“These days we have smartphones, smart cars, smartboards, smart everything, but consider this- if technology is getting smarter, does that mean humans are getting dumber?”. Rebecca McNutt
Multiple researches have been conducted on cell phone use and its negative effects on people for so many years. Although the issue is not something new, its expansion can lead to psychological and physiological health problems, which prompted the need to write this article.
Over the past five years, Google Trends shows that searches for “Cellphone Addiction” have increased significantly. The trend has introduced new terminologies to the world, such as:
- Nomophobia = Fear of going out without a smartphone.
- Phantom Vibration Syndrome = Fear of not being able to send or receive text messages.
- Apprehension = constant feeling that your cell phone warns you when, in reality, it is not.
As much as cell phones are a great way to keep your life organized and on track, these smart devices have also been linked to being responsible for growing health problems.
Check out the main symptoms of a mobile addict below
This way you can check if you suffer from smartphone addiction or not.
- Whenever you try to curb your phone usage, you quickly fall back.
- Whether it’s checking social media, watching videos, or checking the latest news, you spend a lot of time on your phone.
- Getting to your cell phone is the first thing you do right after waking up.
- You feel the constant need to use a cell phone more often.
- You get anxious and start feeling stressed out, agitated whenever your phone is out of range.
- Other people always complain that you live with the smartphone.
Harmful impacts of cell phone addiction
Excessive smartphone usage seems harmless to some, but there are myriad negative effects of excessive use.
1. Bad effects on studies
Extreme smartphone usage is probably the main reason teens and children get tired when they study. Most of the time, they are seen playing games, chatting to get more likes and shares on their posts, and watching videos on YouTube. This causes distraction and leads to poor concentration and fatigue. Smartphone addiction- triggers serious psychological problems.
2. Accidents
It might be hard to believe for some, but most of the accidents that happen every day have seen an increase due to cell phones. The constant use of the mobile phone, whether it is taking selfies while on the hill or texting / calling someone while driving, increases accidents.
3. Information overload
Excessive surfing the Internet, watching videos, and gaming for hours can significantly impact your daily productivity. Constantly checking for new feeds and consuming unsubstantiated content can hinder real-world relationships, pursue hobbies, and maintain a work-life balance. Being on smartphones has prompted people to experience outrageous social media challenges that would make you question logic and sanity.
4. Virtual relationships
Today, online friends have become more important than real-life friends. And it’s all due to excessive social networking sites, dating apps, and messaging platforms. While these web solutions invite new ways to meet people, chatting with old friends is certainly not a healthy substitute for real-life interactions.
5. Increased anxiety and stress
The greater the use of the phone, the greater the level of anxiety. Lately, several researchers have indicated that maladaptive phone use has severe effects on eye/neck fatigue. Attempts to read small texts have increased many mental health concerns, reduced happiness, and well-being.
6. Irregular sleep patterns
Smartphone addiction is highly responsible for disrupting sleep patterns, severely impacting overall mental health wellbeing. Less sleep can affect memory and the ability to think accurately. Additionally, sleeping less reduces cognitive abilities and leads to poor job performance.
7. Weight gain
Now that you know the blue light coming out of your phone is hindering your sleep routine. Are you getting little sleep? Blue light (from smartphones and PCs) makes you sleep badly. You should know that these interruptions are also responsible for preventing your body from producing hunger hormones- ghrelin and leptin. So, you mess up your appetite; therefore, you should turn off your phone at least an hour before going to bed.
A definitive solution to curb mobile addiction- social fever
To limit cell phones, you need to spend quality time with your friends, family, and loved ones. You should make a “No cell phones at table” pact. Make sure you spend more time on your favorite hobby. Limit your phone usage so that you can also take care of your ear and eye health.
That said, you can rely on Social Fever, a dedicated phone usage monitoring app with unlimited benefits that ensure you stick to all of the points mentioned above. The free Android app has gained tremendous popularity in the market as it helps to defeat smartphone and social media addiction. It comes with tools such as:
The phone usage tracker gives you the ability to set your interests offline and keeps reminding you to take some free time to pursue your favorite activities. You can select any rejuvenation activity you like and track it down daily.
Social Fever allows you to monitor your app usage and make sure you spend a limited amount of time using your favorite and other social media apps. The default time limit is set to 30 minutes, but you can change the duration of each app. Whenever the time limit exceeds, you will receive alerts to stop using it.
You can rely on this module when you want to track the amount of time you have spent looking at the screen and listening to music with headphones. You will receive notifications that increase motivation such as “In 01 hours and 07 minutes, you could run 6 KM”, “In 01 hours and 07 minutes, you could burn 667 calories while running”. This is the time you have spent straining your eyes and ears.
Using this module, you can undoubtedly set preferences for your quality time that you can spend with family, keep sleep time, morning walk, do some creative work, and more. This is probably one of the best tools for doing a digital detox.
The function is useful. She remembers drinking a glass of water. Social Fever aims to ensure that users are hydrated and consume a sufficient amount of water throughout the day. Whenever you drink water, register it in the Social Fever app, make sure you drink at least 15 glasses of water a day.
Just install the app and watch how it helps you curb smartphone and social media addiction. It does not require any registration.
