Most of us love our cell phones. This is especially true with smart phones that bring all kinds of amazing features, with more on the way seemingly every day. Unfortunately, for many of us, our “love” has turned into more of an addiction. While we enjoy our cell phones more and more every day, it starts to hurt our ability to take part in the real world around us, even interacting with our loved ones. But, do you have a cell phone addiction?
Hard Data
You’re not alone either. Pew Research conducted a survey back in 2012 that helps show cell phones really can take over our lives.
- 70% check their phone within an hour of being awake
- 56% check it within an hour of going to sleep too
- 48% check their phone over the weekend, even on Friday and Saturday night
- 51% check their phone continuously while tthey’reon vacation
- 44% reported they would feel a great deal of anxiety if they had to go a week without their phone
Identifying it as a real problem is just the first step though. Now let’s see how we can do something about it.
Create Times When You Don’t Check
You probably know your first hour in the morning should be dedicated to getting ready for the day—hitting the ground running, so to speak. The same goes for the hour before bed, when you need to wind down and should probably stay away from bright lights.
However, there are other times when this makes sense too. Family dinner, lunch with friends and coworkers, the commute to and from work, these are all good times to simply discipline yourself not to check your phone.
Turn Your Phone Off
If you have a hard time with the discipline necessary to keep your phone from your hand during these times, simply turn it off. Voicemails, text messages and social media notifications will still be there when you turn it back on. The act of having to turn your phone back on to check it may take just enough time to get you to snap out of your addictive ways.
Lock Your Phone
Along the same lines, at least add a lock to your phone. This is good for security reasons, of course, if a stranger were to find it. However, it’s also worth it because the extra time it takes to enter in your code introduces an “interrupt” to your longstanding pattern. Anything you can do to stop a habit from becoming an unconscious habit will help a lot.
Tell Your Friends
When all else fails, enlist peer pressure to your advantage. How? Announce on social media when you’re allowed to use your phone and explain to your friends that if they see you using it when you’re not supposed to, you’ll give them $1, $5, $10, $65, whatever. Maybe you’ll have to do a pushup or do them a favor. Whatever the case, this is an extremely effective way to enlist others to help and even show them how much they use their phones too.
Don’t let the phone you own end up turning around and owning you. Instead, the above tips can help.
