You might be addicted to your phone without even realising it. Here are some ways to beat it
| Anu Prabhakar
Jayesh Shinde has worked as a tech writer for 11 years but it was only recently that he decided to set some boundaries with technology. "I wanted to use the smartphone on my terms and not have the smartphone control me," says Shinde.
"I used to be on my phone from 6 am to 11:30 pm," he says. "I have a two hour commute — from Nalasopara to Lower Parel – to get to work, so I use that time to read and watch something online. For work, I predominantly use Google Docs and other apps to share spreadsheets and documents with clients and colleagues." At one point, the 32-year-old even used to sleep with his smartphone next to him. "I used to get notifications late at night, sometimes at 2:30 am, and it kept me awake," he says. Although work kept Shinde glued to his smartphone at unusual hours, recent studies prove that excessive use of smartphones and gadgets is a universal issue, across professions and age groups.
According to a newspaper article, which quoted a report by an analytics company, on an average, Indians spend almost "three hours on apps daily" and have 78 apps on their phone out of which 48 are used monthly. Also, app downloads between 2015 and 2017 have "tripled in India". A new study spearheaded by a team from Aligarh Muslim University has also established that university students in India checked their phones a staggering 150 times a day due to a "fear or anxiety of missing out", or FOMO.
Psychiatrist Anjali Chhabria wonders how many people realise that they are addicted to their gadgets. "The other day, while travelling in my car, I noticed a mother and child crossing the road, and both of them were on their mobile phones. You may leave the house without your keys, or go for a workout without a bottle of water, but how many of you will leave your home without your phone?" she says, adding that she has treated many for smartphone and gadget addiction at her clinic.
Dr Manoj Sharma, professor of clinical psychology, coordinator, SHUT Clinic (service for healthy use of technology), NIMHANS Centre for Well Being, Bangalore, says that the clinic receives four to five such cases every week. "Patients usually belong to the 16 to 20 age group," he says. The most obvious signs of mobile/gadget addiction, says Sharma, are a continuous craving to be online, feeling distressed when you don't have your mobile with you, a loss of control wherein you spend 10 hours on your gadget without even realising it, a strong desire to put off chores to make time for online activities and phubbing (when someone is too preoccupied with his/her phone to listen to/communicate/look at or make eye contact with someone else). "This can lead to a disinterest in interpersonal communications," he adds. Other signs include constantly checking notifications — and feeling frustrated if there aren't any new ones — and having a pseudo sensation of one's phone vibrating or ringing.
The addiction is also marked by a compulsive need to reply to messages immediately, Chhabria points out. "It is almost like a disorder. What happens, as a result, is that your attention span is minimised. Your ability to concentrate on a task may also diminish, as you are distracted."
How to draw the line
Monitor gadget use around bedtime: When Shinde started to suffer from severe exhaustion — often in the middle of the day — and sleep deprivation, the first thing he did was to stop carrying his mobile to bed. Dr Sharma, too, suggests staying away from your phone and other gadgets 30 to 40 minutes before bedtime. "And whenever you use your phone for more than half an hour, take a break. Blink your eyes ten times, move your head from left to right five times each, and rotate your wrist clockwise and then anti-clockwise to avoid physical dysfunction."
According to research, says tech writer and editor Siddharth Parwatay, exposure to the blue light emitted by our mobile phones after sunset can disturb sleep patterns. "The brain does not get the message that it's time to sleep and as a result, you tend to stay awake at night," he adds. "Now many smartphone and even desktop OSes come with a blue filter app or feature built in. When turned on, it makes your screen look warm, i.e. with a slight yellow hue. These apps are programmed to switch on as the sun sets. So, eventually with sustained usage, it will subconsciously condition your mind to think of it as a cue to prepare for bed. If your phone doesn't have this feature built in, a simple search for 'blue light filter' on popular app stores should yield many options for third party apps which do the same thing."
Disable notifications/uninstall addictive apps: "Before I go to bed," says Shinde, "I switch my phone to 'silent mode', so that my attention is not diverted by popups or audible cues in the middle of the night." As a writer, he also reviews the latest gadgets to hit the market — something that can be exciting and addictive in equal measure. "Now, as soon as I get a new phone to review, I disable its notification popups and switch off audio profiles." He also tries to limit his time on WhatsApp. "The good thing about the app is that you can log onto your WhatsApp profile through your desktop, so you don't have to enable notifications for this on your phone."
Aside from disabling notifications and alerts, Preshit Deorukhkar, a digital media consultant, has gone one step ahead — he uninstalled WhatsApp more than one year ago. Having worked with app development companies for over a decade, Deorukhkar felt the need to tweak his lifestyle. "Earlier, apps had few features that were specific and to-the-point. But over the past three or four years, apps have evolved to offer a social experience, wherein they try to attract your attention for a longer time," he says. "App companies design notifications to divert your attention towards your phone and keep checking it. I use an app that automatically categorises my emails into 'high priority', 'essential' and so on, and notifies me only about those mails, while leaving out newsletters or other non-essential notifications."
Discipline: Self-restraint, says Dr Sharma, can help. "Reduce your accessibility to gadget /online activities. Some people try internet fasting, where they decide to stay away from the internet or their smartphone for two hours, unless it's an emergency." Offline activities, too, help. "People across age groups experience loneliness and boredom as social interactions have shifted to the online world. So, instead of stressing and then venting on social media, we change our patients' coping methods and ask them to go for a relaxing walk, or indulge in any other pleasurable activity."
Shinde, for instance, tries to de-stress with a book over the weekend. "I also make a conscious effort to keep the phone away from me, and sometimes I put it on a pedestal or a corner so that it's not within easy reach. It also helps to set a time to check your email and notifications and to stick to it. While following all this was initially a struggle, I now feel like I am in control."
Software to monitor online activity: Dr Chhabria never thought of herself as someone who is active on social media, until she upgraded to a phone which came with an in-built feature to detect the number of hours one spent online and on which websites. "Since I am a doctor, I have to remain connected. So I was horrified when I found out that one day, I had spent two hours on social media," says Chhabria> Now, like Shinde and Deorukhkar, she too stays away from her phone on weekends and holidays. "When we travel as a family, the rule is whoever looks at his/her mobile first will have to pay a penalty," she smiles.
Deorukhkar explains that with in-built tools, like the iOS feature 'Screen Time' and Android feature 'Digital Wellbeing', you can not only monitor your time spent online, but can set a time limit for it as well. "In case you don't want to spend more than two hours on social media and have tweaked your settings accordingly, you will get a notification that your session is about to expire and you will have to manually reset it to extend your session. So at the back of your mind, you know you are spending far too much time online."
The compulsive need to respond to texts can minimise your attention span. Your ability to concentrate on tasks may also diminish.
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