“He didn’t reply. But I got a “Read” receipt five minutes ago… I should check again.”
“Oh, good. I got a like on my thigh-gap-stagram.”
“Did I seriously just watch a monkey chug his own pee for five minutes straight?”
Whether it’s narcissism, FOMO (fear of missing out), FOBO (fear of being offline), or any other number of compulsion driven needs to embed your phone’s updates into your brain, experts suggest it could all be harmful. How? In the same ways addiction or obsession of any other kind can be. They can keep us from connection, interrupt the flow of daily life, and even hamper cognitive processes (AKA make you dumber).
While obsession and addiction are often defined as being different things (the former working to reduce anxiety; the latter working to induce pleasure), I tend to think of them as being equally no bueno inasmuch as they both bloom from a place of some sort’ve anxiety. Obsessions just reduce the stress while addictions drive us straight into that reward system in our brain. Either way, you end up compulsively seeking some external (in this case, all the digital pals living in your phone) to redress the discomfort of whatever’s going on back here in reality. If what was happening around you IRL was comfortable or engaging enough, you wouldn’t need the adult version of a binkie to mitigate it. So, there’s no need to get hung up on the semantics of the issue. If it’s interfering with actuality, then it’s a fixation and a problem. If you’re standing in line, using your plastic brick as a way to avoid human interaction, then you’re using it as a palliative against the irrational fear called social anxiety. If you’ve had an accident ’cause you were on it while driving, then that’s def a call (pardon the pun but only partially ’cause who actually “calls” anyone on their phones?) for concern. But, even more than that – the decision fatigue you can generate from overstimulation and anxiety induced stupidity is astounding. Per research on mental testing posted in Social Psychology:
“Results indicated that the “mere presence” of the experimenter’s cell phone compared to the similar size notebook resulted in decreased performance but only on the more difficult tasks. The study was replicated using two classrooms, one where students had to turn off their phones and put them away out of sight and a second where students were asked to place their own phone on the desk in front of them on silent. The same results were found: in the presence of their own phone students performed more poorly on a test of what they learned.”
Imagine that. The mere sight of it makes brains flatline.
Just like a dry drunk in the middle of a wine tasting.
Or as Sarah Granger’s “Digital Mystique” findings demonstrate with brain scans:
“MRI brain scans of Internet addicts in China have revealed a disruption to connections in nerve fibers linking brain areas involved in emotions, decision making, and self control. In America, they’re thinking of adding ‘Internet-use Disorder’ to the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders.”
But, since smartphones bring in money to corporations, and corporations have un-ending reach and no qualms about funding false research, you may have been seeing more article titles that say things like, “Being separated from your cell phone makes you dumb (says science)” or “Your ringing phone activates love and compassion in your brain (says brain scan)”. For those not prone to phone addiction, mayhaps. But I have trouble – just glancing about at the majority of folk mean mugging around me, nearly getting hit with cars for tweeting in the street, and being overall emotionally flat after finally looking up from their phones after a fifteen minute lunch break – I have trouble believing that that’s generating compassion on any real, in the flesh, level. They don’t look happy or compassionate. The look anxious. Withdrawn. Diffident. Like a cornered or ill animal, ready to attack.
The solution?
Well, some of the brain hacking authorities will advise keeping a journal of your phone probing habits. Next time you reach for it, ask and answer for yourself things like: how frequently you check it, for how long, how you feel during, and how you feel after. Then, mayhaps add in just how much it might honestly (that’s the hard part; but don’t worry this is just you judging you) be interfering with your life. Dig deep and cite some examples. Were you chastised by a boss at work for effing around on the clock? Look up from your screen to address your date last week – only to realize she’d left half an hour ago?
(“If you can’t beat ’em…”)
Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be that easy to identify.
As the study above demonstrates, over-stimulation can drive us to a state of mental tiredness.
You may not even notice the two are interconnected. One too many “twerking gone wrong” videos, face swaps of pugs and people, and preoccupations with who’s not returning whose texts can leave one a bit bewildered upon returning to the real world. (Which potentially makes other mental tasks that’re crucial to the business of living markedly harder). So make note of your pre and post internal situation there, too. And if you don’t like the feedback you’re giving yourself? No need to hit the internal dislike button on your own shameful stats. That just leads to denial. Best to A.) accept it, and B.) seek assistance. (Which can be of the DIY variety or one of those behavior makover-ists with a comfy couch. Totally up to you.) If you can’t be sure your phone’s the culprit behind why you’re frazzled, commit to a few day challenge – where you only check your phone abstemiously, during designated times of the day. Knowing that it’s not forever – just for the next 72 hours – will be helpful in getting you through it.
And if you feel better by the end? Then maybe you know a bit of lifestyle alteration’s in order.
(Phone stack’s a popular restaurant game to start with: you pick it up first, you pick up the tab.)
The thing is – much like binging or hoarding, obsessions or addictions of the iphone variety aren’t illegal. In fact, you’ll have a shiz ton of paid media trying to convince you to stay good and hooked. In a way, you’ve got subliminal enablers constantly bombarding you. And that should make you feel a bit less shameful for falling prey to it for so long. But now that you know better, you’re charged with the business of fixing it. Just like any fixation – chemical or not – it can be extremely detrimental if left unaddressed. But if you’re here reading this, chances are you’re already well aware of that.
So just consider this a friendly reminder to keep your compulsion in check next time you check your cell.