The 2021 Common Sense Media Census reported the average screen time of teenagers being 8 hours and 39 minutes. If you multiply this number by 365, an average teen spends over 3,000 hours on the phone.
If you zoom in on a random street in downtown NYC, nine times out of ten, you will see somebody walking while on their phone. The growing number of people suffering from phone addiction concludes that people spend more time on their phones than enjoying life. Our phones are valuable, but if we’re mindlessly scrolling through nothingness, we’re essentially wasting our lives.
If your screen time averages over six hours, let this article remind you of the potential consequences you should be aware of.
In this article, we dive into ten reasons why you’re phone addiction is killing you.
1. Waste of time
Most people spend more time on their cell phones than living. That means they spend more time scrolling on social media and replying to text messages than doing chores around the house, conversing with close ones, or pursuing a passion.
Your phone is meant to be addictive, which is why it’s so hard to put it away. When you feel your phone vibrate from a notification, your brain sends dopamine, creating excitement to check your phone. On social media, dopamine traps you in an endless scrolling cycle in pursuit of another entertaining post.
Having our phones glued to our faces all day wastes valuable time from our days and lives because of how easy it is to get sucked in.
2. Lowering your attention span
Your attention is the most vital asset you currently own. Why would you discard it by consuming meaningless content online? Wherever your attention goes determines whether you’ve spent your time responsibly or irresponsibly.
Your phone addiction has a cause-and-effect relationship with focus: you glue yourself to your phones, making it easier to get distracted and more challenging to focus. We derive so much pleasure from our phones that it makes ordinary work, such as studying or working a job, 10x more boring.
Interested in learning how to reach a flow state? Read here.
3. Increase in stress and anxiety
The reason you are addicted to your phone is due to one of many reasons: you’re overly dependent on it as if it’s your child. You depend on your phones to give you pleasure, validation from social media, and to keep you from boredom.
Since your phone is a part of you, not having it in your vicinity makes you feel stressed and out of place. After learning to live without your phones, you remove an area of stress that will no longer affect you.
4. Impairs sleep quality
It’s a common habit for many to check their phones before heading to bed. Using your phone constantly throughout the day is ominous, but checking your phone before bed is even worse. Our phones emit blue light, the same energy we receive from the sun, to make us feel awake and energized. By using our phones during nighttime, we’re essentially telling ourselves that we should be awake.
The blue light emission from our phones, combined with how addictive our phones are, leads to poor sleep quality. Our phones force us to stay awake, reducing the overall number of hours we spend sleeping.
5. Impedes social skill development
The digital world we live in makes communication effortless. Text messages, phone calls, and social media messaging allow us to reach out to anyone without the need to see them. It saves time, money, and energy; however, the problem is this prevents us from building a closer bond with the other person.
We’ve become so comfortable communicating with others digitally that an in-person conversation can feel awkward and even daunting. As a result, we try avoiding in-person conversations, which only hinders our ability to improve our social skills.
6. Potentially leads to infertility
Numerous studies show that phone usage and keeping it in your front pocket leads to infertility, particularly in men. Dr. Okechukwu from the Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases found, “EMR might alter male reproductive-endocrine mechanisms by affecting testicular functions necessary for testosterone and sperm production.” EMR is an abbreviation for electromagnetic radiation.
On the other hand, there are plenty of sources that claim there is no correlation between phone usage and infertility. Still, our phones indeed emit radio frequencies; thus, we should try to reduce our total screen time.
7. Deceive your life as boring
When your phone has become the primary source of pleasure, it can be hard to find satisfaction in life itself. Because our phones give us the ultimate spike in pleasure, we would have less interest in everything else since it doesn’t provide the same level of happiness.
Spending time outside or taking a walk through nature appears less appealing to those with phone addictions because they believe they’re much happier on their phones. However, the pleasure you derive from your phone is only an illusion; you think you’re satisfied, but you’re only overstimulating your brain, which gives off this short-term pleasure.
8. Harms relationship with your spouse
Phones provide a convenient way for couples to communicate over long distances. However, it can also become the source of adultery and disloyalty. With a simple click of a button, a man or woman can have access to hundreds of other male or female counterparts.
Additionally, an egregious amount of phone usage may convey a lack of interest from a partner. It may even make your partner suspicious because of the absurd amount of time you spend on your phone.
9. Increases insecurities
You can find anything on your phone: the weather, time, current location, and people flashing their wealth. When you scroll past this success daily, you start wondering how it feels to possess what they have, leading you to compare your lives to theirs.
You become insecure and unconfident in yourself because you compare yourself with those who have more than you. How much money you have, the car you drive, and your appearance are all insecurities that stem from prolonged exposure to successful people online.
10. Increases procrastination and laziness
Our phones’ highly addictive nature makes procrastination and laziness inevitable. Once we’ve turned on our phones and opened Instagram, it becomes harder to turn our phones off because of the release of dopamine that keeps us in an endless scroll cycle.
