to remove the temptation," Polgar says.

4. UNPLUG BEFORE BED.

An hour before you go to sleep, power down all tech devices. "The blue wavelength light from our screens interrupts production of melatonin-known as the darkness hormone-which gives our brain the signal that it's time to sleep," Monroe says. "Leave the devices in another room so you're not tempted."

5. START SMALL.

While some people love to brag about their digital hiatuses, these may seem intimidating (if not straight-up impossible) for you to take, says David Greenfield, founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford, Connecticut. So it's totally okay to start small.

Greenfield suggests starting by turning your phone off during dinner. Then, leave it at home when you take a walk. Bump that digital detox up to three hours, and you're doing great. "You should set limits regularly, but I'd be happy with three hours for some people, as some people won't even eat a meal without their phones," Greenfield says. "Any change in the right direction is better than no change."

6. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS.

The smartphone is the world's smallest slot machine, Greenfield says. "It elevates your dopamine receptors, and you continue that behavior over and over again because it offers an unpredictable award," just like gambling, he says. Simply turning off the notifications will make you less likely to look at your phone every few seconds.

7. PLAN BREAKS.

Write down times throughout the day when you plan to take technology breaks, says Craig Donovan, Director of the BA/MPA Honors Program at Keane University in New Jersey. For example, you could commit to taking a break from 3 to 3:15 p.m. on workday afternoons, during which time you turn off your phone and put it out of sight and out of reach. "Plan a specific activity to do during those 15 minutes, such as getting up and going for a [mindful] walk," Donovan says. You can reward yourself with a small treat such as a cookie or a cup of coffee. Try to add additional times away from technology, such as during meals, and pay attention to what is going on around you.

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7 Ways to Break Your Technology Addiction

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Chances are, you have checked your email, your Facebook feed, and your fantasy football roster in the past few minutes. We're more connected than ever before, and our dependence on our devices is getting worse.

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Plan Face to Face meeting because that can increase more social skills than talking with you phone.

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How to Beat an Addiction to Cell Phones (with Pictures) - wikiHow

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Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use.…

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Do you know that keeping your device on "Do Not Disturb" mode actually helps you to concentrate on the things you need to get done without getting distracted?!

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Do you know that keeping your device on "Do Not Disturb" mode actually helps you to concentrate on the things you need to get done without getting distracted?!

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Glued to your phone while at work? Checking your smartphone too regularly on the job comes at the price of killing your productivity.

While your intentions feel innocent, your sneak peeks at Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other apps take up valuable time. The interruptions add more distraction to your plate, and task switching isn't easy as you think - to resume a task, plan for several minutes to focus and get back in the groove.

You can break the habit, but it won't be easy - one study found checkers peruse their smartphone an average of 80 times daily, or every 12 minutes. One in 10 people can't even make it to five minutes without checking their phone, and millennials, of course, are the worst, with 150 checks each day.

Sound ridiculous? Also sound a bit like you? If you're nodding along, get ready to break that bad habit for good and boost your focus.

Why Breaking the Habit Is So Hard

Why are people so obsessed with their phones? Is modern society truly filled with a bunch of narcissists these days? Maybe, but the truth comes down to the use of these devices for connection, to stay in the loop with loved ones.

The days grow increasingly limited as professionals fill their plates with more of everything, leaving hardly any time for a real connection. What is the price of convenience? How heavy does it feel at the end of the day when you fall into bed without saying much of substance to anyone? Your work performance suffers in ways you wouldn't imagine, either.

Unplug to decrease stress by getting out of your head. Search for alternatives - take a walk or exercise for five minutes to release happy hormones. Grab a coworker and stroll around the perimeter of the building. Plus, you'll get a chat in. Manage stress at your desk by eliminating distractions at the source and finding healthier behaviors to replace them.

Your annual review should amount to something beyond "checked every status and message right when it came in." Though you can now account for every second of your life, but you don't have to feel limited or confined. Cultivate healthier smartphone habits to stay in touch without obsessing about missing out.

Breaking Your Phone Addiction Will Hurt

Your fingers will itch. You will reach for the phone, only to pull away and then reach for it again a minute later. The cycle will continue, testing your resolve. Will you break?

You need to set a few boundaries for yourself to resist the hit of dopamine you get when you pick up your device. Here are seven effective tips to break your phone addiction at work, and yes, it will hurt.

1. Check Your Phone at Set Times

Limited for time? Check your phone during predetermined times only. Why not check your phone once every two hours, on the hour? Set times that work for you, and stick to them. People will know exactly when you will check your phone, but other methods may prove more effective if someone needs to reach you at any moment.
To a certain degree, you can blame your lack of self-discipline on biology. Before you get a new message, your brain's anticipating a reward, and it's more active then - not when you check it. That unpredictability keeps you on the edge of your chair to make sure you don't miss out.

2. Stow Your Phone Away

You know what they say - out of sight, out of mind. Stow your phone away, so you won't feel tempted to check it constantly.

Lock it in your desk drawer. Place it in a hard-to-reach place in your purse, across the room or in your glove compartment in the car. Hardcore addictions require drastic measures. At least you get up to move around and stretch if you give into temptation.

3. Log Out

You spend most of your life tuned in, so tune out the noise. Log out of your email, social media and unrelated work accounts.

4. Turn off Alerts

Depending on the device or settings, you will still get alerts on your home screen. Turn off alerts on your phone to give yourself relief. Only keep the most important alerts for your perusal.

5. Hide or Remove Apps

Even if you log out or turn off alerts, the visible icon still tempts you. Hide apps from yourself - it's like hiding the chocolate or wine. You save a little surprise for yourself for later.

You can even download an app to change the icon of tempting apps to something boring-looking.

Here's a better idea - remove "essential" apps altogether. Put as many steps between you and the offending app as possible. Make yourself log into Facebook or Twitter manually, and hide the Internet app deep in the trenches of your phone.

6. Block Yourself

When desperate times call for desperate measures, download an app, like Anti-Social or SelfControl, that will block you out of social media and other apps altogether. Just like certain apps keep you from drunk-dialing an ex, productivity apps will keep you from obsessively checking Facebook.

7. Set Phone to Do Not Disturb

In your settings, select the "do-not-disturb" mode, which allows only certain callers to get in touch with you. The settings may indicate to only receive calls or texts from those in your contact list, or ones you specify when you whitelist or blacklist them. You can also select to only receive calls and texts during certain hours, ensuring better quality shut-eye and work performance.

Why not approach your team and suggest trying to break the phone addiction habit together? Support systems go a long way to making positive progress.

While your phone helps keep you connected to the world, it also serves as a distraction when you spend too much time checking for every little alert or message. Do more with your time and learn to appreciate it more, minus the attachment of a device.
This article was originally published on PunchedClocks.com.

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How to actually stop checking your phone at work

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Glued to your phone while at work? Checking your smartphone too regularly on the job comes at the price of killing your productivity. While your intentions feel innocent, your sneak peeks at Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other apps take up valuable time.

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Do you know that if you are intensely addicted to devices, it's a very good idea to have a individual therapist?

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Do you know that if you are intensely addicted to devices, it's a very good idea to have a individual therapist?

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This is because since the individual therapist would always be with you, they can work with you to address underlying problems that wasn't obvious in the past.

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Table of Contents

Self-Treatment for Cell Phone Addiction

Smartphone Addiction Therapy

Treatment Groups and Centers

Self-Treatment for Cell Phone Addiction

Smartphone addiction has been compared to Internet, gambling, and shopping addiction. It is a compulsive behavior that works similarly to substance addiction in the brain.

While cell phone addiction is a fairly new concept and isn't yet in the DSM-5, there are a few treatment suggestions for those suffering from this condition:

Make rules for yourself concerning your phone usage.

Set time periods in which you shouldn't use your phone (i.e., 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.).

Designate activities in which your phone is forbidden (e.g., driving, dinner time).

Schedule break times to access your phone or social media.

Download an application to help cut down on cell phone use.

BreakFree and Menthal allow you to track the amount of time you're spending on your phone and which applications.

ColdTurkey and SelfControl allow you to block the sites you wish to avoid.

Relaxation techniques such as mindfulness can help you to cope with your cravings to use your cell phone or access social media.

Smartphone Addiction Therapy

If these changes in habit don't allow you to cut down on your cell phone use, then you could be suffering from a severe smartphone addiction and treatment is recommended. Treatment options include:

Individual therapy: The therapist works with you to address any underlying problems or co-occurring mental disorders that could be affecting cell phone use.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy aims to change your maladaptive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors into healthy and positive ones. This method has been proven effective in treating Internet addiction, which is very similar to cell phone addiction.1, 2

Motivational interviewing is centered around you, the client, helps to identify the difference between current state and desired state, and allows you to find motivation to make a positive behavioral change.³

Pharmacotherapy: Although there are no current FDA-approved medications to treat smartphone addiction, when combined with psychotherapy, medications such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, and psychostimulants can help to treat Internet addiction.⁴

Treatment Groups and Centers

Internet and Tech Addiction Anonymous (ITAA): A 12-step, fellowship program that aims to help those addicted to technology recover from their affliction. Members share their experiences and provide support to one another.⁵

Restart Center.⁶

Center for Digital Technology Sustainability.

8-12-week program disconnected from digital media (i.e., internet, gaming, cell phone use).

Helps you build a plan for the future, allows you to work closely with peers, coaches, and counselors to reconnect with life.

Morningside Recovery.⁷

Has locations in Texas, California, and Arizona.

Specializes in dual diagnosis of nomophobia-the fear of being without your mobile device-and another mental illness, such as anxiety.

Camp Grounded.⁸

Is similar to a summer camp for adults.

Consists of a digital detox and interactive activities.

Smartphone addiction doesn't have to be fought alone. There are a number of treatment options available to you. It's important that you do appropriate research in order to find out which recovery option best suits your needs.
Call the phone number above to learn more about different cell phone addiction rehabilitation centers.
References

1. Young, K. (2007). Cognitive Behavior Therapy with Internet Addicts: Treatment Outcomes and Implications. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(5), 671-679. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9971

2. Young, K. (2013). Treatment outcomes using CBT-IA with Internet-addicted patients. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2(4), 209-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/JBA.2.2013.4.3

3. Andreassen, C. (2015). Online Social Network Site Addiction: A Comprehensive Review. Curr Addict Rep Current Addiction Reports, 2015(2), 175-184. doi:10.1007/s40429-015-0056-9

4. Przepiorka, A., Blachnio, A., Miziak, B., & Czuczwar, S. (2014). Clinical approaches to treatment of Internet addiction. Pharmacological Reports, 66(2), 187-191.

5. Internet & Tech Addiction Anonymous (ITAA). (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.netaddictionanon.org/

6. ReSTART Center for Technology Sustainability. (2015). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com/

7. Camp Grounded - Summer Camp for Adults - Digital Detox. (2014). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://campgrounded.org/

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Treatment for Addiction to Smartphones - PsychGuides.com

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Table of Contents Self-Treatment for Cell Phone Addiction Smartphone Addiction Therapy Treatment Groups and Centers Self-Treatment for Cell Phone Addiction Smartphone addiction has been compared to Internet, gambling, and shopping addiction. It is a compulsive behavior that works similarly to substance addiction in the brain. While cell phone addiction is a fairly new ...

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CIE is computer-in-education, and it is a program where students use mobile devices such as computers for education. This is like our school, and it has benefits such as increased grades.

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I REFER to the report "Allow gadgets into the classroom" ( The Star, Aug 9).

The Education Minister has reportedly announced that students in about 10,000 schools in the country would be allowed to bring mobile devices such as laptops and tablets to class next year.

Strangely, mobile phones will still be prohibited. The rationale is that mobile phones would encourage students to chat in class.

The truth of the matter is that practically all of these electronic devices perform similar functions; the difference might be the size although mobile phones are growing in size to six inches and tablets are reducing to eight inches.

Basically, all these devices are useful learning tools to enhance learning in class. And the (smart)phone is the most mobile and convenient gadget of all.

In this digital era, electronic devices are being more widely used as teaching and learning tools in classrooms in Asian countries like Singapore, South Korea, China, Japan and India and in other parts of the world such as the United States, Europe and Britain.

In 1988/89 when I did my master's programme at Universiti Malaya, my thesis was "Comparison between traditional learning and Computer-in-Education (CIE)". The conclusion was that CIE was far more superior at improving learning outcomes and that improvements of grades increased across the board.

The Education Ministry is moving in the right direction to embrace digital learning. Surely, mobile technology would be a boost to classroom instruction compared to analogue teaching, traditionally known as chalk-and-talk.

The benefits of mobile technology are abundant. The immediate benefit is that the laptop, tablet or smartphone would address the problem of children carrying excessively heavy school bags to school. Many of the workbook materials can easily be stored in these devices or downloaded from the apps.

Furthermore, the digital apps are not only engaging but also educational for students of all age groups.

For instance, in my English class, I allow students to use the Dictionary app to look for the meaning of words and how they are used in sentences. During a pre-Reading Comprehension lesson, students are instructed to use Google search to look up the background of the reading passages.

Using e-devices motivates students to practise self-access learning alongside independent learning, and they do seem to respond well to the stimulus of mobile devices. They stay on the task, correct mistakes in real-time and, more importantly, are excited about learning.

However, the electronic devices can only stimulate real effective learning if a reliable Internet infrastructure is in place. Students would certainly be deeply disappointed if these devices only act as electronic books to replace workbooks or textbooks.

Furthermore, to get students from less-well-to-do families on board, particularly those from rural areas, the powers-that-be must ensure that everyone will be able to use the mobile electronic devices in school. The simplest solution would be to provide them free to the students.

Nonetheless, these electronic gadgets are not a silver bullet or panacea for all the learning outcomes. Realistically, competent and engaged teachers should use digital technology in classrooms to enhance the teaching and learning experience.
THOMAS KOK
Ipoh

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letters; education; digital gadgets in classrooms

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Digital devices are good learning tools - Letters | The Star Online

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I REFER to the report "Allow gadgets into the classroom" ( The Star, Aug 9). The Education Minister has reportedly announced that students in about 10,000 schools in the country would be allowed to bring mobile devices such as laptops and tablets to class next year. Strangely, mobile phones will still be prohibited.

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Did you know that device addiction can cause...

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Did you know that device addiction can cause...

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Brain cancer and can kill you!?

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Nearly two thirds of American adults now own a smartphone - up from 58% in early 2014. In fact, 61% of you reading this page right now are probably doing so on a smartphone.

Their popularity is not surprising! Smartphones are incredible little devices - they allow us to stay connected, organized and entertained. They can track what we eat, our exercise goals and our sleep patterns. They log our shopping lists, our travel details and our spending habits.

These mini computers have eliminated our need for alarm clocks, address books, notepads and cameras.

But do their perks come with a downside?

It would seem they come with several disadvantages. Read on to find out exactly what those are.

A Serious Addiction

Despite what some may think, smartphone addiction is a very real phenomenon.

It has been found that female college students spend an average of ten hours a day on their cellphones, surfing the internet and sending 100+ messages. That's more time than spent with friends.

Another survey found that three out of five US smartphone users can't go more than 60 minutes without checking their phones.

So what makes us so eager to play with our phones instead of engaging in real life?

Experts say our brains get a hit of dopamine and serotonin - the chemicals linked to happiness - when our phones beep or ring. These are the same chemicals that give drug users their 'high'!

We aren't oblivious to our very real problem either - a recent opinion poll shows that 82% of the American public believe that smartphone addiction exists.

In fact, nomophobia (the fear of being without your mobile device) is now recognized as a serious issue - with rehab facilities available to help you deal with your problem!

Withdrawal Is Painful

Just like with other addictive substances, withdrawal can be long and painful and come with complications.

A 2011 study called 'The World Unplugged' surveyed almost 1,000 University students in 10 different countries.

The students were asked to avoid cellphones, laptops and social networking for 24 hours.

A 'clear majority' suffered significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation during the withdrawal period, with most students failing to go the full day without their fix.

Back Problems

Are you constantly hunched over your phone, engrossed in your Facebook feed? You could be putting your back under pressure if you are!

The British Chiropractic Association say that the number of young people with back problems has risen dramatically over the last number of years, thanks to smartphone use.

According to 2015 statistics, 45% of young people aged 16 to 24 now suffer from back pain as their spinal disks are put under pressure. That's a 60% rise from 2014!

This pain isn't just occasional either, with 25% of those young people suffering on a daily basis.

But it's small wonder that texting can cause such pain...a 2014 study, published in Surgical Technology International, found that texting can add up to 50 pounds of pressure on a person's spine, depending on the angle at which the person is texting.

That's a similar weight to a seven year old child!

Nerve Damage

Smartphones don't just affect your health on a day-to-day basis - they may also cause long term, incurable side effects.

Like occipital neuralgia - a neurological condition where the nerves that run from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp become compressed or inflamed.

This condition causes symptoms similar to those you'd experience with a severe headache or migraine.

One journalist diagnosed with the condition described it as like being 'hit over the head with a rod of steel' sending 'bolts of pain' through his skull.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for occipital neuralgia - only treatments to manage the pain which include steroid and numbing injections, yoga, massage and laying off the smartphone usage!

Anxiety & Depression

Spending so much time staring at a screen can lead to anxiety and even depression as people expect constant updates and interaction from friends, and worry when these aren't received.

For every minute you're playing Candy Crush, you're missing out on a minute of exercise, of cooking healthy meals, of walking the dog and of real-life human interaction - all of which are important for good mental health.

A study from Northwestern University revealed that the more time people spend on their phones, the more likely they are to be depressed.

The average daily use for a depressed person was 68 minutes, compared to just 17 minutes for someone who has better mental health.

Stress

Having a smartphone means we're always 'available' - to take calls, text messages, instant messages, social media notifications and emails. The workday no longer finishes at 6pm as emails continue to push through late into the night.

But research from 2012 has found that the need to immediately read and respond to every one of these incoming alerts is causing rising stress levels.

The study, which looked at 100 university students, retail workers and public-sector employees, found that the stress gets so bad for some, that they actually begin to experience phantom vibrations, thinking their phone is buzzing when it isn't!

Weight Management & Fitness Levels

Have you ever got lost in the virtual escape your smartphone provides, only to return to reality minutes - or even hours - later?

This is precisely why we're spending less and less time exercising - once we've fit in our daily dose of phone use, there's no time!

In one study, researchers surveyed over 300 college students about their cellphone use, leisure activities and physical activity.

49 of the students were then asked to use a treadmill test to evaluate their heart and lung fitness.

Unsurprisingly, those who spent up to 14 hours daily on their phones were less fit than participants who only averaged about 1.5 hours of use.

Disrupted Sleep

63% of smartphone users age 18 to 29 fall asleep with a cellphone, smartphone or tablet in their bed, says a 2013 survey.

Around 30% of users aged 30 to 64 do the same thing.

What's really worrying is that, according to a study published in September 2015, the amount of caffeine in a double espresso has less of an effect on sleep schedule than bright light exposure at night!

While most of us wouldn't bring a double espresso to bed, we happily bring our phones.

The light exposure can actually push back sleep time twice as long as coffee does, thanks to its ability to suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps with sleep timing.

When Harvard researchers looked at the effect of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light, and to green light, they found that the blue light suppressed melatonin for twice as long as the green did.

The blue also shifted sleep schedules by three hours, compared to an hour and a half for the green light.

A Source of Bacteria

Disturbing research from the University of Arizona has discovered that the average phone has 10 times the amount of bacteria that is found on a toilet seat!

While you might clean your toilet regularly, it's likely your phone is given a good wipe down far less often. And no matter how clean your toilet seat, you're probably not going to let it touch your face!

Next time, be careful where you leave your phone, and wipe it regularly.

Attention Span

It turns out that most of us now have an attention span less than that of a goldfish.

Could our smartphone addiction be at fault?

That's exactly what research from Microsoft claims. It's not surprising really, especially when you consider that most of our news is now condensed into 140 characters or less.

On the upside, the researchers claim that cellphones have increased our ability to multitask.

But, others studies contest this, stating that simply talking or texting can be distracting and contributes to diminished performance when multitasking.

In fact, simply the presence of a cell phone is said to be distracting, especially when in social settings.

Social Effects

Instead of making us more connected, our smartphones could be making us more isolated.

Not only are we more distracted and less 'present' in social scenarios thanks to our cellphones, we're also becoming less connected to our peers on a deeper level.

Researchers from the University of Essex found that people who discussed personally meaningful topics when a cellphone was nearby (even if they weren't being used) reported lower relationship quality and less trust in their partner.

They also felt their partner was less empathic to their concerns.

Smartphone use is also likely to make us more selfish, and less likely to engage in 'prosocial' behavior, says University of Maryland research.

Prosocial behavior is defined as an action intended to benefit another person or society as a whole - like volunteering or simply helping out someone in need.

Text Claw

Text claw isn't a medical term (yet) but its symptoms are very real. Sufferers experience cramped fingers, wrist pain and muscle pain thanks to continuous texting and scrolling on the touchscreen of a smartphone.

This occurs because of inflammation in the tendons. It can also exacerbate existing inflammation from tendinitis.

If it happens to you, take a break from the cellphone, ice the area regularly, try some wrist exercises and flavor your food with these pain-killing herbs and spices, many of which will work to reduce the inflammation.

Indirect Injuries

Aside from the injuries directly caused by your phone - like occipital neuralgia or carpal tunnel syndrome - a cellphone addiction can increase your risk of indirect injuries, like from a nasty fall or car crash!

While hand-held cellphone use while driving is banned in some states, hands-free isn't.

Yet Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that drivers who are listening to someone talk on their phone have 37% reduced brain activity. They say that making devices hands-free or voice-activated is not sufficient to eliminate distractions while driving.

Even pedestrians are at increased risk of causing accidents.

A University of Washington study reports that texting pedestrians took 1.87 extra seconds to cross an average intersection and were four times more likely to ignore the lights or forget to look for traffic before crossing.

Scary stuff!

Eyesight

Direct exposure to blue light - like the one that comes from cellphone screens - can cause damage to the retina of the eye.

The American Macular Degeneration Foundation warns that retinal damage of this nature may lead to macular degeneration, which causes the loss of central vision (the ability to see what's in front of you).

In the research however, the blue light was placed directly in front of the eye - which isn't exactly how cellphones are used. However, long term effects of blue light exposure are not known.

One survey of 2,000 people found that 55% of respondents believe that eye discomfort is the main problem inflicted on them by their phones.

To save your eyes, limit the amount of time on your phone and follow the 20-20-20 rule - every 20 minutes take 20 seconds to focus on something 20 feet away. Plus you could invest in a blue light blocking phone screen cover. Check out these vision-saving foods too!

Hearing

Simply chatting to someone on the phone won't damage your hearing, but if you use your smartphone and headphones for listening to music then you might have cause for concern.

According to the National Institute on Deafness, around 26 million Americans suffer from noise-induced hearing loss.

One source of such noise is from headphones, like the ones that come with your phone.

If we listen to music that is too loud, we can damage the tiny hairs in the inner ear, which transmit chemical signals through nerves to the brain.

What level is too loud?

The Dangerous Decibels public health campaign states that repeated exposure to noises above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss - approximately the noise level of heavy traffic.

The maximum volume of a smartphone is around 105 decibels - or that of a concert. Listening to music at this volume for more than four minutes would likely result in damage to hearing.

Even if you lower it to just 94 decibels, you can cause damage if you listen for over an hour.

Radiation

While it's not clear if the radiation from cellphones and other connected devices causes health issues, a group of 200 biological and health scientists from around the world are trying to raise public awareness on this issue.

They are calling on the United Nations, World Health Organization and national governments to develop strict regulations concerning cellphones that create electromagnetic fields.

The World Health Organization already classes cellphones as 'possibly carcinogenic to humans' and the organization will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radio-frequency field exposure by 2016.

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16 Seriously Damaging Side Effects Of Your Smartphone Addiction

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Nearly two thirds of American adults now own a smartphone - up from 58% in early 2014. In fact, 61% of you reading this page right now are probably doing so on a smartphone. Their popularity is not surprising! Smartphones are incredible little devices - they allow us to stay connected, organized and entertained.

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Do you know that it's better for parents to download applications that can monitor kids' device usage instead of checking their devices every day sneakily?! 

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Do you know that it's better for parents to download applications that can monitor kids' device usage instead of checking their devices every day sneakily?! 

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Fortunately, there are apps that can help control how and when they use their phone, and there are tools that can help filter and restrict mature websites.

But how do you monitor what kids are actually saying online and expressing to their friends? And what's more - how do you do it in a way that helps build trust with your child and encourage open, honest communication?

Some parents simply take their children's phones and begin scrolling through it - every email, every chat, and every social media profile - but spot-checking is labor-intensive and ineffective. Kids these days are resourceful, plus, they're always finding new ways of hiding or deleting things they've created.

At Bark, we knew there had to be a better way. Founded in 2015 by parents with kids about to receive their first phones, our monitoring service helps keep kids safer online while also allowing opportunities for families to build trust. Parents don't receive access to everything that's posted; instead, they receive email or text alerts when certain issues pop up.

We now protect over 2 million children across the nation, have helped to prevent 15 school shootings, and have sent close to 33,000 self-harm alerts. 34 families have written in to tell us that a Bark alert (text or email) saved their child's life, and we take what we do very seriously.

What does Bark look for?

Our algorithm uses machine learning to identify potentially dangerous situations that kids face online, including:

Bark's monitoring service scans text messages, emails, YouTube, and 24 different social networks while looking for issues. Our software analyzes not just text, but also photographs and pictures of text.

The benefits of monitoring

Bark not only helps keep kids physically safe - it can also help keep them emotionally healthy.

As kids spend more and more time deep in their devices, they may not be communicating to parents how they're actually feeling or what struggles they're facing.

Because of this, issues like cyberbullying and depression may go unaddressed, negatively affecting school performance, attendance, and self-worth.

Our intelligent monitoring sends out alerts for thousands of such messages every day, enabling parents to gain insight into what's actually happening in their children's lives. We not only alert parents and schools to problematic issues, we also send best recommended next steps for how to address. Digital parenting is hard and we are the first generation of parents to have to do so.

The importance of staying safe across devices

While a phone may be the most common tech companion a child carries around, tablets, laptops, and computers are also avenues for potential danger. It's important to monitor them, as well.

Social media apps likes Facebook and Instagram can be accessed in multiple ways, and on Macs, iMessage enables texting without a phone. Email accounts are used at home and at school, and for accounts through Google or Microsoft, files may be saved and edited anywhere.

Bark covers all of these situations, giving parents peace of mind that no matter where kids are or what device they're using, they'll be monitored for potentially life-threatening situations. Visit to learn more about our award-winning monitoring service.

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Monitoring Your Child's Device is a Good Thing. Here's Why.

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Once kids receive their first phones, it's common for parents to be anxious and concerned for the things their children may get into online. From cyberbullying to online predators, countless ways exist for children to run into potentially dangerous situations. But how do you monitor what kids are ac

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Some people that is addicted to devices can manage their fitness level well but some people can't manage their fitness level well

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Nearly two thirds of American adults now own a smartphone - up from 58% in early 2014. In fact, 61% of you reading this page right now are probably doing so on a smartphone.

Their popularity is not surprising! Smartphones are incredible little devices - they allow us to stay connected, organized and entertained. They can track what we eat, our exercise goals and our sleep patterns. They log our shopping lists, our travel details and our spending habits.

These mini computers have eliminated our need for alarm clocks, address books, notepads and cameras.

But do their perks come with a downside?

It would seem they come with several disadvantages. Read on to find out exactly what those are.

A Serious Addiction

Despite what some may think, smartphone addiction is a very real phenomenon.

It has been found that female college students spend an average of ten hours a day on their cellphones, surfing the internet and sending 100+ messages. That's more time than spent with friends.

Another survey found that three out of five US smartphone users can't go more than 60 minutes without checking their phones.

So what makes us so eager to play with our phones instead of engaging in real life?

Experts say our brains get a hit of dopamine and serotonin - the chemicals linked to happiness - when our phones beep or ring. These are the same chemicals that give drug users their 'high'!

We aren't oblivious to our very real problem either - a recent opinion poll shows that 82% of the American public believe that smartphone addiction exists.

In fact, nomophobia (the fear of being without your mobile device) is now recognized as a serious issue - with rehab facilities available to help you deal with your problem!

Withdrawal Is Painful

Just like with other addictive substances, withdrawal can be long and painful and come with complications.

A 2011 study called 'The World Unplugged' surveyed almost 1,000 University students in 10 different countries.

The students were asked to avoid cellphones, laptops and social networking for 24 hours.

A 'clear majority' suffered significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation during the withdrawal period, with most students failing to go the full day without their fix.

Back Problems

Are you constantly hunched over your phone, engrossed in your Facebook feed? You could be putting your back under pressure if you are!

The British Chiropractic Association say that the number of young people with back problems has risen dramatically over the last number of years, thanks to smartphone use.

According to 2015 statistics, 45% of young people aged 16 to 24 now suffer from back pain as their spinal disks are put under pressure. That's a 60% rise from 2014!

This pain isn't just occasional either, with 25% of those young people suffering on a daily basis.

But it's small wonder that texting can cause such pain...a 2014 study, published in Surgical Technology International, found that texting can add up to 50 pounds of pressure on a person's spine, depending on the angle at which the person is texting.

That's a similar weight to a seven year old child!

Nerve Damage

Smartphones don't just affect your health on a day-to-day basis - they may also cause long term, incurable side effects.

Like occipital neuralgia - a neurological condition where the nerves that run from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp become compressed or inflamed.

This condition causes symptoms similar to those you'd experience with a severe headache or migraine.

One journalist diagnosed with the condition described it as like being 'hit over the head with a rod of steel' sending 'bolts of pain' through his skull.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for occipital neuralgia - only treatments to manage the pain which include steroid and numbing injections, yoga, massage and laying off the smartphone usage!

Anxiety & Depression

Spending so much time staring at a screen can lead to anxiety and even depression as people expect constant updates and interaction from friends, and worry when these aren't received.

For every minute you're playing Candy Crush, you're missing out on a minute of exercise, of cooking healthy meals, of walking the dog and of real-life human interaction - all of which are important for good mental health.

A study from Northwestern University revealed that the more time people spend on their phones, the more likely they are to be depressed.

The average daily use for a depressed person was 68 minutes, compared to just 17 minutes for someone who has better mental health.

Stress

Having a smartphone means we're always 'available' - to take calls, text messages, instant messages, social media notifications and emails. The workday no longer finishes at 6pm as emails continue to push through late into the night.

But research from 2012 has found that the need to immediately read and respond to every one of these incoming alerts is causing rising stress levels.

The study, which looked at 100 university students, retail workers and public-sector employees, found that the stress gets so bad for some, that they actually begin to experience phantom vibrations, thinking their phone is buzzing when it isn't!

Weight Management & Fitness Levels

Have you ever got lost in the virtual escape your smartphone provides, only to return to reality minutes - or even hours - later?

This is precisely why we're spending less and less time exercising - once we've fit in our daily dose of phone use, there's no time!

In one study, researchers surveyed over 300 college students about their cellphone use, leisure activities and physical activity.

49 of the students were then asked to use a treadmill test to evaluate their heart and lung fitness.

Unsurprisingly, those who spent up to 14 hours daily on their phones were less fit than participants who only averaged about 1.5 hours of use.

Disrupted Sleep

63% of smartphone users age 18 to 29 fall asleep with a cellphone, smartphone or tablet in their bed, says a 2013 survey.

Around 30% of users aged 30 to 64 do the same thing.

What's really worrying is that, according to a study published in September 2015, the amount of caffeine in a double espresso has less of an effect on sleep schedule than bright light exposure at night!

While most of us wouldn't bring a double espresso to bed, we happily bring our phones.

The light exposure can actually push back sleep time twice as long as coffee does, thanks to its ability to suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps with sleep timing.

When Harvard researchers looked at the effect of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light, and to green light, they found that the blue light suppressed melatonin for twice as long as the green did.

The blue also shifted sleep schedules by three hours, compared to an hour and a half for the green light.

A Source of Bacteria

Disturbing research from the University of Arizona has discovered that the average phone has 10 times the amount of bacteria that is found on a toilet seat!

While you might clean your toilet regularly, it's likely your phone is given a good wipe down far less often. And no matter how clean your toilet seat, you're probably not going to let it touch your face!

Next time, be careful where you leave your phone, and wipe it regularly.

Attention Span

It turns out that most of us now have an attention span less than that of a goldfish.

Could our smartphone addiction be at fault?

That's exactly what research from Microsoft claims. It's not surprising really, especially when you consider that most of our news is now condensed into 140 characters or less.

On the upside, the researchers claim that cellphones have increased our ability to multitask.

But, others studies contest this, stating that simply talking or texting can be distracting and contributes to diminished performance when multitasking.

In fact, simply the presence of a cell phone is said to be distracting, especially when in social settings.

Social Effects

Instead of making us more connected, our smartphones could be making us more isolated.

Not only are we more distracted and less 'present' in social scenarios thanks to our cellphones, we're also becoming less connected to our peers on a deeper level.

Researchers from the University of Essex found that people who discussed personally meaningful topics when a cellphone was nearby (even if they weren't being used) reported lower relationship quality and less trust in their partner.

They also felt their partner was less empathic to their concerns.

Smartphone use is also likely to make us more selfish, and less likely to engage in 'prosocial' behavior, says University of Maryland research.

Prosocial behavior is defined as an action intended to benefit another person or society as a whole - like volunteering or simply helping out someone in need.

Text Claw

Text claw isn't a medical term (yet) but its symptoms are very real. Sufferers experience cramped fingers, wrist pain and muscle pain thanks to continuous texting and scrolling on the touchscreen of a smartphone.

This occurs because of inflammation in the tendons. It can also exacerbate existing inflammation from tendinitis.

If it happens to you, take a break from the cellphone, ice the area regularly, try some wrist exercises and flavor your food with these pain-killing herbs and spices, many of which will work to reduce the inflammation.

Indirect Injuries

Aside from the injuries directly caused by your phone - like occipital neuralgia or carpal tunnel syndrome - a cellphone addiction can increase your risk of indirect injuries, like from a nasty fall or car crash!

While hand-held cellphone use while driving is banned in some states, hands-free isn't.

Yet Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that drivers who are listening to someone talk on their phone have 37% reduced brain activity. They say that making devices hands-free or voice-activated is not sufficient to eliminate distractions while driving.

Even pedestrians are at increased risk of causing accidents.

A University of Washington study reports that texting pedestrians took 1.87 extra seconds to cross an average intersection and were four times more likely to ignore the lights or forget to look for traffic before crossing.

Scary stuff!

Eyesight

Direct exposure to blue light - like the one that comes from cellphone screens - can cause damage to the retina of the eye.

The American Macular Degeneration Foundation warns that retinal damage of this nature may lead to macular degeneration, which causes the loss of central vision (the ability to see what's in front of you).

In the research however, the blue light was placed directly in front of the eye - which isn't exactly how cellphones are used. However, long term effects of blue light exposure are not known.

One survey of 2,000 people found that 55% of respondents believe that eye discomfort is the main problem inflicted on them by their phones.

To save your eyes, limit the amount of time on your phone and follow the 20-20-20 rule - every 20 minutes take 20 seconds to focus on something 20 feet away. Plus you could invest in a blue light blocking phone screen cover. Check out these vision-saving foods too!

Hearing

Simply chatting to someone on the phone won't damage your hearing, but if you use your smartphone and headphones for listening to music then you might have cause for concern.

According to the National Institute on Deafness, around 26 million Americans suffer from noise-induced hearing loss.

One source of such noise is from headphones, like the ones that come with your phone.

If we listen to music that is too loud, we can damage the tiny hairs in the inner ear, which transmit chemical signals through nerves to the brain.

What level is too loud?

The Dangerous Decibels public health campaign states that repeated exposure to noises above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss - approximately the noise level of heavy traffic.

The maximum volume of a smartphone is around 105 decibels - or that of a concert. Listening to music at this volume for more than four minutes would likely result in damage to hearing.

Even if you lower it to just 94 decibels, you can cause damage if you listen for over an hour.

Radiation

While it's not clear if the radiation from cellphones and other connected devices causes health issues, a group of 200 biological and health scientists from around the world are trying to raise public awareness on this issue.

They are calling on the United Nations, World Health Organization and national governments to develop strict regulations concerning cellphones that create electromagnetic fields.

The World Health Organization already classes cellphones as 'possibly carcinogenic to humans' and the organization will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radio-frequency field exposure by 2016.

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16 Seriously Damaging Side Effects Of Your Smartphone Addiction

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Nearly two thirds of American adults now own a smartphone - up from 58% in early 2014. In fact, 61% of you reading this page right now are probably doing so on a smartphone. Their popularity is not surprising! Smartphones are incredible little devices - they allow us to stay connected, organized and entertained.

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One easy solution is to use a "smartphone pouch" to reduce or prevent yourself from taking out your smartphone frequently?! 

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One easy solution is to use a "smartphone pouch" to reduce or prevent yourself from taking out your smartphone frequently?! 

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Chances are you're reading this on your phone. Well, maybe you shouldn't be.

Right now, there is a growing body of research that says excessive phone use is really bad for you. For starters, it's bad for your brain, your neck, your eyes, and your fingers. It's also linked to poor sleep, higher stress levels, and depression. This week, author Adam Alter released a new book called Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Getting Us Hooked, which dedicates 368 pages to the science of phone addiction and why you should be cutting back on the technology in your pocket.

But how do you actually curb your phone use? After all, your smartphone isn't exactly a bottle of Jack you can pour down the sink. You need it holstered to your side at all times to thrive in the 21st century-to communicate with family, friends, your boss, even any potential romantic "matches."

So we tracked down James A. Roberts, PhD, professor of marketing at Baylor University and author of Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?, who has written more than 75 papers on the subject of human and consumer behavior, and gathered his top tips and hacks for walking through life without serving as a slave to your phone. And while you're improving yourself, don't miss these 100 Ways to Be a Healthier Man.

If answering emails on your phone anywhere and everywhere is your phone-use poison-and, especially, if you have an insatiable need to get back to everyone right away-this tip is for you. On busy workdays, set up a brief automatic reply that says something along the lines of: "I've received your message and it is important to me, but I'm trying to get a lot of work done today, so I will only be responding to emails at 10am, noon, and 3pm today. Thanks." It goes a long way. "People aren't going to think you're ignoring them or you're being unproductive," says Roberts. For more ways to minimize your phone use at work, see here.

Pick a time of the week and promise yourself you won't post on social media at all during that period. Roberts calls these "social media fasts." Maybe it's for three hours on Saturday afternoons. Maybe it's from noon to dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Roberts suggests evenings, for three reasons. One, you're more prone to drink during the evening, and therefore more prone to sending a message you may regret. Two, "people just don't need to hear back from you at 10, 12, 2 in the morning," says Roberts. They can wait. And three, you'll sleep better. The blue light that emanates from smartphones disturbs your sleep. Sounds like a win-win-win. But if you need your phone to spice up your social life, we understand. Here are the Best Dating Apps for People Over 40.

The irony here is palpable. Roberts says this tip is the digital version of "hair of the dog," the term for staving off the effects of a hangover by returning to alcohol the next day. Download apps like Moment and BreakFree, which track your smartphone usage, so you can see, in raw data, how much time you're wasting. Talk about a reality check. And if you're feeling stressed out, don't miss our roundup of the Biggest Male Stressors-Conquered.

So this is a thing. Seriously. While Yondr's "smartphone pouches" look undeniably goofy, they're actually quite handy and sophisticated. First, you put your phone in a magnetically sealed pouch. Then, you designate a smartphone-free zone in your home or workplace. During that time, the pouch stays locked so you can't use it. If you want to use your phone, you have to physically leave the zone. The bedroom could be a good zone to start with, for example. For more great life hacks, here are the 50 Best Ways to Be a (Much) Better Man.

When it comes to helping people quit something, say, drinking or smoking, psychologists use "social contracts," where they literally draft up a contract of where and when behavior is permitted or prohibited, and tie rewards and punishment to goals. No smoking after 5:00, for example. If you succeed for a week, you get to watch the game on Monday. If not, well...

In this case, it would be a contract about phone use. You set your own rules and rewards-and punishments. The tough part is finding someone to execute the contract, ideally someone who won't succumb to the same urges that had you drafting the thing in the first place.

"I like to think of this like the Dutch reclaiming the sea," says Roberts. "A little bit at a time. Small victories." This one is a no-brainer. If you're getting behind the wheel, put your phone away. For one thing, texting and driving is wildly irresponsible. For another, even if your drive is only ten minutes, that's ten more minutes without your phone. Small victories, indeed.

You're out to dinner, famished, your food arrives, you're dying of anticipation, ready to dig in. But wait! Someone at the table just absolutely needs that perfect Instagram picture. Does this really need to happen? "Sometimes taking a picture becomes more important than experiencing the event itself," says Roberts. So next time you're about to whip out your camera, think twice. Live in the moment-which is also a great way to Relive Your 20s.

It's tough, especially if dinner is with your in-laws. But those dinners are few and far between, and presumably most of your meals are with company you genuinely enjoy. Not to say your in-laws aren't great! Just that lunch with Ted from down the hall is more conversationally stimulating. So put away the phone and do what you're there to do: chat. Also, for further evidence as to why this is an excellent idea, please refer to tip #7.

"One of the reasons we're so overly attached to our smartphones is because we do get a rush of dopamine, serotonin, [when we use them]," says Roberts. The natural step would be to find a replacement. "There are so many more ways to get endorphins than from a funny pet video, like pleasurable interaction, or displays of affection" says Roberts. He suggests hugs. Best Life suggests something a little bit more distracting. If you're looking to improve your performance in the sack, here are the Yoga Moves That Will Transform Your Sex Life.

Of course, another way to generate those sweet, sweet endorphins is a classic. Go for a run. Lift some weights. Do yoga. (That one can help a lot with tip #7.) Every minute spent exercising is a minute not spent reading a silly internet article. And whatever you do, don't bring along your smartphone as your jukebox. That entirely defeats the purpose. You needn't go entirely analog, though. Here are the best fitness trackers on the market.

When all else fails, sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective. This is perhaps alarmingly simple, but take the phone that's on your desk right now and just flip it over. It's the Schrödinger's Cat of digital life: if you don't see the notifications, are there any notifications at all? And sure, this may require Herculean levels of self control. So start small. A half hour the first week, then one hour, then two, and so on. After all, "without self control, nothing of good can be accomplished in life," says Roberts.
For more amazing advice for living smarter, looking better, feeling younger, and playing harder, follow us on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter-delivered every day!

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11 Easy Ways to Conquer Your Smartphone Addiction | Best Life

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Chances are you're reading this on your phone. Well, maybe you shouldn't be. Right now, there is a growing body of research that says excessive phone use is really bad for you. For starters, it's bad for your brain, your neck, your eyes, and your fingers.

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Do you know that you can build confidence if you play challenging games?

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Do you know that you can build confidence if you play challenging games?

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Gaining high scores/moving to levels/getting stronger lets users of the game develop confidence, since they think they got better.

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Gone are the days when media was confined to a television, radio, newspaper or advertisement. The modern media allows users to save and share texts, photos, videos, and all sorts of information electronically from their digital devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. This wider reach of electronic media has left a powerful impact on the way people interact with each other for business or personal reasons.

But the more intense impact has been made on children. The invention of digital devices has brought a major change in today's generation, especially children. They interact with their friends, play games and watch videos on the internet. Technology has certainly impacted their level of thinking, behavior in society and creativeness. Compared to the kids in 1990, today's children make more use of their digital devices. Where there are numerous advantages of using digital devices, let's not forget the negative impact the devices can have on our children. It has surely affected our children's ability to learn and enjoy a real-time experience with their friends. While it is not bad to keep our children updated with the new electronic gadgets, at the same time, as parents, it is our duty to guide them on how to make better use of those devices and also set some limits on when to use specific digital devices as well as the internet.

Undoubtedly, the internet has become an addiction for children across the world. They are dependent on their digital devices and spend a lot of time scrolling the newsfeed of their social media accounts. The fact that they choose to spend a lot of time on the internet, there are many kids who have become victims of pedophiles and cyberbullying. As a result, they fall into the abyss of loneliness and depression. When parents fail to keep an eye on them, the children continue to use their devices and may fall prey in the hands of internet predators or be cyberbullied by others. Therefore, it's important to know what your child is doing online and what activities he/she is taking part in.

Let's have a look at some of the positive and negative impacts of digital devices on children. By going through this post, hopefully, parents will become more vigilant in future and guide their children on how to stay safe on the internet.

Positive Impacts of Digital Devices

Here are some of the positive impacts digital devices can have on children.

Stimulate the Imagination

If your child is younger, probably a preteen, then digital devices may help to stimulate their senses and imaginative skills. Digital devices can help them to promote listening ability, various leaning sounds as well as speech. To keep them distracted, you can put on the cartoons on YouTube so that the child stays busy and does not disturb you for some time. There are also games for younger children that can help improve their imaginative and creative skills.

Encourage Analytical Skills

One of the other positive impacts digital devices can have on children is that these devices help encourage cognitive learning and also the development of analytical skills. As a result, children can develop innovative thinking and also investigation skills. Moreover, the use of digital devices may broaden their strategic thinking and creativity.

Enhance Technology Literacy

We're living in the new age where every person is aware of using a digital device - be it a desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone or a tablet. Even the ones who're not educated, they can use a digital device especially a mobile phone. Therefore, it's really important to let children know how to use a digital device because the new age is all about technology. By using computers and other digital devices, children can build computer literacy and also improve manual dexterity.

Enhance Knowledge

The internet can be helpful to the children in a lot of ways. For instance, when they're stuck somewhere while doing their homework, they can always turn to the internet to seek help regarding a certain topic. Technology helps enhance their knowledge about so many things. They can stay updated about their friends, new games, and other information on the internet.

Build Confidence

By playing their favorite video games on the internet, they can build confidence and develop a good hand-eye coordination. The challenging games allow them to move up different levels and gain high scores, as a result, they develop mathematical and engineering skills. Also, they also have a sudden motivation to meet their goals which can also help them much later in life.

Negative Impacts of Digital Devices

After briefly discussing the positive impacts, let's move on to the negative impacts of digital devices on children.

Screen Time Can Cause Problems

Most of the children spend more time on their digital devices than on any other activity. They watch videos, play games, and chat with their friends on the internet and do not pay attention towards any other activity such as playing sports. These children eat food while using the devices which can be problematic for their health. Fat keeps on getting deposited in their bodies when there is no physical movement or exercise. The same accumulated fat then makes the child slowly obese. Obesity, if not controlled, can result in diseases such as diabetes, heart failure, and depression. Therefore, children need to reduce their screen time and also focus on their physical activities.

Exposure to Internet Threats

If your child is spending too much time on the internet, there's a possibility that he may become a victim of cyberbullying. Most of the times children don't report to their parents when they are being bullied online. As a consequence, they become depressed and feel bad about themselves. Also, it is noteworthy that online predators are always lurking on the internet, looking to attack vulnerable children and manipulating them to act upon their evil commands. On the other hand, watching pornographic content on the internet has become a lot common among children which can damage their minds. Therefore, your child can be exposed to various internet threats if their use of digital devices is not controlled or monitored timely.

Games May Trigger Violence

Children who spend more time playing violent games online tend to become more aggressive than the others. Such games trigger their temperament and cause them to lose their cool. When they are in the aggressive mode, they are more prone to confront their parents, teachers, and friends.

Less Focus on Studies

The major negative impact digital devices can leave on children is that it can take away their entire focus from the studies. Children spend a significant amount of their time on their devices and then face difficulty while concentrating on their studies. When most of their time is consumed on the digital devices, they do pay much attention to their homework, assignments, and other projects. As a result, they end up displaying a poor academic record.

Cause of Sedentary Lifestyle

Excessive use of digital devices and computer exposure can be dangerous for the children. Children who become addicted to their electronic devices and use a lot of internet may be subject to lead a sedentary lifestyle. They will have poor health issues and also face a lot of troubles with time management and eating habits. An inactive lifestyle can cause them to develop serious health issues.

Ways to Decrease the Negative Impacts of Digital Devices

We do understand that it is impossible to completely discard digital devices from your child's life but there are some ways you can decrease their negative impacts. Being a parent, you can definitely improve your child's lifestyle and allow them to make a reasonable use of their digital devices. Following are some of the ways you can decrease the negative impacts of digital devices:

Before your child decides to play a game or watch a movie/television show on the internet, make sure you check its ratings.

Do not allow your child to use the digital devices alone in their rooms. Make sure they're using their devices in front of you. This will prevent them from engaging in an inappropriate online activity.

Set a time limit of how often or how long your child is allowed to use the digital device, including plays games and watching videos on the internet.

Set up parental control solutions on your child's device so you can monitor their online activity.

Last but not the least, try and communicate with your child about what they do on the internet, whom they interact with, or which videos or games they've played with their friends online. You can also ask them how they feel about the social media they have been granted access to and discuss it with them on a regular basis.

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What are the Positive and Negative Impacts of Digital Devices?

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Gone are the days when media was confined to a television, radio, newspaper or advertisement. The modern media allows users to save and share texts, photos, videos, and all sorts of information electronically from their digital devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.

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Do you know that you can create a no phone time zone so that you won't use your phone for at least an hour in your most productive time of the day so you can focus on accomplishing tasks you need to get it done?! 

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Do you know that you can create a no phone time zone so that you won't use your phone for at least an hour in your most productive time of the day so you can focus on accomplishing tasks you need to get it done?! 

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Leon Ho
Founder & CEO of Lifehack Read full profile

What is success to you? How to be successful in life?

To some, when they think of success, they imagine wealth; others want power; some just want to make a positive impact on the world.

All of these are perfectly valid, indeed success is a concept that means different things to different people. Though no matter what success is to you, it almost certainly isn't something will come easily.

There are countless guides and books to being successful, however, as success is personal and unique to each individual. The advice contained in these books can often not be relevant. Therefore following the advice of a single individual can often be unhelpful.

With this in mind, considering the advice of a great many people, people whose ideas of success were different both to each other, and quite possibly, to you can be a good alternative.

What follows is a list of thirteen of the best pieces of advice from some of the most successful people who have ever lived. If you want to learn how to be successful, these 13 tips are essential:

1.Think big.

From Michelangelo Buonarroti, Great Renaissance Artist:

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."

There are few artists as influential as Michaelangelo. Today centuries after his death, his work still inspires and connects to people. His work is world famous, just think of his statue of David, or the Mural in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Imagine then, if he decided not to work as an artist.

Being a successful artist has always been extremely difficult, imagine if he decided to give up this ambition in favour of something easier?

Oftentimes, people often decided to put their dreams aside for something more "realistic". To give up their dream for something easier. This quote teaches us the danger of such a point of view.
Instead be ambitious.

2.Find what you love to do and do it.

From Oprah Winfrey, Media Mogul:

"You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not be paid for it."

This is a good quote to remember and think about when you're at work.

Imagine being as successful as possible in your current job. Ultimately you'll probably find yourself working extremely hard and this it will take up much of your time.

If it's a job you hate, then being successful at it might only mean filling your life with something you hate to do. What's the sense in this?

Instead, why not focus on doing something you love? When you've found what you're passionate about, you get the motivation to keep you moving. Success at this means the fulfilment of your dreams.

Not sure what your passion is yet? You should learn about this Motivation Engine first.

Even if you're not successful, you still filled your time with something you love to do. Many successful musicians spent years of their lives doing unpaid performances, the only reason they kept playing was because they loved to perform.

3. Learn how to balance life.

From Phil Knight, CEO of Nike Inc.:

"There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success."

All too often, people think that to be successful, they need to make the object of their success their life.

If a person thinks their job will lead them to success, then they may spend countless hours per day, and well into the evening working hard.

However this comes at the cost of rest, your health and having an enjoyable life. Ultimately they may burn out and cease to be successful at their job anyway.

If success comes from having a strong social life and a good group of friends, their job may suffer; meaning that they may lose their job, and then be unable to afford going out with friends.

In these ways, success, as Phil Knight says above, is helped by balance. Think of it as a balance between rest and work, or work and play.

To achieve that balance, this Ultimate Guide to Prioritizing Your Work And Life can help you.

4. Do not be afraid of failure.

From Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motors:

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

There is a story, it's unconfirmed whether it actually happened, yet the message within is none the less true:

Thomas Edison inventing the lightbulb was the result of several hundred failed attempts. In an interview, he was asked "How do you feel after all of your failed attempts?"

His response was great, "I didn't fail, I learned hundreds of ways not to invent the lightbulb"

He saw each "failure" as a lesson. From that lesson he learned what won't work, and also might work instead.

Each failed attempt, each rejection, were key steps on his path to success. It is easy to feel like you should give up after a failure. But perhaps in that failure is a lesson.

Pay attention to your failures, study them. Perhaps then you'll learn how to succeed.

5. Have an unwavering resolution to succeed.

From Colonel Sanders, Founder of KFC:

"I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know."

This, in many ways relates to the above quote about learning from your failures.

It's the easiest thing in the world to give up from a failure. The only way to push on is if you have the true burning desire to succeed, to not be moved or dissuaded from your goals.

If you are not truly dedicated towards success, then each failure will hurt more, each set back will slow you down.

Success is hard; without the unwavering desire to succeed, this difficulty may seem insurmountable. With the desire, it is merely an obstacle to go through.

6. Be a person of action.

From Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance Genius:

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

Though it was said hundreds of years ago, it works just as much today as it ever had. It applies to literally any successful person.

Think about it, picture someone like William Shakespeare:

When we think of the time he lived in, we think of the time in a way shaped by him. When we think of Renissance era Italy, we think of Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Or think about the present day:

Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Our current way of life would simply be incomparably different if they didn't accomplish what they did.

You're probably reading this article on a device by a company that they either founded or companies influenced by them.

All these figures were proactive, they saw ways to do things differently and did them. If they let the world shape them, then they'd simply fit into the background. Instead they shaped the world.

Applying this to you?

Don't be afraid of going outside the norm. If you can think of a better way to do something, do it that way. If you fail, try again.

7. Avoid conflicts.

From Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of America: "

Scroll down to continue reading article

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."

The best leaders and some of the most influential people (and Theodore Roosevelt is one of the best leaders and one of the most influential people to have lived) were not those who caused commotions, who fought with people or disregarded people; but were people who were friendly to those around them.

People liked them. They wanted them to do well.

This is key to good leadership.

It's logical. If someone likes you, they want to help you; if you give them a suggestion, they'll gladly follow through with it.

But if someone doesn't like you, they may either refuse to help or actively get in your way.

What's more, it's always a good idea to cultivate good relationships. You can never tell who will prove to become someone who'll be able to help you in a big way, or even be a good and supportive friend.

As such, help people and they may help you; and be good to people, and they my be good to you.

8. Don't be afraid of introducing new ideas.

From Mark Twain, Famed Author:

"A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds."

It is an unfortunate truth that those with the boldest ideas are often disregarded.

Most of us are taught from an early age to think and do things similarly to everyone else. This can be great to fill an existing role. But to truly do things differently (and all successful people did things differently), you need to think differently.

If you have a new idea, don't throw it away because it's new and different; instead, celebrate it. Your strange new idea might one day be the one that leads you to success.

9. Believe in your capacity to succeed.

From Walter Disney, Founder of Walt Disney Company:

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

Success has to be something you can imagine yourself achieving.

It is possible that you will come across those who doubt you and your ability to succeed. You must not become one of these people because the moment you cease believing and dreaming is the moment these dreams fall away.

Keep dreaming!

10. Always maintain a positive mental attitude.

From Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of America:

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

Like the above quote says, you need to trust in your ability to succeed. This is the only way to cultivate the right mindset.

Replace negative thoughts with the positive ones. You need to approach problems, not as obstacles stopping you, but merely tasks that need to be completed for you to keep going.

If you stay positive and think like this, setbacks won't affect you so much, people's doubts won't impact you and even the biggest obstacles will seem like minor problems.

However with the wrong mindset of doubt, you'll be much easier to stop.

11. Don't let discouragement stop you from pressing on.

From Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of America:

"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."

It is an unfortunate fact of human nature - all of us in some way, doubt ourselves. This can be made far worse if others doubt us too.

When surrounded by doubts, giving up can actually seem like a good idea.

Don't pay attention to the doubts. If you are discouraged, ignore it.

If this discouragement moves into your mind and you begin to doubt yourself. It is important to ignore this too.

Take a look at these 5 Ways to Stop Self Doubt in its Tracks.

12. Be willing to work hard.

From JC Penny, Founder of JC Penney Inc.:

"Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average man, you are just not cut out for positions at the top."

You might have heard the quote that "success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration" or you may have heard about the 10,000 hours idea.

Whichever way you frame it, they say one thing:

True success comes from work.

You'll never become successful if you don't work towards your goal in life and keep working towards it.

Check out this article and you'll understand Why Hard Work Beats Talent.

13. Be brave enough to follow your intuition.

From Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple Inc.:

"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

In ancient Greece, there was a group of Oracles who lived in Delphi. Everyone who needed advice or to know their future visited them, from the poorest of society to kings. Above the doorway of the temple were the words "know thyself".

If you strongly believe and desire something, the chances are that you already have an idea how to get there. If not, you may naturally know what things will help you and what things will slow you down.

It's like how your body can detect danger even when things seem safe.

Ultimately then, you need to trust your own instincts.

Final thoughts

What you might have noticed is that many of the above lessons are similar - most are about developing the right state of mind. This clearly suggests that the key to achieving success, in whatever you wish, comes down to the way you approach it mentally.
How to Start Over and Reboot Your Life When It Seems Too Late
Moreover, no matter what stage of life you're at now, you can still make a difference and pursue success. You can make resetting your life possible when you do this:

Mandie Holgate - Successful life coach in the UK, helping businesses and individuals achieve greatness

David Carpenter - Lifelong entrepreneur and business owner helping others to realize the American Dream of business ownership

Ray Zinn - An inventor, entrepreneur, bestselling author and the longest serving CEO in Silicon Valley

More Recommended Lifehack Experts in Success

Featured photo credit: Ryan Wong via unsplash.com

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Addicted to Your Mobile Phone? 5 Ways to Beat Your Phone Addiction

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Is your phone interfering with your every day life? Here's 5 Ways you can Beat your Phone Addiction.

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Device has 10 times more bacteria than toilet seat.

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Do you know that parents can download parental control applications to monitor their child/children's device usage?! 

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Do you know that parents can download parental control applications to monitor their child/children's device usage?! 

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This is one of the most simple but possible solution parents can take for their children.

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Addicted to your mobile phone? This article will share you cell phone addiction solutions to beat your phone addiction.

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People who is addicted to devices can have stress because of doing somthing.

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Do you know that one of the possible solution this website introduced was to make a really long and difficult password to enter?!  Furthermore for parents who are addicted to devices, they can make a poster or a paper with lists of places they can't use their phone at home?! 

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Over the last couple of years CBD, or Cannabidiol (a non-psychoactive compound found in Cannabis plants) has gone from being something many of us had never heard of to something that is talked about seemingly non-stop. Celebs like Kim Kardashian are all about it and regular, suburban moms say it helps them feel less anxious and get more sleep.

This stuff is trending hard, mama, and it won't get you "high". But with CBD popping up pretty much everywhere, it's hard to know which brand or product to pick. Some CBD products on the market don't actually have much CBD in them, which means you're not going to get the benefits.

That's why we're into Green Roads products right now. The brand that puts an emphasis on quality, and has a ton of different CBD options that #TeamMotherly members tested out.

CBD-infused coffee

If there's one thing #TeamMotherly loves, it's coffee, so we were stoked to see that Green Roads offers a CBD coffee. They take high-quality coffee beans and add CBD from USA grown hemp formulated by a licensed compounding pharmacist and a third-party lab. (Green Roads is super serious about making sure that we're getting top quality CBD).

One of our Motherly testers brewed up a batch of the CBD coffee and loved it.

"It's like energy + calm together!" she says, noting that she made the coffee on a weekday that's usually tough for her because it's a day when she's solo parenting multiple kids. After the CBD coffee, she found she had more energy than usual and actually enjoyed her morning more than usual. (We know weekday mornings can be a struggle for many mamas!.)

"I could see myself buying more," she explains.

This one's for the purists. If you want your CBD oil as uncomplicated and simple as possible, straight-up CBD oil is for you. Our #TeamMotherly tester gave this a go and found a dropper of this sublingual oil (meaning you put it under your tongue for at least 30 seconds) was an easy way to the perfect dose for her.

Let's talk about gummies

Traditional capsule-style supplements are not for everyone (raise your hand if you just can't do pills), so if you're the kind of mama who takes her calcium in a gummy, Green Roads has you covered with their CBD gummies.

[Disclaimer: This form factor can be tempting to little ones who don't understand the difference between mom's supplements and candy. If you have kids in your home, always ensure that gummies (like any supplement or medication) are stored out of reach and out of sight of children.]

These fruit bites and gummy bears have zero THC (you are not going to get "high" ) and 10 mg of CBD.

Our #TeamMotherly tester has this advice: Start low and go slow. Two gummies felt like too much for this mama, and she says just one gummy is a better place to start. You can always take a second dose later.

Bottom line: CBD is getting more and more popular and popping up everywhere, but we want to make sure that any supplement we're taking is a quality supplement. Green Roads CBD is the good stuff, according to lab tests, and our testers.

This article was sponsored by Green Roads. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Motherly and mamas.

You might also like:

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12 Ways to Ensure Your Kid is More Important Than Your Phone

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Parents don't need more guilt. That's not what this article is about.We know we shouldn't spend too much time on our smartphones in front of our kids. We've read articles like "For The Children's Sake, Put Down That Smartphone," and "Children reveal 'hidden sadness' of parents spending too much time...

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Do you know that you can keep your phone out of your bedroom to reduce your temptation of using your devices too much? 

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Do you know that you can keep your phone out of your bedroom to reduce your temptation of using your devices too much? 

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This is related to one possible solution to device addiction.

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We're drowning in screens.

Kids under the age of eight use screens for 2 hours a day. Preteens and teens (from ages eight to 18) an average of 7.5 hours. Adults stare into the light an average of eight and a half hours a day.

You know. We got problems.

According to the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, we tend to check our phones 150 times a day. In an international poll taken by Time magazine, one in four people check their phone "every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 people every 10 minutes."

The distraction has consequences.

WYNC, America's largest public radio station, has found that creativity is diminishing because the boredom in which we used to think of great ideas has been taken over by scrolling and tapping. Some of those services we use on our phones have become more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes, and make us feel worse about ourselves even when we use them. Not to mention, when we use them at night, the light from our screens can ruin our sleep.

But don't be too hard on yourself, it's difficult to tear our eyes away. Not only are the apps intentionally addictive, but the maintenance of our digital lives - what I call digital chores - demands our time. Software updates must be downloaded and installed (last year, Chrome had eight different version updates, while iTunes had nine), passwords reset (don't forget to do it every 30 days), and notifications attended to (active Quora users get 150 to 500 a day).

On top of it all, although manufactured with micro-precision by specialized robots, those beautiful metal-accented buttons and cutting-edge industrial designs are terrible in the real world: even though people in UK and the US replace their smartphones every 22 months, on average, one in four iPhones still has a broken screen.

I say, let's keep them hidden and safe. Stop taking your phone out every five minutes. There are psychological tricks. Keeping your phone in your bag instead of your pocket can reduce usage. Keeping it out of your bedroom can reduce temptation at night. Services like f.lux and Twilight can alter the color temperature to diminish a computer screen's effect on your sleep.

But we can also make brilliant technology that doesn't rely on screens.

We tend to focus on what we can see, but the hidden stuff - the processors, sensors, radios, and other internal components of our smartphones - have made exponential improvements that allow for a new era in computing: a screenless future. Instead of depending on the dated paradigm of a graphical user interface - fundamentally unchanged since the late 1970s - our powerful computers could do far more independently, and finally stop bothering us with requests and notifications.

Let your phones do the work without you. New technology can rescue today's screen zombies: Web app Unroll.me can automatically compile promotional emails into a single digest to save you on email time. Dropbox's Carousel can automatically backup your photos and remove them from your phone to save you space. TripIt automatically syncs your calendar with your flights so you don't have to enter them manually.

But to start to see the real potential of a screenless world, grab IFTTT (and maybe even a sister app like LIFTTT). By creating triggers - for example, leaving the GPS location of your workplace - you can create recipes that take action automatically - text my wife that I'm on my way home - without ever taking your phone out of your pocket.

If you have Android, you can tweak further with apps like Trigger (which has over 1 million downloads) that can run a variety of tasks from a mix of triggers. It even allows NFC extensions, so you can use a radio connection instead of 20 taps to send a simple message.

While these hacker-type services are available for simple actions today, others are more complex systems that understand your needs and automatically start solving problems. Cameras installed in the rafters of NBA stadiums can now study player movements and alert team physicians when someone is likely hurt, injured or tired.

Smartphone screens have engrossed us in awful ways, but by utilizing the amazing tiny computers that they are, you can start your journey towards what I hope will eventually become a screenless world.

You can stop looking at your phone now.

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How to stop looking at your phone every five seconds

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We're drowning in screens. Kids under the age of eight use screens for 2 hours a day. Preteens and teens (from ages eight to 18) an average of 7.5 hours. Adults stare into the light an average of eight and a half hours a day. You know.

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That phone can help a lot of people when emergency happens.

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Cell phones/Smartphones have 10 times the bacteria in toilets. (without dirty stuff)

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So, maybe you spend a little too much time on your phone. Or a lot too much time. And you know you do. But does that mean you've stopped? I'm going to guess. Probably not.

You may also feel like you'll never find enough time in the day to get all your work done and fit in family, friends, exercise, hobbies, and all the rest. But maybe, just maybe, if you weren't on your phone so much, you could take a few steps toward that elusive state of work-life balance people say exists.

Now, just because you've realized that your small screen's become your most loyal companion or the object of your most unconditional devotion-and even if you've realized that might not be the best thing for you or anyone around you-doesn't mean you've done anything to change it yet.

If that gnawing awareness isn't enough, maybe these facts will help motivate you to finally make a change.

1. iPhone Owners Unlock Their Devices an Average of 80 Times Per Day

I'd bet that your phone is within arm's distance (if not finger distance) of you right now-even if you're at your desk at work. So it's not surprising that you'll probably end up unlocking it dozens upon dozens of times a day.

Apple revealed this statistic in 2016 while expounding on the security and user benefits of its Touch ID feature. Spread over a 24-hour period, that'd mean the average owner unlocks their phone every 18 minutes. But when you account for the hours you're asleep, that means it's even more frequent.

2. 89% of Undergraduates in a Study Experienced Phantom Vibrations

Have you ever thought your phone was vibrating only to realize it wasn't? The vast majority of the 290 undergrads who participated in a study conducted at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior in 2012 did.

3. 53% of Millennials Wake Up at Least Once Every Night to Check Their Phones

You know that sleep is important to having a productive workday. But more likely than not (if you're a Millennial), you're interrupting your own rest to check your phone-in the middle of the night!

According to a survey by Qualtrics and Accel Partners, 79% of Millennials put their phones right by them when they sleep and 53% wake up at least once every night to check them.

Not only that, but nearly 60% check their phones even before they use the bathroom in the morning. The same study found that close to half (42%) haven't spent more than five waking hours without taking a look at social media.

4. The Average Person Spends Hours on Their Phone Each Day

A 2017 report from comScore found that the average US adult spent two hours and 51 minutes on mobile- per day. Other studies have found similar or higher usage. Nielsen, for example, found in a 2018 report that U.S. adults spent an average of 2.4 hours a day on apps or web on a smartphone. Flurry put the number way higher, saying in a 2016 report that "the average U.S. consumer spends a whopping 5 hours a day on [mobile] devices."

5. 89% of Mobile Phone Owners in a Survey Said They Used Their Phones During Their Most Recent Social Gathering

Let's dive into that whole work-life balance conundrum. Whether or not you're getting enough of the -life part, there's a good chance that you're not taking advantage of your off-time even when you have it.

You probably agree there are situations outside the office when you should put that phone away. Here's what percentage of adults said it was "generally OK" to use a cell phone in various settings in a 2014 Pew Research Center survey:

"At church or worship service" (4%)

"At the movie theater or other places where others are usually quiet" (5%)

"During a meeting" (5%)

"At a family dinner" (12%)

"At a restaurant" (38%)

"While waiting in line" (74%)

"On public transportation" (75%)

"While walking down the street" (77%)

And yet, 89% of the adults who own a cell phone also said they'd used them during their most recent social gathering: 61% "read a message such as text or email"; 58% "took a photo or video"; 52% "sent a message such as a text or email"; 52% "received an incoming call"; 34% "checked to see if you've received any alerts"; 33% "placed a call"; 29% "used an app"; and 25% "searched or browsed the web."

6. Americans Use Phones While Driving, on Dinner Dates, in Church, and Even During Sex

And the bleak you're-not-really-present-when-recharging-outside-of-work stats continue! The 2013 Mobile Consumer Habits study, conducted by Harris Interactive for Jumio, found that Americans use their phones:

"During sex" (9%)

"In the shower" (12%)

"While at church/place of worship" (19%)

"In a movie theater" (35%)

"On a dinner date" (33%)

"At a child's/school function" (32%)

7. Cell Phones Carry 10 Times the Bacteria Found on Most Toilet Seats

If none of that worked to convince you, I leave you with this one. It's truly disgusting. But it's also the truth. Scientists at the University of Arizona have seen phones that had 100,000 bacteria on them. Microbiologist Charles Gerba asks: "When's the last time you cleaned your cellphone?"

So, now that you now these seven things, what do you think about spending a little less time on that phone? But actually? Put it down and step away.

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You may also feel like you'll never find enough time in the day to get all your work done *and* fit in family, friends, exercise, hobbies, and all the rest. But maybe, just maybe, if you weren't on your cell phone so much, you could take a few steps toward that elusive state of work-life balance.

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Do you know that you can gradually stop being addicted to devices and notice the importance in other things by having a phone free day? 

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It won't be long before all we need to do is hold up a palm and swipe our skin to make calls and access Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the other social networks.

Considering just how much of an extension of the mind and body smartphones and tablets have become, it's the next logical step for technology.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoy these devices and benefit as much as the next person.

Work is no longer location dependent, international communication is instant and we are seemingly plugged into everything and everyone the world over.

But on the other hand it's socially challenging, and in many ways negatively changing the way we communicate. We see less of the world because we live inside a screen, constantly walking around head down, fixated and anticipating the next digital interaction.

Many people struggle to get through a conversation without checking their phone halfway through or holding onto it in one hand as if they can't wait for you to stop talking and get back to the other world.

And another world it is.

For all their technological blessings, these devices seem to be pulling us further apart.

Rather than make a personal call, our conversations are strung out over Whatsapp or other instant messaging networks. Instead of relaxing over lunch or dinner, we are nagged by thoughts of whether we have any emails or messages to reply to.

Twitter has become a real-time soap opera that we can't bear to miss being a part of, and Facebook has become an addictive window into a world of self (ie)-obsession, pointless information, viral videos and, now we are hooked in, another arena for brands to market to us.

I am not preaching here. I am guilty too. I am not anti social networks or smartphones.

I am very much a part of this revolution. But I am conscious of it's pitfalls too.

In the past I have put off meeting people and opted for a Skype call instead because I'm "so busy", opting for cold efficiency over the reward of real human interaction.

I've checked my phone at the dinner table (with my family) while anticipating an important email.

I've taken whole train journeys with my head buried in the BBC news app.

I've unconsciously taken my phone out of my pocket during a conversation, only to think, "Wow, why have I just taken that out of my pocket. How rude"!

But from what I have seen, I am only mild offender. A couple of recent incidents prompted me to write this post and think about just how attached we've become to digital communication, and how it is detrimentally replacing natural communication.

For example, just recently at a restaurant, a couple opposite my wife and I were watching a film on an iPad while eating, sharing one earbud each of the headphones. No talking. Even the waitress had a hard time getting their attention.

The other day there were two school kids on the train. One was so engrossed in her phone that when her friend got off and said goodbye she didn't realise until the doors had closed and her friend was long gone. That really was quite something.

A close friend recently expressed to me how lucky she was not to get run over as she stepped out to cross the road. The crowd she was crossing with had stepped out but then stopped as a car zoomed around the corner and sped past. My friend had stepped out but looked down at her phone and kept on walking when the others had stopped. It was a near, lucky escape as someone pulled her back.

This huge cloud of distraction we are living under really hit home when out with a friend for lunch last week. We were there to discuss some work, yet I could tell that even though he was there at the table, he really wasn't fully present and his thoughts were elsewhere. His "hmmms" and vacant eyes told me he wasn't really listening and was obviously distracted.

My "Are you with me" tone quickly brought his attention back from the phone in his hand, and he proceeded to explain that his girlfriend was messaging him. She was disgruntled about one thing or another. Could he not tell her it was rude for him to text back and forth during lunch with a friend and that he'd contact her after? Or is this just acceptable social behaviour now?

We carried on talking but he kept intermittently checking his phone. I found this pretty annoying because it was like talking to a brick wall. It was pointless. His mind was elsewhere. I remember thinking that if I don't say something I'll only be annoyed later down the line when he comes back and asks me to discuss something I covered when he wasn't listening.

So I said, "Hey, if you need to go home and talk to her it's no problem, we can catch up any time". I was blunt but polite. He realised I was less than impressed and said, " No, no, it's okay. I'll tell her we'll speak when I get home".

It's rude when a person constantly plays with their phone in your company, because it gives you the feeling they'd rather be somewhere else. But it's quite common to see two people having a coffee, phones in hand, barely saying a word to each other but smiling and tapping away. They might as well be sat alone.

The bigger question for me is beyond simple bad manners. It begs the question of what's so appealing about constantly being inside a digital bubble and why this form of communication is preferable to real human interaction. When I look at groups of school kids with their heads buried in phones, it makes me wonder, if we keep progressing as we are, will the virtual world become a genetically predisposed preference to the physical in generations to come?

If it's not SMS or email, then it's Facebook or Twitter, Whatsapp, Angry Birds or idle Googling. More than 20,000 apps are released to the Apple Store each week. The digital distractions keep coming, as we become increasingly attached to our handheld friends.

"Get over it Alfred. This is the new world. Accept the transition".

Indeed.

I am the first to say that change is inevitable and we must accept impermanence and flow with its tide. But this attachment and dependence on something we don't really need to use as much as we do is blocking our requirement for something we do, and that is natural unadulterated human interaction: the state of being fully present and aware when talking, laughing, being affectionate or simply being quiet among other human beings.

Instead we are becoming zombie-like, waiting for the next bleep or flash of red light to emit from a device that fuels our desire to tap away, check someone's profile or aimlessly scroll for something of interest. There is an unhealthy addiction to plug a constant hole of desire for something interesting to emerge from the screen.

So, how about this for a mindfulness exercise: For one day each week over the next month, try having a phone-free, tablet-free and if possible computer-free day. This doesn't mean you can't carry your phone around, but make the following changes to your routine:

Keep your phone in your pocket and turn off social notifications from Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.

Do not access any apps or social media platforms.

Do not get your phone out and put it on the table when meeting friends, or hold it in your hand when speaking to people.

Turn your phone off when at home with your family.

Treat your phone solely as an emergency method of communication.

Do not use your tablet at all for the entire day.

What will I do instead?

I'm taking my day off from the digital dizziness to notice all the things going on around me that I miss when my mind is buried in data bytes.

At times I fill the void by just being here, not doing anything really. Believe me, this is quite challenging. Try it. If a person wants to talk to me then they have my full, undivided attention. If I'm on the train and start thinking about checking the news on my phone I'll divert my attention by playing the ' see how long you can balance without holding onto the hand rail' game.

Release your mind from the chains of digital interaction for a day. It feels good, and you mind will thank you for it. Enjoy your friends and family, people watch a bit, get out amongst nature and notice the world at with full awareness for a day.

At first it will feel like something is missing, but as the day unfolds you will find something of greater importance that you have been missing for a long time. Mental spaciousness.

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No Smartphone for a Day: A Challenge for the Modern World

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It won't be long before all we need to do is hold up a palm and swipe our skin to make calls and access Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the other social networks. Considering just how much of an

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Did you know that 80% of people in the world use their phone before sleeping for 1 hour.

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Did you know that 80% of people in the world use their phone before sleeping for 1 hour.

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The Definitive Guide (2019-2020 Update)

Is Cell Phone Addiction Real? Here Are The Facts

The average smartphone user checks their device 47 times a day / 17,155 a year.

Conversation killer! 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep, 35% of which will do within 5 minutes.

47% of smartphone users have attempted to limit their usage in the past - only 30% of which feel they were successful.

Smartphone Addiction Definition

The official name for smartphone addiction is Nomophobia which is defined as having a fear of not being with your phone. Cell phones have been around for years though, so why the sudden increase in personal dependence? Well quite simply, its defined by the nature of the content on the device... we're talking internet, social networks, apps, video, music and so on.
Popular impulse driven triggers:

Social media networks and relationship driven content.

Overexposure to information and data e.g. games, surfing, apps.

Internet pornography, cybersex and dating apps.

Shopping, gambling, stock trading, and auctions.

How Phone Dependence Can Negatively Impact Our Life

All the research and studies we examined found that a phone usage dependence can impact both physical and mental health attributes of your daily life.

Anxiety - Simply having your phone near you will decrease your productivity, the impact snowballs with the level of the users' addiction.

Stress - Higher stress levels were found in business orientated roles where work life is connected to the personas device e.g. emails

Narcissism - People on their phones who get addicted to social media will begin to display self-absorption traits derived from posting constantly about their life or selfies.

Depression and loneliness - mainly stemming from people on their phones with high social media use (higher numbers in teens).

Attention deficit disorder - The flow of information can impact the brains' ability to stay focused on one task for more than a couple of minutes

Sleep deprivation - Impacting your sleep can have long-term mental health, memory and learning skills.

By the time you finish reading this you might want to sell your iPhone or trade in your cell phone and get an old brick phone, but later on, in chapter 5 we'll cover how to break up with your phone using methods to reduce use.

Warning Signs & Smartphone Addiction Symptoms

Do you get any of the following feelings or feel any of these statements relate to you? These are all the most common observations of people with various levels of smartphone addiction.

Do you have difficulty completing chores or work due to concentration issues?

Seclusion from family and friends or using your phone when in conversation

Do you mask your smartphone use, e.g. sneak off to the bathroom at work?

Do you worry that you're missing out on something when you're not with your phone?

Do you feel anxious or irritable if you're not with your phone?

Do you have sleep problems?

Digital Wellness Coach Expert Opinion:

BankMyCell asked Anya Pechko, a Digital Wellness Coach from New York and founder of Project Be what she thought of the current state of smartphone additction:

In my practice, I often talk about our cognitive and critical thinking being negatively impacted by technology. I am also a very very big proponent of boredom, I view boredom as our 6th sense. An internal entertainment system if you will, which we use to entertain our selves and others.

Its basic humanity. We now have outsourced this to our phones and so we depend on them to be entertained and stimulated. And of course, don't even get me started on the oxytocin vs dopamine.

I also think that technology impacts generations in very different ways, right now I am concentrating on children. Since the cortex doesn't fully mature till 25 or so, their tiny brains are flooded with dopamine which early studies show is correlated to premature aging (Parkinsons and Alzheimers...)

How Much Time do we Spend on Our Phones

The average time spent on smartphones is 171 minutes a day (2hrs 51mins)

The average time spend on smartphones AND tablets is 261 minutes a day (4hrs 33mins)

The average user spends 76 minutes a day (1hr 16mins) on the top 5 social media apps

The average user will tap, swipe, click their phone 2,617 times a day

Out of 18-29-year-old smartphone owners surveyed, 22% check their phone every few minutes, 51% check a few times an hour

Cell Phone Usage Statistics

We can all agree that, in general, people are spending too much time on their phones, but how much time are we actually spending consuming content on our mobile devices? There have been multiple surveys carried out around the world which shows that every country has a different level of daily use, below are the countries in order by the average time from all sources.
Top 10 Countries with Smartphone Usage

1. Brazil

2. China

3. United States

4. Italy

5. Spain

6. South Korea

7. Canada

8. United Kingdom

9. Germany

10. France

Key cell phone usage statistic: The average time for people on their phones in the US is 4 hours a day (including tablets). As these devices become more integrated into our personal and digital lives, this increase in time is a depiction of both a culture and technology shift.

Key cell phone usage statistic: The average user in Brazil spends over 5 hours a day on their device, if you really think about it this is crazy... Every 1/5 days is spend on their phone.

Is Your Child Spending Too Much Time on Their Phone?

67% of surveyed teachers observed students being negatively distracted by mobile devices.

90% of surveyed teachers stated the number of students with emotional challenges increased.

Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with 1 hours use.

Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours sleep when compared to 1 hours use. (Long-term issues linking to high blood pressure and weight gain)

8th graders who are heavy users of social media have a 27% higher risk of depression

89% of parents blame themselves and caregivers for the responsibility of a child's phone use

5% blame children themselves, 3% blame the device and app manufacturers

47% of parents think their child is addicted to their smartphone

50% of parents are concerned for the impact on their mental health

Ways to Reduce a Child's Dependence on Smartphones

When looking to resolve teen phone addiction, the obvious option of taking your child's phone away often don't work. As mentioned in the chapters above, this can just result in the withdrawal symptoms of the internet and technology addiction. You, your child or teenager, will lack the maturity to realize the bigger picture, so you're going to have to try some other tactics to evoke healthier usage.
How to stop kids being addicted to their phone:
Use apps to monitor use: The new iOS Digital Health and Androids usage tracking can help you to know how much your child is actually using the device as well as the nature of the use, e.g. apps, emails, messaging.

Manage your own use: You need to be the role model in this situation, if you spend hours looking at your phone, check it during conversations and let it come between you and family interactions then you're setting a poor example.

Create rules around the house: By restricting the use of smartphones in certain areas of the house or certain times you can create a much healthier environment. For example, no phones at the dinner table or after a certain time at night, perhaps even ban them from having phones in their rooms at night.

Nurture other interests: Another way to reduce how kids are addicted to phones is to involve them in more social and physical activities (sports/hobbies) to help them develop real interactions and reduce stress through exercise.

Communicate: Spend time as a family without mobile devices, communicate and be close enough with your child to know if there are underlying problems that the overuse of smartphones is masking issues such as depression or stress relating to issues at home or school.

Smartphone Addiction Self-Help Tips

We recommend using the new iOS Digital Health and Androids usage reports to keep track of the time you're spending on your phone. The best place to start is by understanding exactly how much time you're using your device and what apps you're using the most.

1. Realize what the triggers are that make you addicted to your phone, find better uses for your time to reduce your daily stress and boredom.

2. Make conscious efforts to interact with people in person rather than via your phone. Our bodies and minds are built to thrive and develop off of human interactions, isolation with technology will impact you negatively.

3. Recognize when you're using a smartphone as a wall. If you find it easier to communicate with others through messaging or social media or vent online, work on those skills rather than hiding behind technology.

How to Modify Your Smartphone Use

If you're wondering how to break cell phone addiction, the best way is to think of it as physical addiction such as smoking, drinking or eating. It's about recognizing habits and working on slowly reducing the time to manageable amounts.

Limit times that you can use your device. Try checking your phone after meals, don't take it with you to the bathroom and ban it from the bedroom.

Turn off your phone or put it out of sight. Placing your phone in a drawer at work or leaving it in another room to charge can help reduce the anxiety of wanting to check it.

Don't let your phone interrupt your sleeping patterns. Looking at your tablet, phone or laptop before bed can impact the quality of sleep you get. Try turning it off.

Focus your boredom on other activities. If you're just sat there with the TV on in the background and scrolling aimlessly on your phone, try putting that time into the gym, a hobby or going to meet friends and catch up.

Limit times you play games or look on social media. Perhaps only use a game at certain times of the day, or try deleting social media apps you're spending too much time on (social media being one of the primary causes of phone addiction)

Checking your phone every 5 minutes? Wait for an hour or more, you're probably getting an underlying feeling you're missing out but you can wait for your fix.

Apple's iOS Digital Health Update

These statistics show Apple's market share over that past few years split down by quarter, suggesting this highly anticipated update will be available on around 15% of all smartphones shipped.

The keynote at WWDC will no doubt raise awareness of the tools people can now use to realize how they interact with devices and apps on a day to day basis.

In 2017 over 1,537M smartphones were sold, 14.0% of which run on iOS

85% run on Android, in May 2018 at the Google I/O they introduced a series of management tools that help manage similar functions to track usage

American's Desperately Looking For a Phone Dependence Solution

It's no shock that phone addiction has gripped America, in fact, the US is the ranked the 3rd highest country for smartphone usage behind Brazil and China. We began pairing up phrases like 'help' and 'support' with cell phone addiction-related terms to measure chronological search volume increases across the United States.
Below is the collective US search intent data trends from January 2004 to June 2019:

*The numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the United States. A value of 100 would be considered the peak popularity, 50 would be half of the collective terms volume. The above data shows a vast increase in the average American's desire to fix their phone overuse.

From 2014 to present we can see an accelerated upwards trend, this reflects a greater adoption of smartphones versus regular phones coupled with technological advances increasing the addictiveness of the devices.

In 2018 we see the highest percentile of the chart, this was the year where leading operating systems iOS and Android released software updates for users to visualize and monitor their use (or overuse).

Which US State Has The Most Phone Addicts In 2019?

Similar to the data above, we matched phrases like 'help' and 'support' with cell phone addiction-related terms, comparing states with the highest relative proportion of their population searching for support in terms of managing their phone use.
Below is the collective US search data from January 2019 to June 2019

The numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the United States. A value of 100 would be considered the peak popularity, 50 would be half of the collective terms volume. The above data shows a vast increase in the average American's desire to fix their phone overuse.

States with the highest local search intent are Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Connecticut, Maryland

States with the lowest local search intent are Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, North & South Carolina

How Much Is Your Phone Worth?

To get an idea of the values you can get when selling your old phone in the US, check out our latest phone trade-in pricing below:

https://www.bankmycell.com/

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Smartphone Addiction, The Definitive Guide 2020

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The average smartphone user checks their device 47 times a day / 17,155 a year. Conversation killer! 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep, 35% of which will do within 5 minutes.

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"When all those developments occurred, people still ate together, they shopped face-to-face, played games, they certainly dated and they worked face-to-face," she said.

"Now you can do all those activities without meeting another human being. Surely that has an impact on the kind of human being you become."

When Baroness Greenfield raised these concerns in 2009 she said she was attacked by medical experts and in the mainstream media with headlines such as "Baroness says computers rot the brain".

"Sadly those headlines have been increasingly vindicated," said Baroness Greenfield, who will meet with the Victorian Department of Education to discuss the use of iPads and other screens in schools.

The extent to which screen time affects psychological and neurological health remains controversial. A Oxford University study released last month concluded screen time had little effect on the psychological wellbeing of teenagers.

"We found little clear-cut evidence that screen time decreases adolescent wellbeing, even if the use of digital technology occurs directly before bedtime," said Professor Andrew Przybylski, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute and co-author on the study.

The World Health Organisation guidelines released last week recommended no passive screen time for children under the age of one and no more than one hour a day for those under five in order to limit the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle on developing brains and bodies.

Previous studies have suggested a link between excessive screen time, shorter attention spans, addictive personalities, recklessness, low empathy, poor interpersonal skills and a weakened sense of identity.

A 2011 study found children who spent hours playing video games had brains like gamblers. MRI scans showed they both had enlarged areas of the brain that releases dopamine; critical to arousal and our risk-reward response

Dopamine also inhibits the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with decision making, planning and moderating behaviour.

"We know when you play with a screen it is an intensely stimulating experience," Baroness Greenfield said. "The lights are brighter, the sounds are greater, the action is faster and the feedback is more immediate."

A 2014 US study found students were not comfortable spending as little as six to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, with many preferring to give themselves electric shocks instead of being along with their thoughts.

"Does this mean we are going to live in a world where we are much more dependent on external stimulation, [where people] need excitement all the time?" Baroness Greenfield said.

"It's quite a scary thought. I don't think we are going to be like computers but more like volatile three-year-olds."

She warned younger generations may be "heading towards an existence where there is no inner narrative, no inner train of thought".

She advocated minimising screen time and more time on activities that have a sequence of events to rewire our brains.

Sport, cooking, sharing meals, physical games and playing music all do this but reading books and stories was "best of all", she said.
Kate Aubusson travelled to Kuala Lumpur as a guest of ANZCA.
Kate Aubusson is Health Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

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How 'screen time' is turning adults into 'volatile three-year-olds'

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"When all those developments occurred, people still ate together, they shopped face-to-face, played games, they certainly dated and they worked face-to-face," she said. "Now you can do all those activities without meeting another human being. Surely that has an impact on the kind of human being you become."

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You can stay organised by writing a remainder of your day.

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Did you know that parents should set up a role model for their kids and show them how to stop themselves from using their device all the time?

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Did you know that parents should set up a role model for their kids and show them how to stop themselves from using their device all the time?

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The Whole World Online - The problem of teen cell phone addiction nowadays Every day of our modern lives brings change, as well as technical progress. Some 20 years ago the majority of people wouldn't understand the term "internet addiction." Today it is a part of our reality. With the development of technologies and a wide variety of the latest mobile devices available in stores, the new form of obsession appears within a recent decade. It is a mobile phone addiction, and its symptoms can be found among people almost in any part of the world. Especially, it is a problem for the younger generation. Teen cell phone addiction becomes an acute question in many modern families.

Lost In The Web - Mobile phone addiction symptoms
Cell phone addiction in teenagers shows up in various forms and different everyday life situations. Kids are using their mobile devices like a drug - when they are bored, tired and lazy, when feeling angry or lonely.
Most common mobile phone addiction symptoms are:

A constant need to use a cell phone more often.

Loss of sense of time while surfing online.

Failed attempts to use a mobile device less.

Feelings of anxiety or being depressed.

Preferring using a cell phone instead of spending time with family and friends.

Feeling restless or irritable when a mobile phone or network is unreachable.

Craving for the latest models of mobile devices and the newest applications.

There is also a number of physical effects caused by teenage cell phone addiction, such as fingers, neck and back tension, itchy eyes, insomnia, weight change, changes in diet, fatigue, difficulties in focusing on one subject, distracted attention, etc.

Overall, teen cell phone addiction often leads to problems and failures in studies as well as loss of interest in hobbies, sports, and outdoor activities. In some cases, it can also cause social loneliness, loss of friends, staying isolated.

Some Facts and Numbers - Results of teen cell phone addictionAccording to Common Sense Media recent Addiction Research about teenage cell phone addiction:

78% of teens check their devices at least hourly;

59% of parents feel their teens are addicted to their cell phones;

50% of teenagers admit that they are addicted to their mobile devices;

1/3 of teen kids very often or occasionally try to cut down on time spent on mobile device;

72% of teens feel the need to immediately respond to texts, social-networking messages and other notifications.

What Can Be Done? - Solutions to cell phone addictionTeenage cell phone addiction is not easy to deal with, but being a parent, you should always try your best to help kids to overcome the obsession. Here are different solutions to cell phone addiction in teenagers.

First of all, a parent should become a friend to his/her teen. Be ready to talk, help and support your kid in any situation.

Treat your child as you would treat an adult - a person equal to you. Show your teenage son or daughter how to be in charge of his/her behavior.

At the same time, show your authority. You are the parent - so it's you who sets the rules.

Become a positive example. Use your own cell phone less and pay more attention to the members of your family.

Set a limit on the money that you give out monthly for your child's phone.

Another good solution to teen cell phone addiction is setting a limit on the Internet data available. Once the allotment runs out, the Internet will be disconnected. Therefore, a teen will use cell phone less frequently and more thoughtfully.

Monitor their mobile activity.

If you are a young parent of a small child, you might prevent teenage cell phone addiction in future.You might not buy a mobile phone until your kid is at least a junior in high school and has his/her first part-time job, to be able to pay a monthly sum for cell phone connection.
Some strict home rules may be very useful to handle teen cell phone addiction:

Set limits on using a mobile phone when a child is supposed to study for important school tests and projects. Social media and texting shouldn't distract the attention of your kid from primary tasks. Education comes first. You can monitor their social activity with the help of parental control software for android tablet or mobile devices.

Make a schedule of home life. A child should have a certain period of time before he/she will be allowed to use a cell phone. Most likely, a teenager will have his/her school tasks and home duties done to have a chance to get back online sooner. Such a solution in cell phone addiction makes a teenager more disciplined.

Another way to fight against cell phone addiction in teenagers is to forbid using cell phones during meals. A dinner should be spent with a family, when all members share news, talk and laugh, enjoying the time spent together. So all mobile devices should be put aside or turned off. This rule also works for all family trips, time spent hiking, visiting places of interest, travelling,

To overcome teen cell phone addiction, show your child that life around us is far more interesting and colorful than any social media. Time spent with the family is precious.

Is your teen addicted to a cell phone? Have you done anything about it?

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Best Ways to Fight Teen Cell Phone Addiction

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The Whole World Online - The problem of teen cell phone addiction nowadays Every day of our modern lives brings change, as well as technical progress. Some 20 years ago the majority of people wouldn't understand the term "internet addiction." Today it is a part of our reality.

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Did you know that device addiction can cause some car crashes because if you are focusing on the screen and not focusing on font you might crash.

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Did you know that device addiction can cause some car crashes because if you are focusing on the screen and not focusing on font you might crash.

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Also, did you know that out of 100% , 27% of them involves device.

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Owning a cell phone is a fact of life for most of us, but the convenience of having a world of information at our fingertips comes at a price. We work after we're done working. We're reachable around the clock. Sometimes it seems like we're always on call. And your iPhone isn't just inundating you with post-work emails from work. It's also having negative effects on your health.

As much as a smartphone is a great way to keep your life organized and on track, smartphones have also been linked to mood and sleep problems by researchers at the University of Gothenburg. And the fun doesn't stop there. Your phone could also be wreaking havoc on your physical health in myriad ways too. The good news? The 50 Genius Tricks to Improve Your Life can still help counteract the negative effects of your tech addiction.

The weight of your head looking down at your phone screen all day can put a lot of pressure on your neck and spine and lead to a condition called tech neck. For more info on this unfortunate malady, check out What Is Tech Neck and Do You Have It?

By now, you probably know that the blue light blasting out of your phone screen can interfere with your sleep. However, you might not realize that scientists at the University of Granada in Spain have linked sleep disruptions like the ones caused by your phone to obesity and diabetes. These disruptions prevent your body from producing ghrelin and leptin, two hunger hormones that help you regulate your appetite during your waking hours. And it isn't just looking at your phone before you fall asleep that causes these disruptions-any light your phone emits while you sleep, whether it's from a notification or the clock on your screen, can mess with the hormones your body needs to produce while you're sleeping. So, before you hit the hay, turn off your phone and make sure you know the 20 Nighttime Habits Guaranteed to Help You Sleep Better.
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Digital multitasking may seem effective, but it may be making us less focused in the long run. A study from Microsoft showed that the average attention span of participants was only eight seconds. A goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds. This shortened attention span is a new development, and it's more pronounced in people who are "heavy multi-screeners." In the year 2000, before the advent of smartphones, humans could pay attention to something for 12 seconds. If you feel like your mind isn't as sharp as it once was, Steal These 16 Mental-Health Secrets of Famous Geniuses.

In addition to shortening your attention span, media multitasking can change the physical structure of your brain, research published in PLoS One suggests. People who engage in a higher amount of media multitasking actually had smaller grey matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex portion of their brain, which is linked to decreased cognitive control and socio-emotional regulation.

Not only can too much screen time change the structure of your brain, it can also change the way you think. Researchers from Dartmouth compared the takeaways people who read physical books got from a passage against those of people who read on screens, and they found that people who do their reading on a screen weren't as good at recognizing abstract concepts in the passages they read.

Cell phones are involved in 27% of car crashes in the United States, according to the National Safety Council. And the ways a car crash can mess with your health, assuming you survive, are too almost too numerous to list.

The size of your phone may affect how assertive you are, according to research from the Harvard Business School. People who used smaller devices in the study continued to wait in their seat for a researcher to come back to them, rather than go to the front desk and get them as instructed. People using larger electronic devices took a more assertive approach. And unfortunately, the bad posture caused by hunching over small electronic devices is just one of 15 Daily Habits That Are Killing Your Confidence.

First your phone gave you tech neck, and now it's giving you texting thumb, a repetitive stress injury caused by too much texting. Smartphones aren't particularly ergonomic, and overusing one could cause you some pain in your thumb that might make you less dextrous, at least for the time being. Fortunately, your thumb just needs rest to recover, so if you find yours aching, put your phone away and consider one of The 50 Best Ways to Relax With Your Partner instead.

Kids these days don't have as much empathy as they used to. A study conducted at the University of Michigan found that college students from this decade are 40 percent less empathetic than college students were 30 years ago. The cause of this steep drop in empathy is presumed to be a combination of exposure to more media and social media, both of which we all conveniently carry around in our pockets all the time.

Driving with your phone in your hand isn't the only way you're putting yourself at risk on the roads. A study published in the Journal of Community Health that observed 21,760 pedestrians at five busy intersections in Manhattan found that half of the people who were crossing in spite of a Don't Walk signal were wearing headphones, talking on the phone, or looking at an electronic device. So, phones do more than make people dangerous drivers: they make people dangerous pedestrians, too.

Despite being the thing that keeps you connected to your entire circle of friends, your phone could be causing you social anxiety. For many, this anxiety may be the result of feeling the need to respond immediately to every text, email, or notification you get. However, strangely enough, using your phone for professional reasons didn't cause increased stress. Nice to know your phone is only interfering with the stuff that actually matters!

In addition to messing with your sleep cycle, looking at your phone in bed can also cause temporary blindness. If you lie on your side in the dark and look at your phone with one eye, you can go temporarily blind. It's probably a good idea to stop bringing your phone to bed.

If you use your phone to communicate verbally instead of via text, you might be spared texting thumb, but you could instead suffer "cell phone elbow," AKA cubital tunnel syndrome. Treatment includes switching the phone to your other arm, using a headset, or better yet, putting the phone down from time to time.

You take your phone with you everywhere-the kitchen, the bedroom, bathroom-so it should come as no surprise that thing is covered in germs. And then you put it on your face. Unsurprisingly, this might be a bad idea-superbug MRSA has been found on cell phones, after all. And even if there's not MRSA on your phone, there are definitely some other not-s0-pleasant germs crawling around on that thing.

You can pretty easily avoid temporary blindness in one eye from your phone, but eye strain is another matter entirely. Between the time you spend looking at a computer and the time you spend staring at your phone, it's fairly likely you're straining your eyes on a pretty regular basis.

Constantly looking down at your phone can give you tech neck, but it can also lead to a painful condition called occipital neuralgia, which is caused when the occipital nerves at the base of your neck get compressed from looking down all the time, causing terrible headaches. The good news? The headaches can be cured. The bad news? It requires a lot of injections, so be mindful of your posture.

Plugging headphones into your ears and blasting some tunes from your phone is a great way to block out the sounds of traffic on your commute home. Unfortunately, it's also a great way to permanently damage your hearing. Whenever possible, resist that urge to turn things to 11.

You'd like to imagine that doctors texting while operating doesn't happen, but it is sadly very much a thing. Multiple doctors have been caught in the operating room texting people while on the job. And even if they aren't texting, those germy phones and supposedly-sterile environments still don't mix.

In teens, 48 percent of those who looked at their phone for more than five hours each day had considered suicide or even made plans to kill themselves. It's hard to think of a better way to highlight the need to limit the amount of time you spend on your phone.

It's entirely possible to become addicted to your cell phone. Smartphone withdrawal can cause physical symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, and depression. It actually increases the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well, which is cardio-toxic. Perhaps the worst thing about all the ways your phone harms your health is that it's so hard to quit. Luckily, there's hope. If you think you've got a problem, discover 11 Ways to Conquer Your Smartphone Addiction.
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20 Ways Your Cell Phone Harms Your Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Owning a cell phone is a fact of life for most of us, but the convenience of having a world of information at our fingertips comes at a price. We work after we're done working. We're reachable around the clock. Sometimes it seems like we're always on call.

# data[].attributes.body
A device called "pathspot" can detect germs by using light. You can detect it depending on how the light bounces your germs on your hand.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | New hand-washing tool prevents germs from spreading

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PathSpot is a hand-washing device that uses wavelengths of reflected light to detect bacteria.

# data[].attributes.headline
Do you know that one of the most simple but effective solution to device addiction is to do "nothing"?! Doing nothing is sometimes a good choice because they can remind you of the importance of savoring and enjoying every moment of life. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know that one of the most simple but effective solution to device addiction is to do "nothing"?! Doing nothing is sometimes a good choice because they can remind you of the importance of savoring and enjoying every moment of life. 

# data[].attributes.body
This is related to action because when we need to have a little meeting with people who are addicted to devices, and if anyone asks how to stop being addicted to devices gradually in process, then we can explain to them that doing nothing can remind you something good.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Image credit: Thanasis Zovoilis | Getty Images

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

That we are living in an age of near constant digital distraction is now old news. By this point, you have no doubt read about the studies linking the devices in your pocket to diminished happiness, focus, productivity and cognitive performance.

You have also likely heard that the urge to pick up our devices is similar to other forms of behavioral addiction. Like gambling or shopping addiction, it releases a small shot of dopamine in various regions of the brain and keeps us coming back for more, even when we know it's not in our best interest to do so.

So the question is no longer "Are we distracted?" but "How can we overcome our addiction to distraction so we can focus on the things that actually matter?"

As a mindfulness expert and well-being entrepreneur, I've experimented with all sorts of apps and technical solutions. And yet, I've found that the most powerful solutions don't involve downloading new apps. They involve changing habits.

Here are the four most powerful inner shifts you can use to radically enhance focus, clarity, and productivity.

Strategy 1: Tie yourself to the smartphone mast.

You might recall the ancient Greek myth of Odysseus. As his ship approached the Sirens, he knew that the seductive call of their voices would overwhelm his rational capacities -- that their intoxicating call would lead him to abandon his best interests and jump off the boat to his death. So before encountering the Sirens, he had his crew tie him to the mast.

Our smartphones are modern-day Sirens. They're intoxicating and utterly addictive. And that means that we simply can't be trusted to make good, rational decisions in their presence. Like Odysseus, we're best off creating limits around how we use these devices before we're in their presence.

Here are some strategies to consider:

Delete the addictive apps off your phone. If that's too radical, move them off the main screen or into a folder that's out of sight.

Use the app Moment to monitor your usage patterns.

Put your phone on grey scale so you aren't as enchanted by the colorful graphics.

Use "airplane mode" or "do not disturb" to silence incoming distractions.

Consider unplugging your router during nights or weekends.

Downgrade to a smaller phone like the iPhone SE.

Related: 5 Fast Facts About the New Apple iPhone SE
Strategy 2: Become aware of the urge to distraction.

How often does this happen to you? You're in the midst of a busy day filled with back-to-back meetings, emails and pressing deadlines. Then, out of the blue, you have a short, unexpected gap in your day. And then, without even thinking about it, you pull out your phone and dive into email, Facebook, news or some other distraction.

This urge is even more damaging when we're at home. It's what causes us to respond to our child's request to play by saying, "Just a minute," as we stare blankly at our device. It's what causes us to interrupt a conversation with a friend, a meal or an important event with occasional surreptitious glances down at our phone.

What we now know from the science and practice of mindfulness is that the best response to this urge is to simply become aware. When you feel like you just have to check that score, stock price or text, become aware of the experience of craving. Notice what it feels like. Notice the thoughts that arise.
Related: The 6 Signs of Cell Phone Addiction
Then make an actual choice as to whether or not you will indulge the urge. Even if you do end up on Facebook or Instagram, this micro-moment of awareness changes everything. It breaks you out of autopilot. It gives you back the ability to choose how best to spend your time.

Strategy 3: Time for "flow."

In the early 1990s, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term flow to describe the state of full absorption in the task at hand. Flow is the polar opposite of distraction. It's that state we all encounter from time to time where our sense of self and time dissolves, where we get more done in a matter of hours than we might ordinarily accomplish in several days. The research shows that you don't have to be LeBron James or Serena Williams to experience this state. It's available to everyone -- no matter your occupation.

But there's a catch. Flow requires space from interruption and distraction. So here are a few tips to create spaces in your day for full engagement:

Schedule "flow blocks" on your calendar. Don't just assume they'll happen.

If possible, work at home, at a coffee shop or in some other environment where you are free from interruptions during these blocks.

Turn your phone to "airplane mode."

Close your web browser and email program.

Related: How to Find Your Flow and Achieve Greatness
Strategy 4: Do nothing.

In modern times, we've turned doing into the ultimate virtue. We brag about how busy we are. We carefully craft our days to eliminate gaps and spaces.

This has led to the death of idle moments -- of simply being. The science, however, shows that our bodies and minds weren't designed for this "always on" state. We are happier, more focused and more productive when we take the occasional moment to pause, breathe, gaze at the view and do nothing.

So see what happens when you build in a few times each day for doing nothing. Let yourself experience a few moments where you temporarily release yourself from the expectation of doing. It could be a walk, taking in the view, or reflecting on your day before you fall asleep. These moments bring you back to the present. They give you glimpses of gratitude. They remind you of the importance of savoring and enjoying this fragile life that could go away at any moment.

Implementing these four strategies isn't easy. It requires resisting our ordinary habits of digital distraction. But the reward is massive. In a world where distraction has become a cultural norm, your ability to skillfully navigate these forces and manage attention will give you the ultimate competitive edge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Ways to Break Your Phone Addiction So You Can Focus on What Really Matters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. That we are living in an age of near constant digital distraction is now old news. By this point, you have no doubt read about the studies linking the devices in your pocket to diminished happiness, focus, productivity and cognitive performance.

# data[].attributes.body
Texting online has its own benefits.
-Able to communicate with feelings and clarifications
-Can lead to deeper conversations
-Etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Are you texters or yellers? Many families turn to texting at home to "talk"

# data[].attributes.body
Did you know that 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet and did yo know that 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

# data[].attributes.body
Did you know that on average adults spend there time on social media for 45 minutes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

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Do you know that from all those signs and effects of being addicted to devices, one of the most deleterious effect is that you will be isolated from group of people and start to have the gap between others?!

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Do you know that from all those signs and effects of being addicted to devices, one of the most deleterious effect is that you will be isolated from group of people and start to have the gap between others?!

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This is related to action and the presentation day because if anyone asks us about how to find out if you are addicted to devices or not, we can all explain it.

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Everyone knows that smartphones make life convenient. They make it easy to check the weather, find a recipe, stay in touch with friends, follow the news, or just see what Kim Kardashian had for breakfast. But for people with nomophobia, smartphones cause more problems than they solve. Nomophobia is a moniker for smartphone addiction, short for "no mobile phone phobia." That's right-smartphone addiction has become enough of an issue that it merits its own word.

In fact, a study by the University of Derby found that one in eight people are addicted to their phones. And while nomophobia hasn't made its way into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders just yet, the signs and symptoms of smartphone addiction range from the psychological to the physical and are very real for those suffering. The good news? It's easy to find out if you're addicted to your smartphone and take measures to scale back before it becomes a bigger problem. And when you want to kick your smartphone habit, start with the 11 Easy Ways to Conquer Your Smartphone Addiction.

Smartphone addiction has been linked to trouble sleeping. Research suggests that the blue light emitted by your phone can actually disrupt your sleep cycle, making it harder to fall asleep. If you find that you can't stop looking at your phone until the moment you close your eyes, despite the fact that it may be interfering with your sleep, you might be addicted to your smartphone. Instead of scrolling through Instagram every night, pick up a few of the 20 Nighttime Habits Guaranteed to Help You Sleep Better.

Addiction doesn't just mean you look at your phone a lot. It also comes with measurable symptoms that indicate you've become dependent on your phone in a way that impedes your everyday life. For some addicts, this means just the thought of not having their phone can cause them anxiety and actually going without their phone is a no-go entirely. If the notion of leaving your phone at home for the day sends you into a panic, master the art of calming your nerves with 10 Ways to Focus Better During Meditation.

If you're constantly checking your phone, you're more likely to get stressed out by what's happening on Facebook. Political arguments on Facebook had a negative emotional effect on 42% of people who constantly look at their phone, as opposed to just 27% of people with healthier smartphone habits. On top of making you stressed, Facebook bingeing is just one of 15 Daily Habits That Are Killing Your Confidence.

The average American checks their cell phone 47 times each day, according to research by Deloitte. That's already quite a lot, and if you find yourself looking at your phone above and beyond that measure, you might be suffering from nomophobia.

Worried about smartphone addiction? There's an online quiz for that. The quiz was created by assistant professor of human computer interaction at State University of New York at Oswego Caglar Yirdirim to help people assess whether they've got a case of nomophobia. A score under 20 means you're probably all good, but as your score increases, so does the amount your phone habits are interfering with your life.

Do frequently find yourself snapping back to reality and realizing you've been lost in your phone for an extended period of time? Losing time by reaching for your phone when you're bored could be a sign that you've got a smartphone problem.

Do you find yourself missing out on what your friends are up to, even though you're right there with them? Giving your phone so much attention that you find yourself ignoring the conversations and people around can be a sign of smartphone addiction. On top of that, conversation is actually a useful workout for your brain, so when you pass on talking to your friends for checking on your Facebook, you're missing an opportunity to keep your mind sharp. In fact, it's just one of 17 Daily Habits That Are Ruining Your Brain.

Social media addiction isn't quite the same thing as smartphone addiction, but if you can't put your phone down because you're looking at Facebook or Instagram, it can be a slippery slope that leads straight to nomophobia. Get the jump on smartphone addiction by avoiding these 15 Facebook Habits You Need to Break.

One of the many deleterious effects of smartphone addiction is that you may find yourself isolated from the real world. If you find yourself communicating with people via text more often than face to face, it's probably time to turn the phone off and grab a cup of coffee with a friend.

Spending hours scrolling through social media feeds or websites like a zombie that craves likes instead of brains is a sign that you have a problem moderating the way you use your phone. You might think you're looking at your phone because you have "nothing better to do," but almost anything is better than killing time looking at your phone for no good reason.

If you have a problem with smartphone addiction, you probably know what we're talking about. You feel your phone vibrating, but when you check it, there's nothing there. It could be a sign that you are so anxious about not using your phone that your body eagerly interprets other stimuli as a message from your phone. This anxiety can also keep you from being fully present with your family or friends.

The inability to stop doing something despite the negative consequences it can have on your health or life is a classic sign of addiction, and that's exactly what texting while driving is. People who text and drive actually have worse reaction time than people who drink and drive. If you can't put your phone away while you're driving, you're a danger to yourself and to others on the road.

In addition to making you anxious, when you're addicted to your phone and don't have it on you, you can feel actual discomfort. A study found that people who had their phones confiscated experienced increased heart rate, blood pressure, and feelings of unpleasantness, while their cognitive abilities actually decreased when they heard their phone ringing but couldn't answer it.

If you find yourself without your phone while you're on your way to run a simple errand, do you have to turn around and go back home to get it? That kind of attachment to a device isn't healthy, and could be a sign of nomophobia.

The average American spends somewhere between four and five hours every day looking at their phone. If you are spending more time that that on your phone, you might have a problem.

Overuse of your phone can lead to increased feelings of shyness or loneliness, caused in no small part by the isolation you experience when your entire world exists in a little computer you hold in your hand. If you find yourself feeling lonely even though you've maxed out your Facebook friend count, use your phone to call a friend instead of posting another status update.

When you sit down for dinner with friends, is the first thing you do plop your phone down on the table so you can keep an eye on it at all times? If so, you're letting your phone get in the way of your relationships with your friends, which is a sign of addiction.

A shocking 9 percent of people admitted they've used their phone while in the act with their partner. If this is you, stop it. There's no excuse for checking Twitter during an intimate moment.

Smartphone addiction has been linked to an increase in impulsive behavior. Too much time on your phone can lead to an imbalance in your brain chemistry and has been linked to depression, anxiety, insomnia, and impulsive behavior.

Making multiple attempts to cut back on how much you use your phone and failing miserably every single time is a sure sign of smartphone addiction. Instead of going cold turkey, try whittling it down until you reach your goal amount of daily screen time. Having a hard time coping with withdrawals? Kick the habit for good by using 70 Genius Tricks to Instantly Get Happy.
To discover more amazing secrets about living your best life, click here to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter!

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20 Signs You're Addicted to Your Smartphone

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Everyone knows that smartphones make life convenient. They make it easy to check the weather, find a recipe, stay in touch with friends, follow the news, or just see what Kim Kardashian had for breakfast. But for people with nomophobia, smartphones cause more problems than they solve.

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Do you know that there are many simple but very effective solutions to curb the excessive use of devices?! To add to that, do you know that instead of using different applications on your phone, you can use real life things to replace it?! For example, replace note taking applications into pencil and paper. 

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Do you know that there are many simple but very effective solutions to curb the excessive use of devices?! To add to that, do you know that instead of using different applications on your phone, you can use real life things to replace it?! For example, replace note taking applications into pencil and paper. 

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This is related to our action because we can explain various simple but effective solutions for many people.

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day.

There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices. The millennials surveyed said that their devices have created better work-life balance, contributing to better communication and relationship-building.

Clearly there's a lot of good that comes with frequent use of our devices, but there's also a downside.

Research shows that as we grow more dependent on technology, our intellect, attention levels and social skills weaken. In fact, with just the mere presence of our smartphones, our ability to focus on a task and solve problems decreases.

But don't beat yourself up about excessive smartphone usage. The reality is, your smartphone addiction may not be your fault--the designers of these devices are rewarded for using techniques to keep you glued to your screen for as long as possible.

Luckily, there is hope. If you're trying to improve your relationship with your device, here some ways that you can take back control of your time and attention.

1. Track Your Usage

Addicted to your smartphone? There's an app for that.

Ironically, you can try to stave off addicting smartphone apps with another app. While not ideal, there are apps like SPACE and Moment helps you find your personal phone-life balance by monitoring your smartphone use and setting limits.

2. Stop Scrolling

Many of the most popular mobile apps (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more) are designed with infinite scrolling functions, where you can consume an endless feed of information.

However, infinite scrolling can make it easy to lose track of time. Nothing holds our attention better than the unknown. A bottomless stream of social media posts motivates you to continue the search for the element of surprise; seeking things that captivate, engross, and entertain. Our brains can't get enough of trying to predict what's next and, like a loose slot machine, the infinite scroll gives you fast access to what psychologists call variable rewards.

Although social media apps can be difficult to live without, try deleting the apps that have infinite scroll and see how much time you can earn back.

3. Calm Your Mind

There is a very real euphoric sensationwhen you get a social media notification, such as when someone likes a photo you've posted to Instagram or Facebook. These moments trigger a dopamine release in the brain, a chemical that creates feelings of pleasure. It's an essential part of our brain's rewards system, which is why it's also gets blamed for addiction.

Meditation, yoga, exercise, and other mindfulness activities have been proven to create a natural release of dopamine, reducing the craving from the dopamine rushes your phone provides.

4. Use the Physical Versions of Useful Apps

Yes, having everything in your pocket is convenient. Your smartphone has almost completely diminished the need for calculators, calendars, cameras, notebooks, alarm clocks and so many other things.

We've all been there before: you unlock your phone to check the weather or make a note and the next thing you know you've been in your Instagram feed for 20 minutes. To avoid this problem, try replacing as many digital tools with physical ones.

For example, using a real alarm clock (and keeping your phone out of reach while sleeping) can help prevent you from wasting time before bed or right when you wake up. Carry a physical notebook and pen to take notes. Read paperback books and avoid the digital versions.

The key is to avoid unlocking your phone as much as possible to prevent getting unintentionally pulled into the digital vortex.

5. Get by With a Little Help From Your Friends

As is the case with any addiction, the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Admitting to those around you that you want to reduce your smartphone usage can create a necessary feedback system.

Ask them to hold you accountable. You might not notice when you're scrolling through the screen during a family gathering, but others do. Your friends and family can call you out to bring you back to the present moment.

6. Turn Off All Notifications Unrelated to Communication from Real People

Our devices were meant to increase our connectivity to other people; so keep it that way. Turn off any notifications from apps unless they're alerting you that a coworker, friend or family might need your attention in real-time.

You might even consider deleting social media apps from your phone altogether and only accessing them via a computer. The constant friend and family updates can wait until later, I promise.

7. Turn Your Phone to Grayscale

This is a popular recommendation by Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Human Technology.

Research shows that colors are attached to emotions and priorities--especially that little red notification bubble that has controlled us for so long. Turning your phone to black and white can reduce the urge you have to view new notifications that pull you into the infinite scrolling vortex.

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7 Ways to Curb Your Smartphone Addiction Right Now

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day. There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices.

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Did you know the average Britons checked their phone 50 times in one day.

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Did you know the average Britons checked their phone 50 times in one day.

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Link:

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Did you know that kids nowadays doesn't know the experience of their parents since they didn't experience it.  

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Did you know that kids nowadays doesn't know the experience of their parents since they didn't experience it.  

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Link:

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The clinical approach for social media users differs from that of gamers to a certain extent. We look at the need social media was filling in the campers life and address underlying issues in individual therapy.

There is a clinical benefit to reviewing social media posts with the camper. We discuss personal boundaries, appropriate Internet use, and what objective they may be trying to achieve by making certain types of posts or comments. We discuss with the camper if an account can be salvaged or if it needs to be scrapped.

Internet Overuse and Computer Addiction Treatment

Other campers we work with have interests including YouTube and Reddit, where the attraction might be simply entertainment with little or no social interaction. We help these campers develop other interests offline, and work with them to understand the consequences of excessive screen activity.

Goal setting is critical for the computer addiction treatment process to work effectively. Most parents have tried a limit setting, punishment, scolding, and it hasn't worked. At Summerland Camps, we meet the child where they are and create positive goals to work on together. Campers soon learn that meeting their life goals and endless hours of computer browsing are not compatible.

Handheld Devices and Computer Addiction Treatment

Many campers we work with have an issue with the inappropriate or excessive use of an iPhone, iPod, Android, or similar handheld device. This can be particularly troublesome as many schools today support and even require students to access handheld devices as a reference tool in class.

As part of the computer addiction treatment process, we also teach our campers how to set up appropriate limits with handheld devices so that there will be no temptation to abuse their devices in class. If your child has been in trouble for inappropriate device or Internet use in school, we can help!

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Computer Addiction Treatment for youth age 10-17 in a positive setting!

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The clinical approach for social media users differs from that of gamers to a certain extent. We look at the need social media was filling in the campers life and address underlying issues in individual therapy. There is a clinical benefit to reviewing social media posts with the camper.

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75% of the workers in the UK check their phones while work.
this is related to the hazard map because in UK, a lot of people are probably in a danger of addiction to devices.

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

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People open their phones more than 10 times more than laughing. 150 times = phone opening Laughing = 15 times

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

# data[].attributes.headline
Do you know experts showed that the richer and more the technology systems are developed in the country, the more they have the percentage of using the Internet a lot?! Do you also know that adding to my first question, Iceland and some other countries in the Northern Europe ranked the top for high level for internet usage? 

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know experts showed that the richer and more the technology systems are developed in the country, the more they have the percentage of using the Internet a lot?! Do you also know that adding to my first question, Iceland and some other countries in the Northern Europe ranked the top for high level for internet usage? 

# data[].attributes.body
This is related to my VCA, historical map because in this fact it said that near the year of 2016, Iceland/countries in Northern Europe had ranked the top for the most and the highest level of the use of devices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Europe has the highest percentage of Internet users in the world

# data[].attributes.headline
Do you know it is estimated that around 80 facilities in Japan are taking care of gaming addiction seriously?! Furthermore, do you know that many other countries are encouraging Japan to be more serious about gaming addiction just like how South Korea is trying their best? 

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know it is estimated that around 80 facilities in Japan are taking care of gaming addiction seriously?! Furthermore, do you know that many other countries are encouraging Japan to be more serious about gaming addiction just like how South Korea is trying their best? 

# data[].attributes.body
This is related to one of our VCA because now I know that Japan is trying to take action recently to support this issue. Also I know that South Korea is supporting and providing lots of clinics for gaming addiction already from the past because it was said that one in ten teens from South Korea was addicted to devices so South Korea is a safe place for gaming addiction.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How much gaming is too much gaming?

This is the question Japan's pre-eminent addiction expert, Dr. Susumu Higuchi, is trying to answer as he treats people whose lives have been destroyed by video game addiction.

Online gaming addiction has become the fastest-growing form of addiction in the 21st century, and it's the most vulnerable people - children - who mainly fall prey to its psychoactive effects, Higuchi says. As head of the Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center in Kanagawa Prefecture, which started the country's first program for internet addition in 2011, Higuchi is rolling up his sleeves to tackle a scourge that has eaten into the vitals of our society.

"This isn't just about Japan, it's happening all over the world," Higuchi said in a recent interview.

"We deal with patients every day and see how gaming addiction is only getting worse. How can we ignore that?"

Every Tuesday, the laid-back, softly spoken 64-year-old and his two physician colleagues hold sessions for patients whose obsession with games has led them to neglect real-life responsibilities, including family, friends, school, work, and even hygiene, sleeping and eating.

The majority are teenage boys brought to the clinic by worried families, but there are also adult men who seek help for gaming habits that have turned from passion to pathology, making them yearn for just one more hit, one more level, one more achievement unlocked.

While boys tend to get hooked on shooter and role-playing games, girls are more prone to social media addiction, Higuchi explained. Of the 1,800 people who are admitted to his internet addiction outpatient program every year, 90 percent are gamers, most of them male.

It's easier for him to convince "mild" addicts that their minds can be rewired for long-term gains in the real world, while those with more severe levels of addiction will want to go back to their online reality in pursuit of immediate rewards in the form of dopamine.

"We're losing money by doing this," Higuchi said of his program at the clinic, where he can take no more than 20 patients a day and each may need years of treatment.

The last time the center opened reservations, in early February, it received 300 calls within two hours.

"Everyone's desperate. We aren't able to meet demand," he said.

Higuchi devotes much of his time to treating a medical condition that many still refuse to recognize, and some even call nonsense. While some see the artistic, cultural and social merit of games, others, like Higuchi, are more skeptical.

The intervention specialist started the internet addiction rehab program because he expected to see similarities between behavioral addiction and substance addiction. Though he did find that in both cases the brain undergoes changes in its chemistry, he came to the conclusion that there isn't a one-size-fits-all recovery program.

"It's actually not the same, internet addiction is worse. Unlike alcohol and drugs, you can't ever take the internet away. Digital temptations are everywhere and there's no way to stop a person from playing games," Higuchi said.

"A person can abstain from alcohol and be in a zero state, but you can't do that with the internet. You can't unplug from technology entirely. That's what makes treatment difficult. And bear in mind we're often dealing with children," he added.

Despite decades of study, there is no scientific consensus regarding the potential impact of violent video games on youth aggression or on other aspects of public health.

But Higuchi, who also runs the country's largest treatment facility for alcoholism, said there is no denying that video game dependency is real. He can't stop you from scoffing at the idea, but he does have the World Health Organization on his side.

In May, the WHO will present the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases, which includes gaming disorder as a new diagnosis, for adoption by member states at the World Health Assembly. If approved, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

The WHO says those affected show a pattern of behavior characterized by 1) impaired control over gaming, 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities, and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.

Not surprisingly, there has been pushback and criticism from the gaming community, but Higuchi thinks once gaming disorder is recognized as a mental illness, it should be a wake-up call for the Japanese government to take gaming as seriously as South Korea does.

In South Korea, surveys have suggested that roughly 1 teen in 10 is an internet addict. The government spends about $10 million per year to fund a nationwide network of treatment centers, in addition to prevention programs like the shutdown law, which blocks those under 16 from accessing online gaming communities from midnight to 6 a.m.

By calling on Japan, home to gaming giants like Nintendo and Sony, to take drastic measures to help the country's youth, Higuchi knows he is up against formidable foes. A 2018 health ministry report said as many as 930,000 junior high and high school students may be addicted to the internet, its use often linked to escapism.

"With any kind of addiction, there's bound to be opposition from corporate giants. There's the alcohol industry, gambling industry and now the gaming industry," Higuchi said.

Higuchi said he can prove that gaming disorder is a diagnosable condition. But, as with everything else that falls under the category of internet addiction - social networking, email, blogging, shopping and pornography - there is a shortage of evidence.

Our love affair with devices does not automatically qualify us as addicts. Gaming dependency can be hard to define, but if you are moody, irritable, depressed or angry when not playing a game, or thinking about the next gaming session when not online, those are some psychological symptoms.

A common parenting strategy mistake is confiscating game consoles from children, Higuchi said, as is disabling Wi-Fi, hiding gadgets or even smashing an Xbox with a sledgehammer like one father ordered his son to do in a video that went viral in 2015.

Higuchi believes a more successful tactic is to divert addicts by engaging them in social and active pursuits that disconnect them from their digital life and reconnect them with what's real. Try the old-school solutions like human interaction and fresh air, he said.

When addiction takes over, however, it can lead to arguments, fights, and in the worst case, murder.

Gamer parents have been known to starve their children to death, children have stabbed parents for limiting or denying their playing time, and people have actually died after gaming too much.

For addicts, games stop being a healthy pastime and become a health hazard instead. As abstinence is not an option, you cannot stay clean for life, according to Higuchi.

"Parents could get hurt by trying to take away the object that consumes their children's lives. It's like playing tag, it's just a chasing game," the doctor said.

So how do you help a young game addict?

Awareness is key, according to Higuchi. Getting game addicts to admit they are powerless over their addiction is the first step on the road to recovery, and therein lies the difficulty with children who do not see a problem.

Though he has no personal interest in games, Higuchi goes out of his way to develop his video game literacy so he can speak his patients' language. Taking a client-centered approach helps nurture a therapeutic relationship, he said.

His treatment starts with health checks - two physical exams and two psych screenings - in the first four sessions. He engages with his patients to explain what excessive gaming does to their bodies as a way to get them to listen.

Medication is rarely used unless the internet addiction is linked to other pre-existing disorders, such as ADHD or depression.

If patients make regular visits to his clinic over an extended period of time, Higuchi said they have a better chance of recovering because as they get older they foster an increased ability for self-insight and self-control.

If he had a choice, Higuchi would have every patient hospitalized for supervised care. But he said forcing someone into rehab is not effective.

"We can't treat an alcoholic who walks in here with a beer in his hand. It's the same with online game addicts. It's hard to help someone who doesn't want to be helped," Higuchi said.

Today, there are about seven patients hospitalized at the Kurihama center, all of whom Higuchi and his co-workers have managed to convince to voluntarily stay.

As far as he knows, there are only about 80 facilities in Japan that offer game addiction programs. So with appointments at clinics like his so hard to get, Higuchi advises asking a third party to step in because the sooner the addiction is faced, the better.

"Use anyone you can, a teacher, a friend, a neighbor. The more supporters you have the better."

Though relapses are possible, not everyone spirals back into addiction after seeing a glowing computer or smartphone screen, the physician said.

There is a correlation between emotional maturity and internet addiction, Higuchi said. Once the recovering addict has conscious control over their internet use, they are pretty much "fixed."

Most patients spend years getting to that point, but if they are visiting a therapist it's a good sign. For Higuchi, the goal is to prevent "dropouts" by providing follow-up care, which is essential for successful recovery, and viewing recovery as a lifelong process.

The esports boom has somewhat contributed to the excessive time kids spend with joy sticks in hand, Higuchi said. With all its glitz, glamor and prize money, esports competitors treat play like work, which has left a "negative legacy," he said.

What complicates matters is that many game addicts actually believe they can turn their hobby into a career.

"Game-makers are knowingly turning customers into addicts. They will keep getting smarter so they can steal all of the players' waking hours and enslave them to their games. The fight will continue," Higuchi said.

"We need reinforcements, we need backup from the government. We're getting there. I feel like there is hope. I wouldn't be doing what I do if I didn't believe that."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Addiction specialist urges Japan to treat over-gaming as a mental disorder | The Japan Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How much gaming is too much gaming? This is the question Japan's pre-eminent addiction expert, Dr. Susumu Higuchi, is trying to answer as he treats people whose lives have been destroyed by video game addiction.

# data[].attributes.body
78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

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Do you know that World Health Organization (WHO) classified device addiction as an official disease near the year of 2017 and it's the 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD)?! 

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Do you know that World Health Organization (WHO) classified device addiction as an official disease near the year of 2017 and it's the 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD)?! 

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This is related to my VCA, historical map because "device/internet/gaming addiction" wasn't detected as an disease in the past but now, it's proven already and classified as an official disease just like other addictions.

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Many parents already have concerns, but some may now have a new argument for limiting their children's "screen time" - addiction to video games has been recognized by World Health Organization as a mental health disorder.

The WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a reference bible of recognized and diagnosable diseases, describes addiction to digital and video gaming as "a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior" that becomes so extensive it "takes precedence over other life interests.

The WHO's expert on mental health and substance abuse, Shekhar Saxena, said some of the worst cases seen in global research were of gamers playing for up to 20 hours a day, forgoing sleep, meals, work or school and other daily activities.

He stressed that only a small minority of people who play digital and video games would develop a problem, but said recognition of early warning signs may help prevent it.

"This is an occasional or transitory behavior," he said, adding that only if such behavior persists for around a year could a potential diagnosis of a disorder be made.

Responding to the decision to including gaming addiction, the Video Games Coalition - an industry lobby group - said its products were "enjoyed safely and sensibly by more than 2 billion people worldwide" across all kinds of genres, devices and platforms.

It added that the "educational, therapeutic, and recreational value" of games was well-founded and widely recognized and urged the WHO to reconsider.

The ICD, which has been updated over the past 10 years, covers 55,000 injuries, diseases and causes of death. It forms a basis for the WHO and other experts to see and respond to trends in health.

"It enables us to understand so much about what makes people get sick and die, and to take action to prevent suffering and save lives," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement as the ICD was published.

The ICD is also used by health insurers whose reimbursements depend on ICD classifications.

This latest version - known as ICD-11 - is completely electronic for the first time, in an effort to make it more accessible to doctors and other health workers around the world.

ICD-11 also includes changes to sexual health classifications. Previous editions had categorized sexual dysfunction and gender incongruence, for example, under mental health conditions, while in ICD-11 these move to the sexual health section. The latest edition also has a new chapter on traditional medicine.

The updated ICD is scheduled to be presented to WHO member states at their annual World Health Assembly in May 2019 for adoption in January 2022, the WHO said in a statement.

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'Screen time' excess: Gaming addiction now classified as mental health disorder by WHO | The Japan Times

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Many parents already have concerns, but some may now have a new argument for limiting their children's "screen time" - addiction to video games has been recognized by World Health Organization as a mental health disorder.

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40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don’t want to let go of them)

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

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Did you know that you could delete apps with infinite scrolls like facebook and twitter!?

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Did you know that you could delete apps with infinite scrolls like facebook and twitter!?

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This will help you break your addiction to your device(if you have one)because scrolling down social media could lead you to posts that could satisfy you and make you look for more posts.

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day.

There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices. The millennials surveyed said that their devices have created better work-life balance, contributing to better communication and relationship-building.

Clearly there's a lot of good that comes with frequent use of our devices, but there's also a downside.

Research shows that as we grow more dependent on technology, our intellect, attention levels and social skills weaken. In fact, with just the mere presence of our smartphones, our ability to focus on a task and solve problems decreases.

But don't beat yourself up about excessive smartphone usage. The reality is, your smartphone addiction may not be your fault--the designers of these devices are rewarded for using techniques to keep you glued to your screen for as long as possible.

Luckily, there is hope. If you're trying to improve your relationship with your device, here some ways that you can take back control of your time and attention.

1. Track Your Usage

Addicted to your smartphone? There's an app for that.

Ironically, you can try to stave off addicting smartphone apps with another app. While not ideal, there are apps like SPACE and Moment helps you find your personal phone-life balance by monitoring your smartphone use and setting limits.

2. Stop Scrolling

Many of the most popular mobile apps (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more) are designed with infinite scrolling functions, where you can consume an endless feed of information.

However, infinite scrolling can make it easy to lose track of time. Nothing holds our attention better than the unknown. A bottomless stream of social media posts motivates you to continue the search for the element of surprise; seeking things that captivate, engross, and entertain. Our brains can't get enough of trying to predict what's next and, like a loose slot machine, the infinite scroll gives you fast access to what psychologists call variable rewards.

Although social media apps can be difficult to live without, try deleting the apps that have infinite scroll and see how much time you can earn back.

3. Calm Your Mind

There is a very real euphoric sensationwhen you get a social media notification, such as when someone likes a photo you've posted to Instagram or Facebook. These moments trigger a dopamine release in the brain, a chemical that creates feelings of pleasure. It's an essential part of our brain's rewards system, which is why it's also gets blamed for addiction.

Meditation, yoga, exercise, and other mindfulness activities have been proven to create a natural release of dopamine, reducing the craving from the dopamine rushes your phone provides.

4. Use the Physical Versions of Useful Apps

Yes, having everything in your pocket is convenient. Your smartphone has almost completely diminished the need for calculators, calendars, cameras, notebooks, alarm clocks and so many other things.

We've all been there before: you unlock your phone to check the weather or make a note and the next thing you know you've been in your Instagram feed for 20 minutes. To avoid this problem, try replacing as many digital tools with physical ones.

For example, using a real alarm clock (and keeping your phone out of reach while sleeping) can help prevent you from wasting time before bed or right when you wake up. Carry a physical notebook and pen to take notes. Read paperback books and avoid the digital versions.

The key is to avoid unlocking your phone as much as possible to prevent getting unintentionally pulled into the digital vortex.

5. Get by With a Little Help From Your Friends

As is the case with any addiction, the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Admitting to those around you that you want to reduce your smartphone usage can create a necessary feedback system.

Ask them to hold you accountable. You might not notice when you're scrolling through the screen during a family gathering, but others do. Your friends and family can call you out to bring you back to the present moment.

6. Turn Off All Notifications Unrelated to Communication from Real People

Our devices were meant to increase our connectivity to other people; so keep it that way. Turn off any notifications from apps unless they're alerting you that a coworker, friend or family might need your attention in real-time.

You might even consider deleting social media apps from your phone altogether and only accessing them via a computer. The constant friend and family updates can wait until later, I promise.

7. Turn Your Phone to Grayscale

This is a popular recommendation by Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Human Technology.

Research shows that colors are attached to emotions and priorities--especially that little red notification bubble that has controlled us for so long. Turning your phone to black and white can reduce the urge you have to view new notifications that pull you into the infinite scrolling vortex.

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7 Ways to Curb Your Smartphone Addiction Right Now

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Are you addicted to your smartphone? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that we use our iPhones excessively--an average of 80-150 times a day. There's an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices.

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Did you know a school makes students think about their own phone usage, the effects it has on them, or what has made them so crazy attached to it.

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Did you know a school makes students think about their own phone usage, the effects it has on them, or what has made them so crazy attached to it.

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Just looking at that feature photo above gave me a good laugh. Haven't we all been there? I know that at many times in my ten years of owning a phone, I've succumbed to the pressures of putting its needs before my own. How stupid...

But did you know that It's a phenomenon known as "device addiction", where you simply can't put your device down because of its hold on the average person checks their cell phone 110x a day? you.

With device addiction everywhere, it's becoming more and more prevalent to find people distracted, and even more disconnected from their surroundings. It's even illegal in Hawaii to cross the street while looking at your phone!

With practically all of humanity accepting that this is the new norm among society today, there is finally a space that has been created for students to come and vent about what they think about their own phone usage, the effects it has on them, or what has made them so crazy attached to it.

Interested in Contributing?

If this something that piques your interest, then FOW wants you to write for us! A major suggestion coming from Future Of Writing is the "Free Time" recurring blog space.

For starters, there are requirements in contributing to this blog:

You must be a current Rowan University Writing Arts student, whether you're a commuter, resident, or online student

Have the willingness to both create and spend some of your individual free time writing for us and our blog space

Being comfortable with interjecting your opinion about the topic when creating your post. Everyone's experiences are going to differ and be unique, and that is okay (diversity is encouraged!)

Post length- The minimum required length should be 800+ that includes details about your experiences with or without your phone. **See the Prompts if you are lost about what to include in the post.

Prompts for the "Free-Time" blog

Feel free to play around with some of the prompts when you contribute (these are only here to help expand ideas), but keep it light! The goal is to bounce ideas off of one another and find ways to really connect with others, but without the presence of technology and social media via your phone. The mandatory question that should be answered by each contributor is: It seems like it has become socially acceptable to be in an exclusive relationship with your personal devices, especially your phone. Are you a part of this "sign of the times"? Why or why not? (150-200 words)

What makes you feel so reliant on your phone?

Tell other readers of FOW about experiences that came your way when you didn't have your phone out- was it enlightening to see what was going on around you?

What does it make you feel like to be without your phone for any length of time?

Did your phone ever put you on the spot or in a moment you just couldn't recover from? ***FYI***Embarrassing stories like these make for great reads 🙂

What kinds of activities keep your interest when your phone isn't involved?

Be sure to include your cellular habits when you do use your phone when not participating in any "free time" activity- Snapchat, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, foursquare, etc.

If the "Free-Time" blog is something you are interested in contributing to send us an email.

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Just looking at that feature photo above gave me a good laugh. Haven't we all been there? I know that at many times in my ten years of owning a phone, I've succumbed to the pressures of putting its needs before my own. How stupid...

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Do you know that there are many simple solutions to device addiction? Here's one.

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Do you know that there are many simple solutions to device addiction? Here's one.

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People should use not digital clocks more than digital clocks on devices, since most of the times, people check their phones for time, and they see notifications and get hooked.
This is related to the action because instead of making people use phones for clocks, we can put many normal not digital clocks around the school.

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Switch back to a feature phone | Gadgets Now

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So if you have a serious smartphone addiction, and none of the above mentioned points help, you probably need an equally extreme measure to tackle the issue. You can actually use a feature phone for a few weeks, and then get back to a smartphone once you feel you have overcome your smartphone addiction.

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Do you know that one solution for reducing the time spent on devices while you are out with your friends to a restaurant, you can take out your devices and line it up on the table so that there would be much more opportunity to have a conversation with your friends instead of being chained to your devices?!

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Do you know that one solution for reducing the time spent on devices while you are out with your friends to a restaurant, you can take out your devices and line it up on the table so that there would be much more opportunity to have a conversation with your friends instead of being chained to your devices?!

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This information is related to my "action" because if I get more ideas about the different solutions to device addiction, it would give me more possibilities to make a change to this.

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Grow
Are You On Your Phone Too Much? The Average Person Spends This Many Hours On It Every Day

How do you stack up?

Last week, my iPhone informed me that my weekly screen-time was down by over three hours.

First of all, good for me. Second, I hadn't realized the latest iPhone update came with screen-tracking--but it dovetails perfectly with my new commitment of late: to spend less time on my device.

It's no secret that most of us are addicted to our mobile devices. They're not only a source of transportation (Google Maps as well as rideshare apps); they're also a food source, an online shopping center, and--perhaps most relevant for me--a source of connection.

I use my phone to stay in touch with a lot of people. Between texting, WhatsApp with international friends, and Voxer, I'm on my phone quite a bit, in an attempt to connect with loved ones.

But there's a cost to all that "connection," and that is my presence in the real world.

For example, since spending less time on my phone, I've met more people. I no longer automatically pull out my device in line at a cafe or at Trader Joe's, so I'm more likely to engage in a conversation with the person behind me, or the barista. I know that sounds like a small thing, but it has brought little moments joy to my life--little interactions that remind me of the beauty of humanity.

A number of studies have looked at how much time the average person spends on their device. Some studies combine time on a phone and tablet; some separate them out. Some survey all age demographics; some concentrate on adults only.

In reviewing combined research from Nielsen, Pew Research Center, comScore, SmartInsights, and other organizations measuring much time the average person spends on their device per day, one conclusion becomes glaringly apparent:

No matter how you cut it, the average person spends over four hours a day on their device.

That's right: most modern people spend a full quarter of their waking hours on their mobile device.

I was startled by this number. According to one of the studies, about half the time (1 hour, 56 minutes) is spent on the top five social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.

That can't be, I thought. There's no way I spend two hours on social media a day.

And yet ... if I spend 15 minutes perusing Facebook in the morning; 30 minutes catching up on Snaps (i.e. using Snapchat to procrastinate from work); 10 minutes reviewing my Twitter notifications at lunch; watching a 20-minute TEDx talk on YouTube in the afternoon; and 35 minutes winding down with Instagram in the evening ... that adds up to 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Ouch.

One of the major reasons I made a conscious decision to cut down on my phone screentime was health--mental, not physical. I noticed that on the days I was on my phone a lot, I was unhappy. I felt more scattered and less productive. I was more reactive and less centered.

I didn't like it.

There's plenty of research that supports this on a physiological level. We aren't meant to pump our systems with the kind of dopamine scrolling through a social media feed prompts, because of the inevitable crash that comes after. We also aren't meant to constantly switch our attention the way we do on our devices (i.e. being interrupting while reading a work email by a text about our availability for an upcoming bachelorette party, and oh by the way can we just Venmo the organizer real quick so she can book the Airbnb?).

It's a lot for our brains to handle.

It's probably no surprise, then, that I've felt calmer and more in control since cutting down my time with my device.

For those who are interested in doing the same, here are a few steps I took:

1. Limit social media as much as possible. For me, this meant I deleted Snapchat altogether; only go on Facebook if there's a specific reason for me to do so (i.e. reply to an event invite); and barely post on Instagram anymore (I find if I don't post as much, I don't scroll as much).

2. Putting my phone on airplane mode after 9pm. I can still use it for my alarm and to check my calendar, etc. but I don't have incoming messages barraging me at night, when I'm in wind-down mode. This helps a lot.

3. Enabling the iPhone ScreenTime function. This is so you can see where you do actually spend time on your phone. Go to Settings >> ScreenTime (it's now 8th down) >> Turn on Screen Time. Your phone will start to track your activity. It's private (the data doesn't get sent to Apple)--and it'll show you each app you use and website you visit (except sites in private mode).

4. Instead of checking your phone when you're out and about, breathe. This was a gamechanger for me. I was using my device to manage mild social anxiety, so instead of connecting with people around me (or just observing my environment), I'd check my phone. Now, I take a breath and slow down in that moment. I relax and tell myself the people on my phone can wait, and what's going on around me?

I feel more grounded since making these changes, and it's still a work in progress. In my opinion, limiting time with our devices is the equivalent of good mental hygiene--like brushing our digital teeth.

Last week, my iPhone informed me that my weekly screen-time was down by over three hours.

First of all, good for me. Second, I hadn't realized the latest iPhone update came with screen-tracking--but it dovetails perfectly with my new commitment of late: to spend less time on my device.

It's no secret that most of us are addicted to our mobile devices. They're not only a source of transportation (Google Maps as well as rideshare apps); they're also a food source, an online shopping center, and--perhaps most relevant for me--a source of connection.

I use my phone to stay in touch with a lot of people. Between texting, WhatsApp with international friends, and Voxer, I'm on my phone quite a bit, in an attempt to connect with loved ones.

But there's a cost to all that "connection," and that is my presence in the real world.

For example, since spending less time on my phone, I've met more people. I no longer automatically pull out my device in line at a cafe or at Trader Joe's, so I'm more likely to engage in a conversation with the person behind me, or the barista. I know that sounds like a small thing, but it has brought little moments joy to my life--little interactions that remind me of the beauty of humanity.

A number of studies have looked at how much time the average person spends on their device. Some studies combine time on a phone and tablet; some separate them out. Some survey all age demographics; some concentrate on adults only.

In reviewing combined research from Nielsen, Pew Research Center, comScore, SmartInsights, and other organizations measuring much time the average person spends on their device per day, one conclusion becomes glaringly apparent:

No matter how you cut it, the average person spends over four hours a day on their device.

That's right: most modern people spend a full quarter of their waking hours on their mobile device.

I was startled by this number. According to one of the studies, about half the time (1 hour, 56 minutes) is spent on the top five social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.

That can't be, I thought. There's no way I spend two hours on social media a day.

And yet ... if I spend 15 minutes perusing Facebook in the morning; 30 minutes catching up on Snaps (i.e. using Snapchat to procrastinate from work); 10 minutes reviewing my Twitter notifications at lunch; watching a 20-minute TEDx talk on YouTube in the afternoon; and 35 minutes winding down with Instagram in the evening ... that adds up to 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Ouch.

One of the major reasons I made a conscious decision to cut down on my phone screentime was health--mental, not physical. I noticed that on the days I was on my phone a lot, I was unhappy. I felt more scattered and less productive. I was more reactive and less centered.

I didn't like it.

There's plenty of research that supports this on a physiological level. We aren't meant to pump our systems with the kind of dopamine scrolling through a social media feed prompts, because of the inevitable crash that comes after. We also aren't meant to constantly switch our attention the way we do on our devices (i.e. being interrupting while reading a work email by a text about our availability for an upcoming bachelorette party, and oh by the way can we just Venmo the organizer real quick so she can book the Airbnb?).

It's a lot for our brains to handle.

It's probably no surprise, then, that I've felt calmer and more in control since cutting down my time with my device.

For those who are interested in doing the same, here are a few steps I took:

1. Limit social media as much as possible. For me, this meant I deleted Snapchat altogether; only go on Facebook if there's a specific reason for me to do so (i.e. reply to an event invite); and barely post on Instagram anymore (I find if I don't post as much, I don't scroll as much).

2. Putting my phone on airplane mode after 9pm. I can still use it for my alarm and to check my calendar, etc. but I don't have incoming messages barraging me at night, when I'm in wind-down mode. This helps a lot.

3. Enabling the iPhone ScreenTime function. This is so you can see where you do actually spend time on your phone. Go to Settings >> ScreenTime (it's now 8th down) >> Turn on Screen Time. Your phone will start to track your activity. It's private (the data doesn't get sent to Apple)--and it'll show you each app you use and website you visit (except sites in private mode).

4. Instead of checking your phone when you're out and about, breathe. This was a gamechanger for me. I was using my device to manage mild social anxiety, so instead of connecting with people around me (or just observing my environment), I'd check my phone. Now, I take a breath and slow down in that moment. I relax and tell myself the people on my phone can wait, and what's going on around me?

I feel more grounded since making these changes, and it's still a work in progress. In my opinion, limiting time with our devices is the equivalent of good mental hygiene--like brushing our digital teeth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Are You On Your Phone Too Much? The Average Person Spends This Many Hours On It Every Day

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Grow Last week, my iPhone informed me that my weekly screen-time was down by over three hours. First of all, good for me. Second, I hadn't realized the latest iPhone update came with screen-tracking--but it dovetails perfectly with my new commitment of late: to spend less time on my device.

# data[].attributes.body
71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.

3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute.

So why did I call you nomophobes?

Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia. Simply put - it's the fear of not having your phone with you.

Jaw-dropping Smartphone Addiction Statistics

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day

Using smartphones for longer intervals of time changes brain chemistry

6% of the population shows signs of nomophobia

71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone

Smartphone use and depression are correlated

75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet

20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone

So is it a common phenomenon, or just a term, created by psychologists to keep themselves busy? We at looked deep into the smartphone addiction stats , double-checked them and we can share what we've found:

1. 66% of the population shows signs of nomophobia.

2. Nomophobia is the People's Word of 2018.
(Source: Cambridge Dictionary)
3. The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.
(Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
We laugh roughly 15 times a day. And we check our phones ten times more than that.

Smartphones have become a permanent factor in our daily lives in the last decade. Even now you are probably reading this on a mobile. We take them for granted, but do we stop, even for a second to ask ourselves:

How Often Do I Use My Smartphone?

Cell phone use statistics show that:

4. Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

5. 58% of smartphone users don't go 1 hour without checking their phones.

Of course, younger people find it harder (68% of people of age 18-34) to keep their hands off their smartphone for an hour.

6. Brazilians spend 4 hours and 48 minutes online via a mobile device.

7. The average user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

8. More than half of smartphone owners never switch off their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
Never. 24/7/365.

9. 71% usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
(Source: HuffingtonPost)
3% of them sleep with their phone in their hand. I will not comment on that.

10. 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

When waking in the middle of the night, 40% of people grab on their phone first. This definitely illustrates how useful phones are to us. (and maybe why some people don't want to let go of them)

11. 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking or going to sleep.

...and more than one-third of said 80% will do so within 5 minutes.

12. 41% of all adults check their phone a few times an hour.

13. The average US smartphone owner checked their phone an average of 52 times a day in 2018.

That's up from 47 times a day in 2017.

14. 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving.

Now that we've seen how much we use our smartphones, we can ask some questions. Do we master our technology, or is it the other way around? How these numbers affect our physical life and relations? Let's see.

How Teens and Their Parents Cope with Smartphone Addiction

We will also review the mental problems caused by nomophobia.

15. Screen time is the third most frequent source of conflict between parents and teens.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
16. 58% of teens feel that people generally expect them to respond immediately to notifications.
(Source: Screen Education)
And therefore:

17. 41% of teens feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily.
(Source: Screen Education)
18. 46% of parents in the UK "feel addicted" to their mobile devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
19. 63% of parents feel teens are addicted to their devices.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
Teens' smartphone addiction doesn't worry only the moms and dads in the UK. 61% of parents in Japan feel their kids have acquired some sort of technology addiction , according to statistics . Third are the US parents (59%).

20. 78% of teens check their devices at least once an hour.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
21. 48% of teens use a mobile device 5 minutes after they wake up.
(Source: Common Sense Media)
22. 33% of teens spend more time socializing with close friends online, rather than face-to-face.
(Source: Screen Education)
69% of teens wish they could spend more time socializing with their close friends face-to-face.

23. 52% of teens sit around in silence, staring at their smartphones for extended periods when they are together with friends.
(Source: Screen Education)
If you didn't know this already, these statistics might be an eye-opener. Let me build upon that with some scientific data.

How Smartphone Addiction Affects Teenagers?

I will just let the stats speak for themselves.

24. Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with one-hour use.

Smartphone dependency statistics also show that:

25. 8th graders who are heavy users of social media are 27% more likely to have depression.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
26. Teens that spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get under 7 hours of sleep.

27. 80% of teens typically spend time on their phone after they go to bed.
(Source: Screen Education)
28. Smartphone use and depression are correlated.

Except it wouldn't really be fair to point that out. You wanna know why?

Adults are even worse than teens.

In the next section of this article, we'll try to understand

How Smartphone Addiction Influences Our Daily Lives?

Before we step into the adult's world of smartphone-zombies, let's define the word "addiction" first. The word "addict" was used first in 1909 to describe morphine addicts. It derives from the Latin word "addico", one of the meanings of which is "enslaved".

Are adults "enslaved" by smartphones, like teens are?

29. 85% of smartphone users will check their device while speaking with friends and family.

85 percent! Arguably, revising our smartphone habits might prove useful if we want to want to improve our social life.

30. Adults spent on average 45 minutes per day on social media.

Let it sink in for a while...

45 minutes...

31. We'll spend an average of 5 years and four months of our lifetimes on social media.

I stopped using Facebook after two years of mindless scrolling. It felt... liberating. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't want to waste my time with: what other people eat, where they are, or what they do. If I really want to know what they do, I'll call them, or better yet - see them.

You don't have to quit your favorite social media, as I did. Maybe slowing down a bit can pay off, though.

While we are on the topic let's see how...

Smartphone Addiction Changes Our Work Habits

32. 84% of US working adults use their personal phones during working hours.

Probably 16% of them didn't have phones or didn't admit to using them, because everyone I know uses their phone during working hours. Phone stats show your phone has the potential to keep you distracted. It can provide some rest (or an escape) from the work process.
US workers aren't the only ones:
33. 75% of workers in the UK check their phones while at work.

34. 36% of millennials say they spend 2 or more hours per workday looking at their phones for personal activities.

Cell phone statistics show that companies are losing millions because of their "distracted" workforce.

35. 59% think that personal use of technology is more distracting than work tools.

36. "Being constantly interrupted by alerts and notifications may be contributing towards a problematic deficit of attention."
(Source: Silence Your Phones)
37. A study observed people experiencing changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
(Source: The Extended iSelf)
So why do people get addicted to their phones? Using smartphones for longer intervals of time makes the brain increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the reward system in the brain. And the more rewards we receive, the more we want. Which can lead to a well-established habit.

So do you think we should do something about it? I know I do.

38. 63% of consumers try to limit their phone usage.

Cell phone usage statistics show only 30% of them are successful.

39. 43% of workers turn off their phones to cope with distraction.

Well, at least almost half the workers have found a way to be productive.

40. 60% of 18-to 34-year-olds and nearly 40% of all consumers say they use their phones too much.

The good news is that more and more people realize they need to address their smartphone issues.

How Do I Beat My Phone Addiction?

First things first - take it slow. Don't lock your phone in a safe somewhere. It doesn't work like that.

There are two places you can start with:

1. The Bedroom

You can buy yourself a normal alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone. You don't actually the phone in your bed.

2. The Table

Leave the phone away while eating or socializing with friends. That way you'll be able to enjoy both the conversations and the meal itself. It's refreshing to talk to people face-to-face, instead of chatting with them online. Most people don't bite.
*fun fact - Human bites account for 0.3% of ER visits.
By now you should realize that smartphone addiction is real, and there are stats to prove it.

Here's another tip on how to avoid it:

Turn off Your Notifications

By limiting the urge to see what's happened, in time you will let go of the need for your phone. All you need it to do is to shut the little voice in your head, that shouts like a crazy person:

"HEY! HEEEY! HELLLOOO! Your phone's light is blinking. Something's happened. COME ON! HURRYY. PICK IT UUUP!"

If you've read any of my other articles like " What is a cyber attack? ", or " How to create a strong password " you already know that I always "spice up" my texts with some interesting facts.

While researching the topic I stumbled upon some really...

Interesting Statistics About Smartphone Addiction

41. 75% of Americans use their mobile phones in the toilet.

I can relate to that. Not proud of it, but I do. I defend castles on my toilet. I have a throne, why not be a king as well?

42. 19% of them drop their phone down the toilet.

Been there. Done that. Had to buy a new phone. Now I'm more careful. I suggest you are too.

Smartphone addiction stats show not all smartphone users have this issue, because...

43. More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.

Nothing can compare to the feeling of peeing in the woods (or in a hole), while checking your email or playing a game. Priceless.

44. 20% of people would rather go without shoes for a week than take a break from their phone.
(Source: Psychology Today)
I wasn't going to comment on that, but I can't help myself.

Question: " What percentage of people are addicted to phones?"

Reply: "Let's threaten their feet to find out!"

Just imagine the psychologist doing the survey: Okay now, what do you prefer? To go around barefoot for seven days or leave your phone on this table for a while?

45. 20% of people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

I had to research a whole new topic to be able to explain this stat. And the most common reason for grabbing the phone is... filming. Or taking a picture of the act.

Conclusion

Most of us get anxious when our phone is not around, so it might pay off to learn to let go of it for a change. It could be good for us to go out and socialize without the addiction in our pockets.

The smartphone addiction statistics I presented aren't just numbers. They represent actual human beings and you probably recognized yourself in some of these stats. Who knows, maybe it would be a good thing to put the phone down? After all, it's alright to allow yourself to enjoy life for a bit.

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45 Smartphone Addiction Statistics 2019 - Tech Jury

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There's no need to involve Google in this. If you haven't heard the term, I'll explain it in a minute. So why did I call you nomophobes? Well, since we'll be talking about mobile devices addiction, we should use the correct term, right? And it is nomophobia - no- mobile- phone-pho bia.

# data[].attributes.headline
Did you know that google is trying to help solve device addiction?

# data[].attributes.subject
Did you know that google is trying to help solve device addiction?

# data[].attributes.body
On Android, they made a app which makes you count how many times you opened a app.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Have you ever caught yourself checking your texts under the tablecloth while out to dinner? Or waking up at 3 in the morning to see what your Twitter feed has to say?

Then you, my friend, are addicted to your phone. And Google - yes, that Google - wants to help.

The tech giant unveiled a number of "Digital Wellbeing" features for Android at its 2018 I/O conference on Tuesday, aimed at helping users develop healthier relationships with their devices.

Android's newly unveiled Dashboard app breaks down all the dirty details of your bad phone habits. It can show you just how many times you unlock it (constantly), check in on social media without even thinking about it (obviously) and spend hours mindlessly watching makeup tutorials on YouTube. (It's been known to happen.)

Once you realize the extent of your addiction, the new features will help you overcome it. By letting users set time limits on their app use, a quick phone break can't spiral into a full-blown digital bender.

There's also a "shush" feature, which will automatically silence incoming calls and notifications when you flip the phone over, as well as something called "wind down." With that, users can schedule a time at night when the super-stimulating, colorful screen display changes into boring - and ideally, sleep-inducing - black and white.

OK, Google. Thanks for saving us from you.

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How Google is trying to fix your phone addiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Have you ever caught yourself checking your texts under the tablecloth while out to dinner? Or waking up at 3 in the morning to see what your Twitter feed has to say? Then you, my friend, are addicted to your phone. And Google - yes, that Google - wants to help.

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Did you know that you can try the 60%/60mins method to protect your eardrums from getting damaged?

# data[].attributes.subject
Did you know that you can try the 60%/60mins method to protect your eardrums from getting damaged?

# data[].attributes.body
The 60%/60mins method is where you only listen to music/etc. with your device for an hour and you put the volume down to 60%(or less) of the maximum sound.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chances are that all you know about earbuds is that they're easy to carry around and they sound good. Earbuds are useful little devices as long as they're used at low volumes. But they're basically a pair of tiny speakers that you wear inside your ears. And loud music playing that close to your eardrum can cause permanent hearing loss.

How Earbuds Damage the Ears

Believe it or not, earbuds can damage your hearing in the same way that things like chainsaws and motorcycles can. That may seem weird because earbuds are so small. But the damage is all in the volume.

Chainsaws and motorcycle engines create about 100 decibels of sound. That much sound can start to damage a person's ears after less than half an hour. An MP3 player at 70% of its top volume is about 85 decibels. Turning the volume up and listening for long periods of time can put you in real danger of permanent hearing loss.

Hearing loss from earbuds is an example of a condition called noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). This kind of hearing loss is becoming more of a problem among kids and teens.

How Does Noise Cause Hearing Loss?

The ear is made up of three parts that work together to process sounds: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. Part of the inner ear called the cochlea contains tiny hair cells. These hair cells help send sound messages to the brain. But loud noise can damage the hair cells. When this happens, the cochlea can't relay sound messages to the brain as well.

Unlike damage to other parts of your body, inner ear damage never heals. Over time, as more and more hair cells get damaged, your hearing will get worse and worse.

What to Do

Noise-induced hearing loss from using earbuds usually takes a while. Because it happens gradually, a lot of people don't know they have a problem until it's too late.

Signs you may have hearing loss are:

ringing, buzzing, or roaring in your ears after hearing a loud noise

muffling or distortion of sounds

What should you do if you think you have signs of hearing loss? Call your doctor. The doctor may examine you and send you to see an audiologist. The audiologist will most likely give you a series of tests to determine how much your hearing has been affected.

The audiologist can also answer any questions you might have about using earbuds and about protecting your hearing.

Using Earbuds the Right Way

Noise-induced hearing loss due to earbuds is 100% preventable if you use them in moderation.

You've probably heard the saying, "All things in moderation." Not overdoing things is true whether you're eating chocolate cake or using earbuds. The more cake you eat, the faster you'll gain weight. The louder the volume, the faster hearing loss can happen.

So what does moderation mean when it comes to using earbuds? Doctors recommend the 60%/60-minute rule:

Listen to music or play a movie or video game at no more than 60% of the maximum volume.

Limit the amount of time you spend with earbuds in your ears to 60 minutes.

Here's another trick you can use to find out if your earbuds are at a safe volume: Ask people sitting near you if they can hear your music. If they can, it's a sign that your hearing is being damaged. Turn the volume down until other people can no longer hear it.

Hearing loss isn't the only problem that earbuds can cause. Listening to music at a loud volume can make you unaware of what's going on around you. That increases your chances of an accident. If you're running on a bike path, for example, it's hard to hear a cyclist shout, "Heads up!" when your music drowns out all other sounds.

Are There Other Options?

It might feel like every phone or music player comes packaged with a tiny pair of earbuds. After all, they're cheap to manufacture and easy to use.

So what can you do? Go retro with headphones. There's a reason they're making a comeback. Sometimes old-school is better.

Most electronics stores have entire sections devoted to headphones. The best headphones, noise-canceling headphones, help block out other noises. That way, you don't have to turn up the volume on your music as loud to hear it well. Noise-canceling headphones may be good for staying focused on studying or homework, but they're not great choices if you need to hear the world around you.

Headphones that go over your ears can also damage your hearing if you use them too long or play music too loudly. They're just not as much of a risk as earbuds are: Having the source of the sound in your ear canal can increase a sound's volume by 6 to 9 decibels - enough to cause some serious problems.

Earbuds exist because so many of us love music. So you probably want to protect your hearing so you can continue to appreciate music. That's why it helps to know about the risks of earbuds (and other noise hazards) so you can take steps to be safe.

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Earbuds are basically a tiny pair of speakers that go inside the ears. They're fine at low volumes, but they can cause permanent hearing loss if not used properly. Find out what's safe (and not) in this article for teens.

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Getting rid of your unnecessary application and not downloading unnecessary applications.

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Get rid of unnecessary apps | Gadgets Now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social media apps like Facebook and Twitter are not absolutely essential on smartphones. This may sound like an impossible idea, but you can really do without them. The list of unnecessary apps is endless. This not only frees up time that can be utilized better, but also releases the device's storage.

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Do you know that the earphones actually damage your hair cells that send sound messages to your brain that are inside your ears?

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know that the earphones actually damage your hair cells that send sound messages to your brain that are inside your ears?

# data[].attributes.body
This will make the chemical/cell send the sounds not as well as before.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chances are that all you know about earbuds is that they're easy to carry around and they sound good. Earbuds are useful little devices as long as they're used at low volumes. But they're basically a pair of tiny speakers that you wear inside your ears. And loud music playing that close to your eardrum can cause permanent hearing loss.

How Earbuds Damage the Ears

Believe it or not, earbuds can damage your hearing in the same way that things like chainsaws and motorcycles can. That may seem weird because earbuds are so small. But the damage is all in the volume.

Chainsaws and motorcycle engines create about 100 decibels of sound. That much sound can start to damage a person's ears after less than half an hour. An MP3 player at 70% of its top volume is about 85 decibels. Turning the volume up and listening for long periods of time can put you in real danger of permanent hearing loss.

Hearing loss from earbuds is an example of a condition called noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). This kind of hearing loss is becoming more of a problem among kids and teens.

How Does Noise Cause Hearing Loss?

The ear is made up of three parts that work together to process sounds: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. Part of the inner ear called the cochlea contains tiny hair cells. These hair cells help send sound messages to the brain. But loud noise can damage the hair cells. When this happens, the cochlea can't relay sound messages to the brain as well.

Unlike damage to other parts of your body, inner ear damage never heals. Over time, as more and more hair cells get damaged, your hearing will get worse and worse.

What to Do

Noise-induced hearing loss from using earbuds usually takes a while. Because it happens gradually, a lot of people don't know they have a problem until it's too late.

Signs you may have hearing loss are:

ringing, buzzing, or roaring in your ears after hearing a loud noise

muffling or distortion of sounds

What should you do if you think you have signs of hearing loss? Call your doctor. The doctor may examine you and send you to see an audiologist. The audiologist will most likely give you a series of tests to determine how much your hearing has been affected.

The audiologist can also answer any questions you might have about using earbuds and about protecting your hearing.

Using Earbuds the Right Way

Noise-induced hearing loss due to earbuds is 100% preventable if you use them in moderation.

You've probably heard the saying, "All things in moderation." Not overdoing things is true whether you're eating chocolate cake or using earbuds. The more cake you eat, the faster you'll gain weight. The louder the volume, the faster hearing loss can happen.

So what does moderation mean when it comes to using earbuds? Doctors recommend the 60%/60-minute rule:

Listen to music or play a movie or video game at no more than 60% of the maximum volume.

Limit the amount of time you spend with earbuds in your ears to 60 minutes.

Here's another trick you can use to find out if your earbuds are at a safe volume: Ask people sitting near you if they can hear your music. If they can, it's a sign that your hearing is being damaged. Turn the volume down until other people can no longer hear it.

Hearing loss isn't the only problem that earbuds can cause. Listening to music at a loud volume can make you unaware of what's going on around you. That increases your chances of an accident. If you're running on a bike path, for example, it's hard to hear a cyclist shout, "Heads up!" when your music drowns out all other sounds.

Are There Other Options?

It might feel like every phone or music player comes packaged with a tiny pair of earbuds. After all, they're cheap to manufacture and easy to use.

So what can you do? Go retro with headphones. There's a reason they're making a comeback. Sometimes old-school is better.

Most electronics stores have entire sections devoted to headphones. The best headphones, noise-canceling headphones, help block out other noises. That way, you don't have to turn up the volume on your music as loud to hear it well. Noise-canceling headphones may be good for staying focused on studying or homework, but they're not great choices if you need to hear the world around you.

Headphones that go over your ears can also damage your hearing if you use them too long or play music too loudly. They're just not as much of a risk as earbuds are: Having the source of the sound in your ear canal can increase a sound's volume by 6 to 9 decibels - enough to cause some serious problems.

Earbuds exist because so many of us love music. So you probably want to protect your hearing so you can continue to appreciate music. That's why it helps to know about the risks of earbuds (and other noise hazards) so you can take steps to be safe.

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Earbuds are basically a tiny pair of speakers that go inside the ears. They're fine at low volumes, but they can cause permanent hearing loss if not used properly. Find out what's safe (and not) in this article for teens.

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Do you know that digital voice assistants (home speakers), actually help kids to improve their listening and communication skills? Do you also know that a survey showed that people or families who owns the speakers have lower percentage of using their phones constantly? 

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Do you know that digital voice assistants (home speakers), actually help kids to improve their listening and communication skills? Do you also know that a survey showed that people or families who owns the speakers have lower percentage of using their phones constantly? 

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While investors pressure Apple to address youth phone addiction, experts are more optimistic about the voice-enabled smart speakers that Google and Amazon want to plunk into your living room.

At their most ambitious, Amazon's Echo and Google's Home devices are meant to transform the way you manage your life and control your home, using artificial intelligence to put an ever-increasing range of capabilities at your command. But at their most basic, they simply allow you to spend less time tapping away on a screen. And as Apple's current scrutiny underscores, that can be particularly important when it comes to kids.

Solace Shen, a researcher at Cornell who has studied children's interactions with intelligent technology, says she sees a big opportunity for educational and entertainment content on these devices that doesn't suck kids in in the same way that a smartphone would.

"Playing a game with an adult or another child using a voice-enabled device, you're not focused on a screen, so the interaction encourages you to look at each other and pay attention to each other," Shen explains. "That's a unique advantage of these voice enabled systems. If they're designed right, they can be unobtrusive, but speak up when needed."

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Both Google and Amazon already have a wide range of children's content available, including trivia games, stories, and interactive question sessions with characters from the likes of Sesame Street or Disney. They also both have ways to set up profiles for young children with parental controls to easily monitor usage and what a kid has access to. And both companies have plans to keep expanding their offerings in the coming year.

"You're going to see us invest heavily in expanding both the experiences and the content we produce for kids and families in 2018," Raunaq Shah, a Google Home product manager, told late last year. "The reception to the features that we've launched so far has been tremendous and there's really a huge opportunity for us to make the experience for kids and families even better."

He highlights how the communal and public nature of these devices can allow parents to feel better about letting kids get comfortable with them - it's hard to have secrets when everything you ask gets logged in a mutually accessible search history or can be heard out loud when you ask it. Plus, kids can be entertained or informed without the dopamine hit of notifications that come when you fire up a phone.

"If you watch a kid with the smartphone, all the bells and whistles are just so seductive and addictive," says Marika Lindholm, sociologist and founder of ESME, a site for single moms. "With the Echo or the Home, there is the opportunity for much more listening and interaction."

The barrage of notifications and social applications on a phone can cause anxiety and encourage a kind of digital relationship that just isn't possible with smart speakers as we know them now. And there are early signs that when people use smart speakers, their usage becomes a substitute for time on smartphones: Two-thirds of people who use digital voice assistants use their phones less often, according to a new survey published by tech consultancy Accenture.

In the end, parents must take control

Lindholm has heard fears that kids could end up thinking of the assistants as real people and looking to them for things that they'd otherwise talk about with a parent. An amusing example of this can be seen in a short video by Brett Gaylor that documents his five-year-old's son's obsession with Google's voice commands.

While Google's Shah said that that video made him feel "warm and fuzzy" inside, some may see it as portending a slightly disturbing future. The idea that children could be taught so much by these new devices - especially when these assistants have so far proven that they often get information wrong - is a little scary. Meanwhile, studies have shown that young children see these assistants as "semi-animate" and some parents have complained that because you don't need "please" or "thank you" to control the devices, it encourages bad manners.

Plus, YouTube's struggles last year to keep disturbing content out of its children's feeds could make some parents wary of placing trust in kid settings.

Ultimately, though, as with any other technology, the onus is on the parent to instruct their child on etiquette, set limits and moderate usage.

"You should model them to kids not as a toy or a reward or a god-given right to have," says Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Harvard University. "You say, 'This is a tool, this is what it does, here's how you use it, and here's how and when you don't use it.'"

Like the other experts CNBC talked to, Rich feels hopeful about the future of smart assistant technologies and how children will interact with them. His 11-year-old son recently bought one of Google's Home devices with his own money and Rich likes how the device can assist with random questions without always being in his son's clutches, like a smartphone. Still, he acknowledges that, unlike with smartphones, there haven't been any real studies yet to see what impacts these smart speakers could have on children.

"They haven't been out long enough yet - I think the jury's still out on them," concludes Dr. David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, "But I do think the screened versions of them have potential to be addictive. So far, any internet based technology does appear to have addictive potential."

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Experts are hopeful that Google Home and Amazon Echo won't addict kids like smartphones

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While investors pressure Apple to address youth phone addiction, experts are more optimistic about the voice-enabled smart speakers that Google and Amazon want to plunk into your living room. At their most ambitious, Amazon's Echo and Google's Home devices are meant to transform the way you manage your life and control your home, using artificial intelligence to put an ever-increasing range of capabilities at your command.

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Ever feel like the devices we once claimed were going to make our lives easier and give us hours of free time have actually had the opposite effect? Instead of leaving us time to relax, we've become preoccupied with checking our phones, even without being prompted. We're obsessed.

The upside, according to research from Pew, is that we consider our fellow Americans "less loud and annoying than they used to be," since we're all glued to our screens.

The downside? Balancing the benefits of having the world in the palm of our hands against all the demands on our time and attention that access brings.

Psychologists, life coaches, self-help books, and Lord knows your mother-in-law, all think we're spending too much time on our phones and we've become addicted. How addicted? Well, Adam Adler, author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, found the average response time for a work email is six seconds. Six. Seconds. That's how often we're checking in. In his research, Adler found that not only do we spend an average of three hours a day on our phones, when asked which would be worse - a broken bone or a broken phone, 46% of young adults chose the broken bone, with many of those who chose a broken phone "agonizing" over the choice.

Calling it addiction may be distasteful but if you examine what addiction is and how it interferes with relationships, work, and responsibilities, it makes sense.

To break the cycle and disengage from your bad habits, follow these addiction breaking tips:

Be Intentional. Change the default settings, turn off push notifications and silence your phone if safe to do so. When we see the screen light up or hear a tone, like Pavlov's dog we have conditioned ourselves to immediately pick up our phone and see what's happening. By turning off those notifications, we can start to take control.

Flip your mindset. Atler suggests instead of saying "I can't check my phone," say "I won't check my phone." "Can't" suggests an external force is controlling your actions, whereas "won't" puts you in control and control is what it's all about. Simply flipping the script from "can't" to "won't" gives us that power.

Set time limits. Just like you do when you're trying to get your kids to practice playing the piano or manage their screen time, determine before you get lost down the rabbit hole of cat videos or Tasty cooking demos how much time you will spend on your phone.

Model appropriate behavior. Speaking of your kids, remember they will do what you do more than they will do what you say. Common Sense Media has a clever video with Will Ferrell promoting their Device Free Dinner initiative that shows how your screen time behaviors are seen and noted by your kids. You can't ask them to do what you're not willing to do yourself.

Track your habits. If you're not sure this really applies to you, keep a journal or a running tally of how many times you jump on Facebook, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans or whatever else you're into. After a few days, take stock and determine if that time is keeping you from other more productive or life-enhancing activities.

Take a break. Whether you see yourself as addicted or not, putting your device down and spending time away is a healthy habit to cultivate. Your mother-in-law isn't totally wrong. It is important to spend time with family and friends to engage in real-world connections and conversations. A recent article from Forbes Magazine examined the struggle millennials are experiencing with face-to-face conversation having grown up in a digital world. They aren't alone. Taking a break doesn't have to be for a long period of time, but simply disconnecting, even for an afternoon, can help you reset and re-engage on a deeper level with the world around you.
Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Washington DC. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances, edits and researches on subjects ranging from family and education to history and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on .

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How to Break the Cycle of Device Addiction - The Online Mom

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By Tracey Dowdy Ever feel like the devices we once claimed were going to make our lives easier and give us hours of free time have actually had the opposite effect? Instead of leaving us time to relax, we've become preoccupied with checking our phones, even without being prompted. We're obsessed.

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Did you know that kids doesn't listen and ignore what people SAY however they react more on people's ACTION/MOVEMENT.

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Did you know that kids doesn't listen and ignore what people SAY however they react more on people's ACTION/MOVEMENT.

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Link:

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Did you know that snapchat added new features to its app to get more profit as it was losing money!?

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Did you know that snapchat added new features to its app to get more profit as it was losing money!?

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Snapchat added those new features in April

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Newsela | Snapchat to work with outside partners to create mobile content

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Do you know that devices could give you fears and back pains but it can also disable you to communicate and connect with your friends face to face?!

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Do you know that devices could give you fears and back pains but it can also disable you to communicate and connect with your friends face to face?!

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This is related to VCA maps because if you think about it, in the olden days you wouldn't really have a phone so it allows you to communicate face to face to people but now, everything are able to be done on phones which hooks people onto devices easily.

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Information and communication technologies have changed our lives. At first glance, there are only benefits. Commercials show us every day a world, in which people like you and me live happier lives, because they can now effortlessly do their work from the beach - thanks to the latest tablets, smartphones or other smart devices. However, as you might have guessed, the bright new ICT world has also its dark corners. New psychological phenomena, you could also call them diseases, are spreading rapidly. The latest, most dangerous one is called nomophobia.

The term 'nomophobia' is an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia". It was coined in a 2010 study by the UK Post Office. They had commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organization, to explore anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. YouGov found out that close to 53 percent of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage". Among the 2,163 respondents, men suffered significantly more: The researchers found out that about 58 percent of men were affected, compared to 47 percent of women.

Dimensions of nomophobia

In a qualitative study of nomophobia through interviews with undergraduate students, researchers at Iowa State University identified four dimensions of nomophobia [1]. These dimensions include the fear of: 1. not being able to communicate with friends; 2. lack of connectedness in general; 3. not being able to access information; and 4. giving up on convenience.

In view of these anxieties, which may occur in combination and reinforce each other, it is not surprising that more than half of the identified nomophobes never switch off their mobile phones.

In order to find out, if you suffer from nomophobia yourself, you may consider doing the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) that the researchers from Iowa developed. Among the 20 questions are, for example: For what purposes do you usually use your smartphone? How would you feel if you left your smartphone at home and had to spend your day without it? Would you feel anxious if you could not use your smartphone for some reason when you wanted to do so?

In response participants indicated the extent to which they would agree with the following statements: "I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone"; "If I were to run out of credits or hit my monthly data limit, I would panic"; "I would feel anxious because I could not check my email messages"; "I would feel nervous because I would not be able to receive text messages and calls".

The paradox of technology

Among the techno-phobias, nomophibia and other mobile-phone-related anxieties have risen to a top position. Some researchers already call this "possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21st century".

The promise of technology has been to free us from the limitations of our own physical and mental powers. However, addictions like nomophobia make us also dependent on technology. This leads to the paradox situation where some people become at the same time liberated from limitations while they are the slaves of the very tools that liberated them.

Smartphones have helped us navigate through space and time to the point where they are almost indispensable. From managing our busy schedules to getting directions and immediate access to other people as well as helping us find answers to any questions we might possibly have, smartphones have become omnipresent and omniscient servants facilitating our lives.

In the case of nomophobia this can lead to a bizarre relationship, in which those affected suffer severe withdrawal symptoms when their phone is not working. The most concrete manifestation of this personal, sometimes even intimate relationship between user and mobile device is Siri, the friendly assistant sitting in your iPhone, which answers your every question in a calm soothing voice. In an episode of the comedy series "The Big Bang Theory", Rajesh, a relationship-challenged scientist, even developed a love affair with Siri and neglected human relationships.

Conclusion

So far, there are no scientifically validated treatments for nomophobia. However, The Wikipedia article on the subject says that "Cognitive behavioral therapy seems to be effective". Thus, in case you are affected by nomophobia, there is hope. Maybe someone will develop an iPhone app for dealing with nomophobia.

Reference

[1] Yildirim, C., & Correia, A. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130-137 DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.

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Information and communication technologies have changed our lives. At first glance, there are only benefits. Commercials show us every day a world, in which people like you and me live happier lives, because they can now effortlessly do their work from the beach - thanks to the latest tablets, smartphones or other smart devices.

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Do you know that a game called Dys4ia is trying to solve descrimination?

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Do you know that a game called Dys4ia is trying to solve descrimination?

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The game is about a women who is transgender and is trying to let her become her original gender. Devices/Games are teaching kids many things.

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Newsela | Video games: Can they make people more empathetic in real life?

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Anna Anthropy, the creator of "Dys4ia," believes that empathy games can offer an initial step into understanding marginalized communities. However, the games are not meant to represent their entire experience.

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If you have smart speaker, put it to use

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Did you know that one solution is to device addiction is by getting a second phone?

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Did you know that one solution is to device addiction is by getting a second phone?

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Link:

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Your phone is ruining your life. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really. We've all become so absorbed in the blinking, bleeping monsters in our pockets that even the gadgetmakers have started dispensing salves for excessive phone use. One of their more out-there "solutions": Start carrying two phones. There's a certain counterintuitive logic at work-shouldn't we have fewer phones? Maybe. But out of this existential panic, those who created our screen dependency and those who are committed to helping us fight it have come up with a tantalizing (and tantalizingly profitable) fix. It's not about getting off your phone, per se. It's about getting on a different one.

This is the phone that will help you live your best life-a life in which Instagram, Slack, Facebook, and email are relegated to the back of your mind. Barely larger than a credit card, this phone relaxes your two-handed grip and liberates more of your pocket real estate. That other phone lures you into a Chinese finger trap. This gadget sets you free.

Perhaps you're now thinking of the first phone you ever owned, Tamagotchi-like with its plastic body and tactile keypad. But these are not the phones of the 20th century. The Light Phone, for example, looks like a glowing calculator. It behaves like a portable landline-it makes and receives calls, through your main phone-and does little else. No internet, no GPS, no music, no texts. (A second version, due to ship sometime in 2019, adds an alarm clock and basic messaging.) With it, you can stash your addicta-phone in a drawer and not go completely off the grid.

But maybe you want your Lilliputian phone companion to have greater ambitions. The recently revived Palm (as in: Pilot) lets you choose your own level of escape. It looks more like the phone you're already using, only downsized to a 3.3-inch screen, a 12-megapixel camera on the back, and a suite of Android apps to give you access to everything you want-simply subtract that which you wish to leave behind, and nothing you don't. (Yes, you could just find the strength to delete the addictive apps from the phone you already have, but the admittedly wishful thinking here is that the minuscule display will dissuade you from spending much time on it anyway.) The monochrome-screened, bubble-buttoned Punkt MP02 offers a "dumb" experience with a couple of nice features, like 4G connectivity and security software built by BlackBerry. For the more ascetic, there's the diminutive Japanese Kyocera Card Keitai KY-01L. It has an epaper screen and handles only calls, texts, alarms, and web browsing.

These inventions invite you to leave your phone behind. Unshackled from your ultrasmart, ultra-enticing device, you can truly focus on your spouse, on the kids, on finally finishing that New Yorker article about brutalist architecture. These are phones that are servants, not masters.

What a load of baloney. Face it, you'll never be the master as long as your eyeball magnet of a real phone is conveniently stashed in your bag. A second phone, however tempting, can't save you from the desire to capture that perfectly Instagrammable shot, the itch to check your email. It won't stop the intoxicating hits of dopamine when you finally return to your primary phone, which is brimming with notifications.

A minimalist phone can't save us. But perhaps it can do something else: provide a dose of techno-suboxone. It can ease our addiction, interrupting our habit of compulsive notification-checking and anxious screen-glancing without the pain of going cold turkey. Will you return to your smartphone after a brief time away? Probably. But a dumb phone can show us glimpses, however brief, of a life without all the indulgences and interruptions of our pocket supercomputers.

A tiny phone gives us a way toward the first and most painful step in recovery: admitting we have a problem.

Styling by Audrey Taylor

Arielle Pardes (@pardesoteric) wrote about racial identity among robots in issue 26.11.
This article appears in the January issue. Subscribe now.
More Great WIRED Stories

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Break Your Phone Addiction With ... a Second Phone?

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Your phone is ruining your life. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really. We've all become so absorbed in the blinking, bleeping monsters in our pockets that even the gadgetmakers have started dispensing salves for excessive phone use. One of their more out-there "solutions": Start carrying two phones.

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Did you know that the first cell phone costed about 4,000$ and only enabled people to talk or chat with other relatives and friends!?

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Did you know that the first cell phone costed about 4,000$ and only enabled people to talk or chat with other relatives and friends!?

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Ah, yes. The cell phone. Our trusty side-kick and companion. We talk through it and it talks back. We can do just about anything with our cell phones, including sending emails, taking pictures and videos, and streaming our favorite movies and television shows. Without it, I'm certain most of us would be (figuratively) lost.

Our phones have enabled us to shop on the go and even work while away from the office. With how fast technology is advancing, our phones can be automated to run many of our daily tasks. As phone technology grows, so does Husky Intelligence; we do not intend on stopping any time soon.

History and people behind technology

The precursors to mobile phones can be seen in the early 1900s. Most notably, the Germans tested a mobile telephone device that was used on military trains traveling across the country during World War I. During this time, many other countries began working on mobile telephone technology, including the British, Americans, and even the USSR.

Fast-forward a few decades and companies like AT&T and Motorola were working on creating mobile cellular devices and services. Originally, the purpose of cell phones was for people to drive and talk at the same time.

In 1983, Motorola launched the first cell phone to the world: the DynaTAC 800x. It was priced at a "reasonable" $4,000. With this price tag came many great features, like a 30-minute battery life while on the phone and the phone was the size of a five-dollar footlong at Subway.

However, despite the device being rather large and clunky, the fact that it did not have the restraints of wires was appealing to many. Motorola spent over $100 million and a decade developing the first ever mobile cell phone.

Effect on everyday life

Since the release of the Motorola DynaTAC 800x, cell phones have advanced greatly. The cell phones we have today fit in the palm of our hand, and we can video chat with others and browse the internet. A lot of employees in the workforce do most of their work on phones nowadays. We set up meetings and take calls with clients. Companies such as Apple and Samsung even have their own AI assistants, which can remind you to perform certain tasks, answer questions using the internet, and even crack a joke or two.

Once upon a time I had a cell phone that was shared between my brother, step-father, and myself. It was a blue Nokia that had a one-inch screen, antenna, and weighed about half a pound. The phone was only used for phone calls between the family and in case of an emergency. Today, almost everyone possesses a cell phone, including some as young as five years of age. How has this effected people today?

First, it enables us to be in contact with others in less than a minute. Second, we can leave the house and use it to take pictures and videos and then upload them to social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Before, you had a separate camera or video recorder which you had to plug into the computer, download the software, and then convert the file to MP4 or WMA in order to watch it.

Third, we can work away from the office or home. Fourth, we can compare prices while at the store by bringing up a competitor's website. The list goes on. Obviously, the cell phone has affected us greatly.

Future of cell phone

On my Samsung Galaxy S8, I can do everything my laptop can do, if not more. So, what more can cell phone companies do to grow and advance their products? Besides the often requested longer battery life, screen resolution, and camera quality, what more can they do? How would you like it if the phone was implanted in your head? That is what many influential industry leaders believe will happen when they were asked by the World Economic Forum earlier this year. Many leaders believe that these phones will be available as early as 2023.

Our phones have made life easier. Whether it is for pleasure or for work, these phones have helped us in many ways, including automation of reminders and tasks.

Husky Intelligence wants to make your field service management business operate more efficiently and effectively. Our mobile capability with the software enables you and your team to access the software out in the field. You can create quotes, work orders, invoices, and more all from your cell phone. As phones continue to grow, so will Husky Intelligence.
Want to learn more about our FSM software? Contact us!

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Cell Phones: A Brief History of an Addiction

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Ah, yes. The cell phone. Our trusty side-kick and companion. We talk through it and it talks back. We can do just about anything with our cell phones, including sending emails, taking pictures and videos, and streaming our favorite movies and television shows. Without it, I'm certain most of us would be (figuratively) lost.

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Do you know that compared to the olden days, much more kids are addicted to devices now and they sometimes have one risk factor for suicide, for instance they get intense moods and even suicidal ideation?! 

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Do you know that compared to the olden days, much more kids are addicted to devices now and they sometimes have one risk factor for suicide, for instance they get intense moods and even suicidal ideation?! 

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This is relating to VCA map (historical map) because it said that device addiction has become such a big problem now compared to before. (past)

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One out of two teenagers feels "addicted" to their phone, according to a recent study.

Statistics like this may have fueled two major Apple investors to push the company to offer more flexible parental controls - in fact, Apple has already announced that it's working on new ways to protect kids from smartphone addiction.

But will it be too little too late?

"It's good that this conversation is happening now because you cannot ignore the data," clinical psychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez told Fox News. "The smartphone manufacturers should have a warning or some educational or timeout mechanism that helps teens and adults use phones in a healthier way."

The data points to several adverse health effects. Research published in Clinical Psychological Science found that teens who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71 percent more likely to have one risk factor for suicide, like depression or suicidal ideation.
FLU OUTBREAK SHUTS DOWN IDAHO SCHOOL, 4 OUT OF 10 KIDS STRICKEN
A 2017 study published in the journal Child Development compared teens from the 70s, 80s and 90s, and found today's teens are taking longer to engage in both the pleasures and the responsibilities of adulthood.

For example, from 2010-2016, only 32 percent of 8th graders had worked for pay, down from 63 percent from those surveyed in the early 1990s.

"The author of this study ... found that [the slowing of teen development] was primarily because of this cellphone and tablet engagement," Hafeez said. "Being on social media; Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat etc., children don't feel the need to leave their home."

With some research estimating that 78 percent of teens check their phones at least hourly, it may be difficult to decipher whether or not your child is truly "addicted to their phone," but Haffez said when it interferes with school or their mood and temperament, you know they have a problem.

"When they're disconnected from you or others in favor of the phone, this impacts development. It's isolation and disconnection. This impacts interpersonal relationships and social skills. If you notice you're speaking to your child and they aren't looking up or connecting, this is a sign," she said.

But adults may be just as addicted to their phones and often don't showcase the technology behaviors they want their children to follow.
WHO CONSIDERS ADDING 'GAMING DISORDER' TO LIST OF MENTAL DISEASES
According to a global survey by online security company AVG Technologies, 54 percent of kids think their parents check their devices too often and 32 percent of them "feel unimportant" when their parents are distracted by their phones.

"Parents sort of have this attitude where 'do as I say, not as I do,'" Hafeez said. "If they are on the phone kids will emulate that. So parents need to have boundaries and rules about phone use."

Hafeez recommends the following tips for parents who want to limit their children's screen time.

Create incentives that reward LESS phone time. Reward it with 15 minutes of phone time. You want to work toward the phone time, not around it. The phone dominates the time and becomes a huge distraction.

Something as simple as physically putting the phone out of sight can help greatly, especially when kids need to focus.

Put a do not disturb on the notifications. Kids should really have the opportunity to ration their time.

Establish some kind of screen-free time with your children, there needs to be a culture of, "If we're at the dinner table having dinner, no phones; if we're watching a movie together, no phones." This way you're not just creating a family-friendly atmosphere at home but you are also teaching your children how to impose the same limitations on themselves when they're out of your home.

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Teen cellphone addiction: How bad has it gotten?

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One out of two teenagers feels "addicted" to their phone, according to a recent study. Statistics like this may have fueled two major Apple investors to push the company to offer more flexible parental controls - in fact, Apple has already announced that it's working on new ways to protect kids from smartphone addiction.

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Some people say that devices are like drugs, since it makes you happier for a short period.
This can be used for telling people how dangerous device addiction is, because they will know more about illegal drugs clearer than devices. (presenting

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The Whole World Online - The problem of teen cell phone addiction nowadays Every day of our modern lives brings change, as well as technical progress. Some 20 years ago the majority of people wouldn't understand the term "internet addiction." Today it is a part of our reality. With the development of technologies and a wide variety of the latest mobile devices available in stores, the new form of obsession appears within a recent decade. It is a mobile phone addiction, and its symptoms can be found among people almost in any part of the world. Especially, it is a problem for the younger generation. Teen cell phone addiction becomes an acute question in many modern families.

Lost In The Web - Mobile phone addiction symptoms
Cell phone addiction in teenagers shows up in various forms and different everyday life situations. Kids are using their mobile devices like a drug - when they are bored, tired and lazy, when feeling angry or lonely.
Most common mobile phone addiction symptoms are:

A constant need to use a cell phone more often.

Loss of sense of time while surfing online.

Failed attempts to use a mobile device less.

Feelings of anxiety or being depressed.

Preferring using a cell phone instead of spending time with family and friends.

Feeling restless or irritable when a mobile phone or network is unreachable.

Craving for the latest models of mobile devices and the newest applications.

There is also a number of physical effects caused by teenage cell phone addiction, such as fingers, neck and back tension, itchy eyes, insomnia, weight change, changes in diet, fatigue, difficulties in focusing on one subject, distracted attention, etc.

Overall, teen cell phone addiction often leads to problems and failures in studies as well as loss of interest in hobbies, sports, and outdoor activities. In some cases, it can also cause social loneliness, loss of friends, staying isolated.

Some Facts and Numbers - Results of teen cell phone addictionAccording to Common Sense Media recent Addiction Research about teenage cell phone addiction:

78% of teens check their devices at least hourly;

59% of parents feel their teens are addicted to their cell phones;

50% of teenagers admit that they are addicted to their mobile devices;

1/3 of teen kids very often or occasionally try to cut down on time spent on mobile device;

72% of teens feel the need to immediately respond to texts, social-networking messages and other notifications.

What Can Be Done? - Solutions to cell phone addictionTeenage cell phone addiction is not easy to deal with, but being a parent, you should always try your best to help kids to overcome the obsession. Here are different solutions to cell phone addiction in teenagers.

First of all, a parent should become a friend to his/her teen. Be ready to talk, help and support your kid in any situation.

Treat your child as you would treat an adult - a person equal to you. Show your teenage son or daughter how to be in charge of his/her behavior.

At the same time, show your authority. You are the parent - so it's you who sets the rules.

Become a positive example. Use your own cell phone less and pay more attention to the members of your family.

Set a limit on the money that you give out monthly for your child's phone.

Another good solution to teen cell phone addiction is setting a limit on the Internet data available. Once the allotment runs out, the Internet will be disconnected. Therefore, a teen will use cell phone less frequently and more thoughtfully.

Monitor their mobile activity.

If you are a young parent of a small child, you might prevent teenage cell phone addiction in future.You might not buy a mobile phone until your kid is at least a junior in high school and has his/her first part-time job, to be able to pay a monthly sum for cell phone connection.
Some strict home rules may be very useful to handle teen cell phone addiction:

Set limits on using a mobile phone when a child is supposed to study for important school tests and projects. Social media and texting shouldn't distract the attention of your kid from primary tasks. Education comes first. You can monitor their social activity with the help of parental control software for android tablet or mobile devices.

Make a schedule of home life. A child should have a certain period of time before he/she will be allowed to use a cell phone. Most likely, a teenager will have his/her school tasks and home duties done to have a chance to get back online sooner. Such a solution in cell phone addiction makes a teenager more disciplined.

Another way to fight against cell phone addiction in teenagers is to forbid using cell phones during meals. A dinner should be spent with a family, when all members share news, talk and laugh, enjoying the time spent together. So all mobile devices should be put aside or turned off. This rule also works for all family trips, time spent hiking, visiting places of interest, travelling,

To overcome teen cell phone addiction, show your child that life around us is far more interesting and colorful than any social media. Time spent with the family is precious.

Is your teen addicted to a cell phone? Have you done anything about it?

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Best Ways to Fight Teen Cell Phone Addiction

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The Whole World Online - The problem of teen cell phone addiction nowadays Every day of our modern lives brings change, as well as technical progress. Some 20 years ago the majority of people wouldn't understand the term "internet addiction." Today it is a part of our reality.

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Did you know that many people were against device addiction and said that people just use phones often because they're entertaining!?

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Did you know that many people were against device addiction and said that people just use phones often because they're entertaining!?

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Table of Contents

Signs and Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction

Physical Effects of Addiction

Psychological Effects of Cell Phone Addiction

Self-Assessment: Am I Addicted to my Smartphone?

The recent explosion of iPhones, Androids, and other smartphones has provided people with the ability to access the entirety of the Internet on-the-go and at any given moment. 90% of adults in America own a cell phone, ¹ and while this may not be a problem for many people, some individuals develop an addiction to their mobile devices.

90% of American adults own a cell phone.¹

Cell phones are constantly being improved by expanding upon their functionalities, which in turn increases the likelihood of overuse and addiction. According to the PEW Research Center, 67% of smartphone owners have admitted to checking their phone for calls or messages when their phone didn't vibrate or ring. ¹ This is one major sign of cell phone dependence and should serve as a warning to cell phone owners.

Signs and Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction

Although cell phone addiction is not yet listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5 th Edition (DSM-5), research has compared it to gambling addiction, which has clearer diagnostic criteria and is included in the DSM-5.

At least 4 of the following signs and symptoms are thought to comprise criteria for cell phone addiction, and the problematic cell phone overuse must cause significant harm in the individual's life: 2,3

A need to use the cell phone more and more often in order to achieve the same desired effect.

Persistent failed attempts to use cell phone less often.

Preoccupation with smartphone use.

Turns to cell phone when experiencing unwanted feelings such as anxiety or depression.

Excessive use characterized by loss of sense of time.

Has put a relationship or job at risk due to excessive cell phone use.

Tolerance.
Need for newest cell phone, more applications, or increased use.

Withdrawal, when cell phone or network is unreachable.

If you or a loved one displays these signs and symptoms of cell phone addiction, help is readily available. Call the phone number above to speak with a treatment specialist about various recovery options.

Physical Effects of Addiction

Overuse of your cell phone or smartphone can result in a number of different physical problems that may cause permanent damage or be difficult to treat, including:

Digital eye strain.⁴

The pain and discomfort associated with viewing a digital screen for over 2 hours.

Eyes begin to burn and itch.

Blurred vision.

Eye fatigue.

Digital Eye Strain can cause headaches.

Neck problems.
Also known as "text neck," which refers to neck pain resulting from looking down at cell phone or tablet for too long.⁵

Increased illnesses due to germs.⁶

1 in 6 cell phones has fecal matter on it.

E. coli bacteria, which can cause fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, is found on many phones.

Phones have been found to be contaminated with MRSA.

Causes painful abscesses.

Life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, bloodstream, heart valves, and lungs.

Car accidents.

Many people believe that they can multitask and use their phones while driving, but this causes significant impairment and puts the driver and others on the road in danger.

Research has revealed that texting and driving can be just as dangerous as drinking and driving.⁷

Male infertility.
Preliminary studies have revealed that cell phone radiation may decrease sperm count, sperm motility and viability.⁸

Psychological Effects of Cell Phone Addiction

Sleep disturbances.⁹

Cell phone addiction has been linked to an increase in sleep disorders and fatigue in users.

Using your cell phone before bed increases the likelihood of insomnia.

Bright light may decrease sleep quality.

Smartphone use could increase amount of time it takes to fall asleep.

Light emitted from the cell phone may activate the brain.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.¹⁰

Relationship problems.
Offline relationships may suffer as a result of neglect in favor of excessive cell phone and social media use.¹¹

Anxiety.
Research has found that college students who use their cell phones the most are more likely to feel anxious during downtime.¹²

Am I Addicted to my Smartphone?

This self-assessment is not meant to officially diagnose you with cell phone addiction. If you are concerned about your problematic behaviors, speak to your doctor or mental health professional about possible treatment. ¹³

1. Do you find yourself spending more time on your smartphone than you realize?

2. Do you find yourself mindlessly passing time on a regular basis by staring at your smartphone even though there might be better or more productive things to do?

3. Do you seem to lose track of time when on your cell phone?

4. Do you find yourself spending more time texting, tweeting, or emailing as opposed to talking to real-time people?

5. Has the amount of time you spend on your cell phone been increasing?

6. Do you secretly wish you could be a little less wired or connected to your cell phone?

7. Do you sleep with your smartphone on or under your pillow or next to your bed regularly?

8. Do you find yourself viewing and answering texts, tweets, and emails at all hours of the day and night, even when it means interrupting other things you are doing?

9. Do you text, email, tweet, or surf the internet while driving or doing other similar activities that require your focused attention and concentration?

10. Do you feel your use of your cell phone actually decreases your productivity at times?

11. Do you feel reluctant to be without your smartphone, even for a short time?

12. When you leave the house, you ALWAYS have your smartphone with you and you feel ill-at-ease or uncomfortable when you accidentally leave your smartphone in the car or at home, or you have no service, or it is broken?

13. When you eat meals, is your cell phone always part of the table place setting?

14. When your phone rings, beeps, buzzes, do you feel an intense urge to check for texts, tweets, or emails, updates, etc.?

15. Do you find yourself mindlessly checking your phone many times a day even when you know there is likely nothing new or important to see?

If you or a loved one is concerned about maladaptive behaviors and feelings associated with cell phone addiction, don't hesitate to call to learn more about the treatment options available to you.

References

1. Mobile Technology Fact Sheet. (2013, December 27). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

2. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. (5th ed.). (2013). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.

3. Singh Bhatia, M. (2008). Cell Phone Dependence - a new diagnostic entity. Delhi Psychiatry Journal, 11(2), 123-124. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://medind.nic.in/daa/t08/i2/daat08i2p123.pdf

4. Digital Eye Strain Report 2015. (2015). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.thevisioncouncil.org/digital-eye-strain-report-2015

5. Hansraj, K. (2014). Assessment of Stresses in the Cervical Spine Caused by Posture and Position of the Head. (25), 277-279. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25393825

6. Health Risks of Using Mobile Phones. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://source.southuniversity.edu/health-risks-of-using-mobile-phones-137310.aspx

7. Dangers of Texting Whilst Driving. (2008). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.trl.co.uk/case-studies/behaviour-dangers-of-texting-whilst-driving/

8. Deepinder, F., Makker, K., & Agarwal, A. (2007). Cell phones and male infertility: Dissecting the relationship. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 15(3), 266-270. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1472648310603380

9. Patel, R. (2015, June 17). Cell Phone use before bedtime might impact sleep, and daytime tiredness. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from https://u.osu.edu/emotionalfitness/2015/06/17/cell-phone-use-before-bedtime-might-impact-sleep-and-daytime-tiredness/

10. Babadi-Akashe, Z., & Zamani, B. (2014). The Relationship between Mental Health and Addiction to Mobile Phones among University Students of Shahrekord, Iran. Addict Health, 6(3-4), 93-99.

11. Andreassen, C. (2015). Online Social Network Site Addiction: A Comprehensive Review. Curr Addict Rep Current Addiction Reports, 2015(2), 175-184. doi:10.1007/s40429-015-0056-9

12. Lepp, A., Li, J., Barkley, J., & Salehi-Esfahani, S. (2015). Exploring the relationships between college students' cell phone use, personality and leisure. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 210-219. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214005822

13. Greenfield, D. (2013). Smartphone Abuse Test. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://virtual-addiction.com/new-smartphone-abuse-test-now-online/

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Signs and Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction - PsychGuides.com

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Table of Contents Signs and Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction Physical Effects of Addiction Psychological Effects of Cell Phone Addiction Self-Assessment: Am I Addicted to my Smartphone? The recent explosion of iPhones, Androids, and other smartphones has provided people with the ability to access the entirety of the Internet on-the-go and at any ...

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The reason people get addicted to Fortnite is because they keep their game fresh and new with new updates called seasons.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Do you know that there were a few arguments about allowing cell phones during classes or not?!

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Do you know that there were a few arguments about allowing cell phones during classes or not?!

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Some people say "no they shouldn't" because if any notifications ring, it would distract the whole class and it would end up in bad consequences.

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Cell phones are everywhere and have undeniably become an integral part of everyday life. Everyone from teens to seniors seems to have one on their person - even toddlers know how to use them for games and entertainment! Just a few years ago, cell phones were simply used to speak with someone. Now their functions reach far beyond verbal communication to email, texting, entertainment and so much more.

Yet, cell phones can also be problematic or creators of untenable situations. Now, many localities have enacted legislation to prevent distracted driving - talking, texting or using apps while driving. Theaters ask patrons to silence them or turn them off. Libraries frown on the ringing and use of cell phones on their premises. And, of course, schools question the benefits of having a cell phone in class, particularly when they can be a distraction from instruction. Should cell phones be allowed at school? Can they have an instructional purpose in the classroom?

The argument for cell phones

Cell phones have long been favored by parents as a means of keep track of their children and to reach them in case of an emergency. If a child has a medical issue or there is a situation at school, cell phones make it far easier to reach parents. Yet, these uses do not translate to student learning in the classroom.

Teachers can include cell phones and other portable technology in the classroom to aid their instruction. In fact, cell phones, which are now endlessly versatile, can be an excellent teaching resource for many reasons:

Cell phones can be used to help children with disabilities effectively communicate and learn

Certain apps and website blockers connected to campus wifi give teachers and administrators control over what sites students cannot access at school

An increasing number of education apps are being developed and improved upon to help incorporate more interactivity into the learning process

Students are intimately familiar with and fond of their cell phones. Teachers can use this interest to encourage learning

The classroom is a great place for students to learn about cell phone etiquette and how to stay safe when using technology

The argument against cell phones

In the classroom, cell phones can become a problem for a number of reasons.

A ringing or vibrating cell phone is disruptive and can be rude if it occurs during instruction

Texting and communicating via social media has become a way of life for many young people. This type of constant communication in class is distracting to the student and those around them, and can be harder for an instructor to manage than passing notes in class.

Cell phones can also been used to help individuals cheat on exams because of their small size and access to endless information. The increased pressure to do well on tests makes this seem like a viable option.

They can also be a mechanism for cyberbullying and the harassment of other students. The constant access to social media and to each other enables students to spread information or photos very quickly, which can make life unbearable for those being harassed. Rumors or something embarrassing about a teacher or classmate can be spread instantly.

It be innocent, on purpose, or the result of boredom, but an action taken on a cell phone can result in serious consequences.

Who should decide?

The pros and cons of using cell phones in the classroom are clear. But, who should decide if and when to allow them at school or in the classroom?

The ministry or national government body

The state governmental body

The local or district board of education

Each school

Each teacher

Conclusion

Cell phones can be positive teaching tools, but they can also be detrimental to the environment in the classroom. While they can save a life, they can also destroy one. However they may appear, it is essential that children and youths learn about the reality of cell phones. In doing so, they can make more positive choices on how and when they use these devices.

Photo: A student uses a cell phone in class. Credit: Bryan McDonald / Flickr

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Should Cell Phones Be Allowed In The Classroom?

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Cell phones are everywhere and have undeniably become an integral part of everyday life. Everyone from teens to seniors seems to have one on their person - even toddlers know how to use them for games and entertainment! Just a few years ago, cell phones were simply used to speak with someone.

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Baseball players play Fortnite to release their stress, and some players are even almost addicted to it!

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Did you know that one solution to device addiction is deleting apps that you open all the time.

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Did you know that one solution to device addiction is deleting apps that you open all the time.

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This is because it will out of your sight.

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Addicted to your mobile phone? This article will share you cell phone addiction solutions to beat your phone addiction.

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Do you know that a few experts showed in a study that when you hear a notification coming into your phone, your perspiration increases?! 

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Do you know that a few experts showed in a study that when you hear a notification coming into your phone, your perspiration increases?! 

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As we approach Independence Day, it is worth remembering just how far we have come. But it is also important to acknowledge where we have stumbled.

Nowhere is our independence in more jeopardy than in our digital lives. Various surveys find people more willing to give up food, sleep and sex than to lose their Internet connections. One recent study found that half of us would rather have a broken bone than a broken phone.

How many times do you check your phone a day? I guessed 20 times, and cringed at the thought. But that isn't even close to reality.

Apple says that iPhone users unlock their phones 80 times a day. Even worse, research firm Dscout found that we tap, type and swipe our smartphones more than 2,600 times a day, on average. The majority of us check in front of our kids, during meetings, while we eat and while we should be sleeping.

This is a serious addiction that few people are talking about, probably because we are almost universally addicted. More than just an intrusion into our lives, our smartphones are actually killing us. Pedestrian deaths have skyrocketed as a result of both pedestrians and drivers looking at their phones.

Why can't we stop?

The answer lies in our brains. Have you ever felt the twinge of anxiety when you are forced to be away from your phone? That's not imaginary; it's what bona fide addiction feels like. During a recent 60 Minutes piece, researchers at California State University, Dominguez Hills, connected electrodes to reporter Anderson Cooper's fingers to measure changes in heart rate and perspiration, just as they had done previously with subjects in experiments. Then they sent text messages to his phone but placed it just out of reach. To no surprise, Cooper's breathing changed, his perspiration increased and his heart rate spiked with each notification. Textbook anxiety.

In this case, the anxiety was caused by withdrawal from an addiction. But why are we addicted in the first place?
RELATED:
The answer is we get a massive thrill from what we are addicted to - a reward called dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical that literally makes us happy, and it is released every time we receive something on our phones. It could be a text from a loved one, a "like" on Facebook, or a bit of breaking news we find interesting. Dopamine feels good, so we keep checking our phones, hoping to get a little hit of it.

It's the same principle behind gambling, and this is the reason it is such a common addiction. Our brain's need for dopamine makes us pull that slot machine arm just one more time, even if we know rationally there is little reward in gambling. Incidentally, dopamine is also the driver of heroin and cocaine addiction, just for another reason. These drugs flood the brain with imitation dopamine, creating a euphoria not unlike that which occurs when you get a few dozen "likes" on your latest Instagram selfie.

Jeff Stibel is the Vice Chairman of Dun & Bradstreet and a Partner of Bryant Stibel. He is the USA Today bestselling author of Breakpoint and Wired for Thought. (Photo: Bryant Stibel)

This Fourth of July, we should acknowledge that we are dependent. Then, as Americans have done so well in the past, let's go for true independence. If you're like me and want to limit your addiction, consider one of these proven strategies for weaning yourself.

First, proximity matters. Mental problems can often be solved by creating physical barriers. The farther you can move your phone away from your body, the better. Instead of your pocket, put it in your purse, briefcase, or better yet, on the other side of the room. If it takes actual physical effort to get to your phone, the work-reward ratio changes, naturally allowing you to check less.

Another element of proximity is where apps are located on your phone. If you are trying to reduce usage of a particular app, put it in a folder on the last page of your app screen. This will take your brain off autopilot and force you to think about whether you really need to open that app.

Second, turn off every non-essential audio notification. As Anderson Cooper found out, when your phone dings, you feel anxiety if you don't check it immediately. We learned from Pavlov's famous experiment that we associate cues with things we are addicted to, and we tend to react similarly to both. Both Cooper and Pavlov's dogs are slaves to the same trigger - that damned ringing bell.

Everyone has a different definition of "essential," but most of us can agree that we have rushed to check our dinging phone only to find that the notification was completely unnecessary. Five minutes spent thoughtfully adjusting your app notification settings can pay off in a big way in time gained and attention not wasted.

Third, create digital safe zones, mental spaces where you agree to eliminate your digital footprint. For me, I do my best to never use Wi-Fi on airplanes. I travel a fair amount and the airplane is my mental space where I detox from the Internet. I also never have screens in the bedroom and turn off my phone whenever I sleep. There can be exceptions: You can program emergency numbers to break through your safe zone.

If you run a company like I do, you can go a step further and make an effort to keep everyone healthy at work. First, make physical, in-person communication a priority over emails and texts. We place a cell phone box in our meeting rooms and ask that all cell phones remain there until everyone is done speaking.

Some companies have experimented with "Internet-free days," something I'm strongly considering instituting on a monthly basis. Discouraging electronic communication after hours can help employees genuinely be present with their families at home to re-energize each evening. (What you can't do is block cell phone and Internet reception by purchasing a "jammer." I tried, and it turns out to be illegal in this country!)

We are living in a world where barriers are blurred; our physical independence is no longer the only thing we have to protect. Our minds are at war and we have willingly subjected ourselves to digital devices. Let's take this Independence Day to gain some ground and give our brains a break from our digital drug addictions.

Jeff Stibel is vice chairman of Dun & Bradstreet, a partner of Bryant Stibel and an entrepreneur who also happens to be a brain scientist. He is the USA TODAY bestselling author of Breakpoint and Wired for Thought. Follow him on Twitter at @stibel.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uh6uyI

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Why you're addicted to your phone ... and what to do about it

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As we approach Independence Day, it is worth remembering just how far we have come. But it is also important to acknowledge where we have stumbled. Nowhere is our independence in more jeopardy than in our digital lives. Various surveys find people more willing to give up food, sleep and sex than to lose their Internet connections.

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Do you know that some applications on devices would actually help kids who have autism?! 

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Do you know that some applications on devices would actually help kids who have autism?! 

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Autism is a kind of behavioral problem where it can start from a child and this type of disorder would make you have a trouble socially communicating with others.

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Newsela | Autistic children discover through the iPad that they have a voice

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Nonverbal children have trouble communicating, but by learning to put their thoughts and words together on an iPad, the world around them is not such a strange place.

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Turn off as many push notifications as possible

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Remove your device from you bedroom.

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Did you know that facebook just launched a new app called kids messenger to hook kids to social media at a very young age!?

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Did you know that facebook just launched a new app called kids messenger to hook kids to social media at a very young age!?

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Facebook said it helps kids talk to their parents safely on the internet. However, many experts were criticizing facebook for targeting young kids to join facebook and other social media apps.

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Newsela | Child experts: Just say "no" to Facebook's kids app

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Child advocates say Facebook's Messenger Kids app is a bad call.

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Dr. Jean Twenge said ,  (professor of psychology at San Diego State University,) it’s very clear that overuse of digital media is linked to mental health issues and unhappiness. 

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Dr. Jean Twenge said ,  (professor of psychology at San Diego State University,) it’s very clear that overuse of digital media is linked to mental health issues and unhappiness. 

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When their parents drive them up to Paradigm Malibu's bougainvillea-festooned treatment facility on Via Escondido Drive on the Pacific Coast, the kids sometimes refuse to get out of the car.

Nearly all of them become anxious and upset when they're asked to surrender the thing that led them there: their smartphones. A few have even threatened to kill themselves at the prospect of having their internet cut off.

Paradigm Malibu, established in 2012, started out catering to clientele with classic drug and alcohol addictions. Now it has developed a program specifically for adolescents with device-use disorders. It's not alone: Several rehabs have sprouted up across the U.S. to treat those whose lives have become unmanageable because of technology.

"Smartphone addiction" may seem like a cliché - an eye-roll-inducing first-world problem - but it can have devastating effects. Extreme use of digital devices and the internet can lead to behavioral disorders that are as debilitating or life-threatening as alcohol or drug abuse. And aside from those most severe cases, addictive technologies may be breeding an entire generation prone to depression and loneliness.

Recent studies indicate problematic internet and device use affects roughly 5%-8% of U.S. teenagers, according to Dr. David Hill, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and Media. "If you look at the role that screen media is playing in our society - contributing perhaps to fearfulness and isolation - there are ways to say perhaps it's a bigger crisis than opioids," he says.

Now the problem has come to the boardrooms of technology giants. And it could alter the way companies like Apple, Facebook and Google design smartphones, apps and media, with some critics raising the specter of government regulation if the industry doesn't get its house in order.

In January two large Apple shareholders, Jana Partners and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, sent a letter to the company's board urging Apple to develop solutions for the "unintentional negative consequences" of iPhone usage among kids. Meanwhile, one of Facebook 's investors has pressed it to create a committee to study the potential financial exposure to the social giant for the platform's mental health consequences.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged that he's personally concerned about the dangers of overusing technology. "I don't have a kid, but I have a nephew that I put some boundaries on," he told a group of college students in the U.K. at an Apple coding event in January, per a Guardian report. "There are some things that I won't allow. I don't want them on a social network."

Concerns over tech addiction have spawned a movement among people who used to work in Silicon Valley to advocate for their former employers to change their ways. (A recent Wired article labeled the employees "turncoats.") The most prominent of these activists is Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google. He's now the executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, which he co-founded with venture-capital investor Roger McNamee, an early Facebook backer. Their aim is to push the industry toward "technology that protects our minds and replenishes society."

From Harris' standpoint, a profit-motivated corporation sees addicts hooked on its products or services as a boon to its bottom line. Technology companies whose business models hinge on maximizing attention "are not aligned with human well-being," he says. "It's not because they're evil but because that's their model. The key thing is, the addiction [to technology] is not happening by accident - it's happening by design." Harris believes the industry will respond to public pressure to create more ethical, less harmful products.

But the tech reformers aren't just about picking fights. The investors who called on Apple to examine the issues related to phone usage by kids say they want to work with the company to use scientific research to create safeguards, according to Dr. Michael Rich, director of Harvard University's Center on Media and Child Health in Boston, who helped draft the letter. That could include more fine-grained controls to time-limit device and app usage. Rich compares his ideas to the advocacy that resulted in the auto industry equipping its vehicles with seat belts and airbags.

Companies sometimes say they're doing everything they can in order to shield themselves from liability, notes Rich. "What we're hoping to do," he says, "is bring key stakeholders and thought leaders to the table as equals and fix this as best we can."

Tech giants have taken steps to respond, although critics say they're not moving fast enough.

Apple, commenting on the investors' letter, has said: "We think deeply about how our products are used and the impact they have on users and the people around them. We take this responsibility very seriously and we are committed to meeting and exceeding our customers' expectations, especially when it comes to protecting kids."

Apple notes that it offers an array of controls to restrict apps and features, in-app purchases, and types of content. With iOS 11, released in autumn, the company added a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that turns off notifications if the device senses the user is in a car. That only came, however, years after research demonstrated that distracted driving was a significant contributor to accidents.

Samsung, another large smartphone maker, in January announced a partnership with Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global wellness start-up to launch a kind of "Do not disturb" app for Galaxy Note devices that automatically replies to incoming messages for a set period to let senders know their owners are out of pocket.

Facebook, for its part, has acknowledged research on the ill effects of social media and says it's trying to do better. The company is changing algorithms to improve the quality - over quantity - of the time its 1.4 billion users spend on the service. That includes showing fewer viral videos on Facebook starting in the fourth quarter. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Jan. 31 post: "By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term."

The medical world is still trying to get a handle on the long-range impact of smartphones and social media on childhood development and adult mental health. Studies have linked excessive tech usage to depression and anxiety. To be sure, it's a stretch to call internet devices, say, the "new heroin." Unlike addictive substances, there's no chance of physical dependency.

But many smartphone apps, especially those that are ad-supported, are engineered to hit the same pleasure centers of the brain that alcohol and opiates do. What some in the field refer to as "problematic internet use" can have real consequences. Broadly speaking, it can make an individual's day-to-day life unmanageable, with symptoms that also include severe insomnia, impulsivity and worse.

Technology addiction is "a progressive disease that could potentially lead to death. That's the reality of it," says Dr. Hilarie Cash, chief clinical officer of reStart, a Seattle-area rehabilitation center that specializes in such disorders. "Most of us don't get that far. But most people don't die of alcohol poisoning, either."

What sets off alarm bells for healthcare professionals is the nearly ubiquitous reach of smartphones. About 95% of U.S. adults now own a mobile phone of some kind, and effectively 100% of Americans ages 18-29 do, according to the latest data from Pew Research Center.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, is distrustful of both device makers and social media. "I think that for sure, technology has addictive qualities that we have to address, and that product designers are working to make those products more addictive, and we need to rein that back," Benioff said in a recent CNBC interview in which he opined that governments should regulate social media like tobacco companies or junk-food producers.

Even binge-watching has come under fire for its potential health risks. Last year, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a warning about the need for adequate shut-eye - after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told analysts the company's No. 1 competitor was sleep. "When you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night," Hastings had said on an earnings call.

The threat of legislation alone could jolt tech firms into action. "Companies are not going to self-regulate, and most people don't recognize that it's potentially a serious problem," says mobile-industry analyst Jeff Kagan. "The question is whether the industry will come up with a solution."

Of course, new media and technologies frequently blossom amid fears that they'll corrupt people's minds. Edward R. Murrow, in a 1957 interview, warned that television entertainment was fast becoming "the real opiate of the people."

Some believe the hand-wringing over device addiction is just so much hysteria. "We're not injecting Instagram or freebasing Facebook," says Nir Eyal, author of "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products." "This is on a different scale from heroin or cigarettes. There's nothing hacking through the brain barrier. It's kind of loony what's going on right now."

Eyal is the organizer of the Habit Summit conference in San Francisco, now in its fifth year. Among other things, attendees to the event (tickets start at $900) are promised tips on "the stages of habit formation and how to optimize for user retention." The former software engineer - who insists he's not an apologist for the industry - argues that the human-psychology techniques that Facebook and others use to make their products habit-forming can be employed in apps that are healthy and productive, like learning a new language or exercising.

In a separate category, Eyal says, are predatory gambling and gaming apps, which he agrees should be curbed. He also thinks parents should be able to have more tools to monitor or restrict their kids' smartphone usage. But in general, he says, device-usage problems are akin to binge-eating, not popping painkillers. "If you are a food addict, you need help. But it's not about the food," he says. "There's something else that's going on."

The problem, though, really can result in life-or-death situations. One teen patient treated by Harvard's Rich was so severely addicted to social media and online gaming that he began skipping school and holing up in his bedroom, awake all night. When the boy's parents, frantically looking for a solution, removed the family's internet router, he grew despondent and tried to kill himself.

"His virtual world became more real than the real world," Rich says.

Such cases are rare. But Rich is concerned that the pervasiveness of personal technology is breeding a range of behavioral problems, particularly in children. "You go by any playground at recess, and the kids are all staring at their smartphones," he says. "Is that pathology or is it just the way the world is evolving?"

To Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, it's very clear that overuse of digital media is linked to mental health issues and unhappiness. Her research has found that U.S. teenagers who spend three hours a day or more using electronic devices are 35% more likely to have a risk factor for suicide than those who spend less than an hour with them - while those who spend five or more hours are 71% more likely to have a suicide risk factor.

The hard part is determining cause and effect. Do depressed kids use social media and devices more? Or do smartphones lead to depression and anxiety? What we know for sure is that the largest change by far in teens' lives over the past five years was that more of them owned smartphones and were spending more time on social media, says Twenge, author of "iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood."

"It doesn't matter whether you call it an 'addiction' or 'overuse,'" she says. "I'm just interested in the consequences."

For actor Kirk Cameron, the best answer is more-assertive parenting. He's produced documentary film "Connect," which recently premiered with two limited theatrical screenings and will soon be released on home video. The movie looks at young people struggling with technology-overuse problems and strategies for dealing with them. His biggest takeaway from the project: Parents have to enforce ground rules for their children's device usage.

"We cannot outsource parenting to a piece of technology that blocks content," says Cameron, an evangelical Christian who's had to wrestle with overseeing the device usage of his six kids.

For those truly in need of a tech detox, there are programs like those at Paradigm Malibu. The kids coming to Paradigm with problematic device-usage behaviors are spending upwards of nine hours per day on their phones, checking them hundreds of times daily, says Dr. Jeff Nalin, the company's co-founder and chief clinical officer.

"When somebody doesn't want to give up their phone, they feel like their whole world is imploding," he says. "These kids use devices as a coping mechanism because they're feeling crappy about themselves. But you're sticking a cork in a volcano. At some point it's going to blow."

Paradigm Malibu is a high-end facility. The company charges $49,000 for a 30-day in-patient program (though it says health insurance on average covers 60%-80% of the cost). The three-story residential center is nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains, a block away from the Pacific Ocean.

Nalin says the focus of the treatment is to help afflicted teens find a healthy balance of screen time. "There's really no way to be 'device-free' anymore," he says. "You can't just stick your head in the sand and say, 'Don't use the device.'"

Daniel Sieberg is a former technology and science journalist who - while he wasn't on the brink of suicide - says he felt addicted to devices to a degree that was unhealthy.

"I was in denial about how badly I was managing my own life," says the 46-year-old. He says his health and well-being were suffering, as were his relationships in the real world. "I look back and think, 'Wow, how did I let that happen?'"

Ultimately, Sieberg says he turned his life around after an intervention from his wife, who had nicknamed him "Glow Worm" because he would almost always be staring at a screen while in bed. The four-step program he created for himself to curtail tech usage began with him quitting social media for several months, and he wrote a book based on the experience: "The Digital Diet."

"There's a growing movement to be mindful about technology," Sieberg says. "The message is, you can love your technology - just not unconditionally."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hooked on Hardware? Tech Giants Face Tough Questions Over Device Addiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When their parents drive them up to Paradigm Malibu's bougainvillea-festooned treatment facility on Via Escondido Drive on the Pacific Coast, the kids sometimes refuse to get out of the car. Nearly all of them become anxious and upset when they're asked to surrender the thing that led them there: their smartphones.

# data[].attributes.headline
Do you know that depending on countries all around the world, they many or may not allow devices at school?!

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know that depending on countries all around the world, they many or may not allow devices at school?!

# data[].attributes.body
Some schools do allow devices but they might only accept it for emergencies or class tasks.
Some schools don't even allow kids bringing their devices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | A modern-day dilemma: At what age should phones be allowed in school?

# data[].attributes.body
By leaving a device somewhere not near you before you sleep, it allows you to not use your phone right after you wake up.

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An addiction is anything that controls your life to the point of interfering with daily activities, work and personal relationships. Are you addicted to your devices?

Technology should enable and enhance performance, but over-reliance on it can reduce productivity. When you're addicted to your devices the proverbial tail is wagging the dog.

Note it down

To determine if you're addicted to your phone, go without for a while. Keep a little notebook where you'd usually carry your phone and every time you reach for it, take a note of why you were going to use it.

By doing this your triggers become clear. While we think we need to be constantly connected to technology to keep our businesses running, our drivers for phone use are often meaningless and distracting.

Try it.

You'll realise that you're reaching for your phone to avoid uncomfortable social interactions, to overcome boredom, to look for quick answers to questions (which aren't always the right ones), or for instant gratification.

To help executives improve their performance it's useful to develop 'unplugging strategies'. That is, deliberate strategies to create time and space away from devices so you can invest in downtime, relationship time and high-value work time.

4 strategies to break device addiction

1. Start the day without technology

Where possible start the day this no technology for the first 30-60 minutes of each day. At home, replace the device habit breakfast with your family, exercise, meditation or journal time. This time contributes to your personal happiness, your professional resilience and mental clarity.
Rather than checking email as the first task of your work day, the first hour should be dedicated to a pre-planned high-value task.
If you have global responsibilities, it's difficult not to check your phone as soon as you wake up, however even a 30-minute delay can help you take control of your day.

Ask your global colleagues to indicate in subject lines the responses which require an immediate response, a response by end of day their time, and a response that is required end of day your time. This will allow you to prioritise email from international colleagues at a glance.

2. Unplug during proactive time

Create uninterrupted time to put the best of yourself into the work you do. Ideally, you should carve out 60% of your week for important work. At a minimum aim for up to 2 hours per day.
Turn off your notifications and only check email during specific times of the day. Unless you are waiting for important information, there's no reason to check your inbox when you're attending to important work.

3. End the day without technology

The personal and professional value of sleep is finally being realised. Research has now found that working under the influence of lack of sleep is similar to working under the influence of alcohol.

In addition to the impact of blue light on our ability to sleep, interaction with our phones immediately before bed creates mental stimulus rather than a routine that helps us wind down. Replace phone time before bed with other rituals-bath, meditation, peppermint tea, family time, reading.

In the current connected environment, we are often required to take part in late-night calls. Put aside 10 minutes after the call to diarise follow ups (avoid late-night emailing) and then switch off and power down.

4. Engage with people and manage expectations

Electronic communication should enable relationships. Use technology to organise in-person connections. Don't allow email to replace in-real-life communication.
Make it a rule not to bring phones and tablets to the kitchen or meeting table. Realise the benefits of eye contact.

Manage expectations as you change your habits around the use of technology.

When you ask your colleagues, managers, clients and direct reports how quickly they expect a response to communication you may be surprised.

Rarely are we truly required to check our phones every 10 minutes as so many are prone to do.

With device addiction being so prevalent, everyone should have an unplugging strategy. What's yours?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Device addiction and productivity: how to unplug

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An addiction is anything that controls your life to the point of interfering with daily activities, work and personal relationships. Are you addicted to your devices? Technology should enable and enhance performance, but over-reliance on it can reduce productivity. When you're addicted to your devices the proverbial tail is wagging the dog.

# data[].attributes.body
This is my source for (Part 1)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cellphone addiction is referred to as a problematic usage of a cellphone or more than one cellphone. How to break cell phone addiction? Check this guide.

# data[].attributes.body
You can limit the time that you can use.

# data[].attributes.headline
About 95% of U.S. adults now own a mobile phone of any kind.

# data[].attributes.subject
About 95% of U.S. adults now own a mobile phone of any kind.

# data[].attributes.body
Link:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When their parents drive them up to Paradigm Malibu's bougainvillea-festooned treatment facility on Via Escondido Drive on the Pacific Coast, the kids sometimes refuse to get out of the car.

Nearly all of them become anxious and upset when they're asked to surrender the thing that led them there: their smartphones. A few have even threatened to kill themselves at the prospect of having their internet cut off.

Paradigm Malibu, established in 2012, started out catering to clientele with classic drug and alcohol addictions. Now it has developed a program specifically for adolescents with device-use disorders. It's not alone: Several rehabs have sprouted up across the U.S. to treat those whose lives have become unmanageable because of technology.

"Smartphone addiction" may seem like a cliché - an eye-roll-inducing first-world problem - but it can have devastating effects. Extreme use of digital devices and the internet can lead to behavioral disorders that are as debilitating or life-threatening as alcohol or drug abuse. And aside from those most severe cases, addictive technologies may be breeding an entire generation prone to depression and loneliness.

Recent studies indicate problematic internet and device use affects roughly 5%-8% of U.S. teenagers, according to Dr. David Hill, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and Media. "If you look at the role that screen media is playing in our society - contributing perhaps to fearfulness and isolation - there are ways to say perhaps it's a bigger crisis than opioids," he says.

Now the problem has come to the boardrooms of technology giants. And it could alter the way companies like Apple, Facebook and Google design smartphones, apps and media, with some critics raising the specter of government regulation if the industry doesn't get its house in order.

In January two large Apple shareholders, Jana Partners and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, sent a letter to the company's board urging Apple to develop solutions for the "unintentional negative consequences" of iPhone usage among kids. Meanwhile, one of Facebook 's investors has pressed it to create a committee to study the potential financial exposure to the social giant for the platform's mental health consequences.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged that he's personally concerned about the dangers of overusing technology. "I don't have a kid, but I have a nephew that I put some boundaries on," he told a group of college students in the U.K. at an Apple coding event in January, per a Guardian report. "There are some things that I won't allow. I don't want them on a social network."

Concerns over tech addiction have spawned a movement among people who used to work in Silicon Valley to advocate for their former employers to change their ways. (A recent Wired article labeled the employees "turncoats.") The most prominent of these activists is Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google. He's now the executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, which he co-founded with venture-capital investor Roger McNamee, an early Facebook backer. Their aim is to push the industry toward "technology that protects our minds and replenishes society."

From Harris' standpoint, a profit-motivated corporation sees addicts hooked on its products or services as a boon to its bottom line. Technology companies whose business models hinge on maximizing attention "are not aligned with human well-being," he says. "It's not because they're evil but because that's their model. The key thing is, the addiction [to technology] is not happening by accident - it's happening by design." Harris believes the industry will respond to public pressure to create more ethical, less harmful products.

But the tech reformers aren't just about picking fights. The investors who called on Apple to examine the issues related to phone usage by kids say they want to work with the company to use scientific research to create safeguards, according to Dr. Michael Rich, director of Harvard University's Center on Media and Child Health in Boston, who helped draft the letter. That could include more fine-grained controls to time-limit device and app usage. Rich compares his ideas to the advocacy that resulted in the auto industry equipping its vehicles with seat belts and airbags.

Companies sometimes say they're doing everything they can in order to shield themselves from liability, notes Rich. "What we're hoping to do," he says, "is bring key stakeholders and thought leaders to the table as equals and fix this as best we can."

Tech giants have taken steps to respond, although critics say they're not moving fast enough.

Apple, commenting on the investors' letter, has said: "We think deeply about how our products are used and the impact they have on users and the people around them. We take this responsibility very seriously and we are committed to meeting and exceeding our customers' expectations, especially when it comes to protecting kids."

Apple notes that it offers an array of controls to restrict apps and features, in-app purchases, and types of content. With iOS 11, released in autumn, the company added a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that turns off notifications if the device senses the user is in a car. That only came, however, years after research demonstrated that distracted driving was a significant contributor to accidents.

Samsung, another large smartphone maker, in January announced a partnership with Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global wellness start-up to launch a kind of "Do not disturb" app for Galaxy Note devices that automatically replies to incoming messages for a set period to let senders know their owners are out of pocket.

Facebook, for its part, has acknowledged research on the ill effects of social media and says it's trying to do better. The company is changing algorithms to improve the quality - over quantity - of the time its 1.4 billion users spend on the service. That includes showing fewer viral videos on Facebook starting in the fourth quarter. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Jan. 31 post: "By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term."

The medical world is still trying to get a handle on the long-range impact of smartphones and social media on childhood development and adult mental health. Studies have linked excessive tech usage to depression and anxiety. To be sure, it's a stretch to call internet devices, say, the "new heroin." Unlike addictive substances, there's no chance of physical dependency.

But many smartphone apps, especially those that are ad-supported, are engineered to hit the same pleasure centers of the brain that alcohol and opiates do. What some in the field refer to as "problematic internet use" can have real consequences. Broadly speaking, it can make an individual's day-to-day life unmanageable, with symptoms that also include severe insomnia, impulsivity and worse.

Technology addiction is "a progressive disease that could potentially lead to death. That's the reality of it," says Dr. Hilarie Cash, chief clinical officer of reStart, a Seattle-area rehabilitation center that specializes in such disorders. "Most of us don't get that far. But most people don't die of alcohol poisoning, either."

What sets off alarm bells for healthcare professionals is the nearly ubiquitous reach of smartphones. About 95% of U.S. adults now own a mobile phone of some kind, and effectively 100% of Americans ages 18-29 do, according to the latest data from Pew Research Center.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, is distrustful of both device makers and social media. "I think that for sure, technology has addictive qualities that we have to address, and that product designers are working to make those products more addictive, and we need to rein that back," Benioff said in a recent CNBC interview in which he opined that governments should regulate social media like tobacco companies or junk-food producers.

Even binge-watching has come under fire for its potential health risks. Last year, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a warning about the need for adequate shut-eye - after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told analysts the company's No. 1 competitor was sleep. "When you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night," Hastings had said on an earnings call.

The threat of legislation alone could jolt tech firms into action. "Companies are not going to self-regulate, and most people don't recognize that it's potentially a serious problem," says mobile-industry analyst Jeff Kagan. "The question is whether the industry will come up with a solution."

Of course, new media and technologies frequently blossom amid fears that they'll corrupt people's minds. Edward R. Murrow, in a 1957 interview, warned that television entertainment was fast becoming "the real opiate of the people."

Some believe the hand-wringing over device addiction is just so much hysteria. "We're not injecting Instagram or freebasing Facebook," says Nir Eyal, author of "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products." "This is on a different scale from heroin or cigarettes. There's nothing hacking through the brain barrier. It's kind of loony what's going on right now."

Eyal is the organizer of the Habit Summit conference in San Francisco, now in its fifth year. Among other things, attendees to the event (tickets start at $900) are promised tips on "the stages of habit formation and how to optimize for user retention." The former software engineer - who insists he's not an apologist for the industry - argues that the human-psychology techniques that Facebook and others use to make their products habit-forming can be employed in apps that are healthy and productive, like learning a new language or exercising.

In a separate category, Eyal says, are predatory gambling and gaming apps, which he agrees should be curbed. He also thinks parents should be able to have more tools to monitor or restrict their kids' smartphone usage. But in general, he says, device-usage problems are akin to binge-eating, not popping painkillers. "If you are a food addict, you need help. But it's not about the food," he says. "There's something else that's going on."

The problem, though, really can result in life-or-death situations. One teen patient treated by Harvard's Rich was so severely addicted to social media and online gaming that he began skipping school and holing up in his bedroom, awake all night. When the boy's parents, frantically looking for a solution, removed the family's internet router, he grew despondent and tried to kill himself.

"His virtual world became more real than the real world," Rich says.

Such cases are rare. But Rich is concerned that the pervasiveness of personal technology is breeding a range of behavioral problems, particularly in children. "You go by any playground at recess, and the kids are all staring at their smartphones," he says. "Is that pathology or is it just the way the world is evolving?"

To Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, it's very clear that overuse of digital media is linked to mental health issues and unhappiness. Her research has found that U.S. teenagers who spend three hours a day or more using electronic devices are 35% more likely to have a risk factor for suicide than those who spend less than an hour with them - while those who spend five or more hours are 71% more likely to have a suicide risk factor.

The hard part is determining cause and effect. Do depressed kids use social media and devices more? Or do smartphones lead to depression and anxiety? What we know for sure is that the largest change by far in teens' lives over the past five years was that more of them owned smartphones and were spending more time on social media, says Twenge, author of "iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood."

"It doesn't matter whether you call it an 'addiction' or 'overuse,'" she says. "I'm just interested in the consequences."

For actor Kirk Cameron, the best answer is more-assertive parenting. He's produced documentary film "Connect," which recently premiered with two limited theatrical screenings and will soon be released on home video. The movie looks at young people struggling with technology-overuse problems and strategies for dealing with them. His biggest takeaway from the project: Parents have to enforce ground rules for their children's device usage.

"We cannot outsource parenting to a piece of technology that blocks content," says Cameron, an evangelical Christian who's had to wrestle with overseeing the device usage of his six kids.

For those truly in need of a tech detox, there are programs like those at Paradigm Malibu. The kids coming to Paradigm with problematic device-usage behaviors are spending upwards of nine hours per day on their phones, checking them hundreds of times daily, says Dr. Jeff Nalin, the company's co-founder and chief clinical officer.

"When somebody doesn't want to give up their phone, they feel like their whole world is imploding," he says. "These kids use devices as a coping mechanism because they're feeling crappy about themselves. But you're sticking a cork in a volcano. At some point it's going to blow."

Paradigm Malibu is a high-end facility. The company charges $49,000 for a 30-day in-patient program (though it says health insurance on average covers 60%-80% of the cost). The three-story residential center is nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains, a block away from the Pacific Ocean.

Nalin says the focus of the treatment is to help afflicted teens find a healthy balance of screen time. "There's really no way to be 'device-free' anymore," he says. "You can't just stick your head in the sand and say, 'Don't use the device.'"

Daniel Sieberg is a former technology and science journalist who - while he wasn't on the brink of suicide - says he felt addicted to devices to a degree that was unhealthy.

"I was in denial about how badly I was managing my own life," says the 46-year-old. He says his health and well-being were suffering, as were his relationships in the real world. "I look back and think, 'Wow, how did I let that happen?'"

Ultimately, Sieberg says he turned his life around after an intervention from his wife, who had nicknamed him "Glow Worm" because he would almost always be staring at a screen while in bed. The four-step program he created for himself to curtail tech usage began with him quitting social media for several months, and he wrote a book based on the experience: "The Digital Diet."

"There's a growing movement to be mindful about technology," Sieberg says. "The message is, you can love your technology - just not unconditionally."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hooked on Hardware? Tech Giants Face Tough Questions Over Device Addiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When their parents drive them up to Paradigm Malibu's bougainvillea-festooned treatment facility on Via Escondido Drive on the Pacific Coast, the kids sometimes refuse to get out of the car. Nearly all of them become anxious and upset when they're asked to surrender the thing that led them there: their smartphones.

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Did you know that multiple parents and experts were having a debate about a new school rule where students needed to bring ipads to school!?

# data[].attributes.subject
Did you know that multiple parents and experts were having a debate about a new school rule where students needed to bring ipads to school!?

# data[].attributes.body
They were arguing about the rule (parents complaining about the rule and other parents saying that the rule helped kids learn faster.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | A school's decision to use iPads in class and at home causes controversy

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Do you know that one principal called, Diana Smith made her own challenge at her school for the students which is to make "Tuesday" a no cell phone day and if the kids are able to achieve this challenge, they get 100$?! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Do you know that one principal called, Diana Smith made her own challenge at her school for the students which is to make "Tuesday" a no cell phone day and if the kids are able to achieve this challenge, they get 100$?! 

# data[].attributes.body
They don't get 100$ for only one day but if they continue this for 11times on Tuesday then, they get the money! Many students tried this!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela - School principal’s experiment got some kids to turn off their phones

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School principal challenges kids to put down phones, other devices for 11 Tuesdays of summer

# data[].attributes.body
Google made an app that tracks your screen time on social media, youtube, and other apps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Have you ever caught yourself checking your texts under the tablecloth while out to dinner? Or waking up at 3 in the morning to see what your Twitter feed has to say?

Then you, my friend, are addicted to your phone. And Google - yes, that Google - wants to help.

The tech giant unveiled a number of "Digital Wellbeing" features for Android at its 2018 I/O conference on Tuesday, aimed at helping users develop healthier relationships with their devices.

Android's newly unveiled Dashboard app breaks down all the dirty details of your bad phone habits. It can show you just how many times you unlock it (constantly), check in on social media without even thinking about it (obviously) and spend hours mindlessly watching makeup tutorials on YouTube. (It's been known to happen.)

Once you realize the extent of your addiction, the new features will help you overcome it. By letting users set time limits on their app use, a quick phone break can't spiral into a full-blown digital bender.

There's also a "shush" feature, which will automatically silence incoming calls and notifications when you flip the phone over, as well as something called "wind down." With that, users can schedule a time at night when the super-stimulating, colorful screen display changes into boring - and ideally, sleep-inducing - black and white.

OK, Google. Thanks for saving us from you.

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How Google is trying to fix your phone addiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Have you ever caught yourself checking your texts under the tablecloth while out to dinner? Or waking up at 3 in the morning to see what your Twitter feed has to say? Then you, my friend, are addicted to your phone. And Google - yes, that Google - wants to help.

# data[].attributes.body
Change your thinking about your cell phone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Beat an Addiction to Cell Phones (with Pictures) - wikiHow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use.…