Smartphone has now become the most important part of one’s daily life. But most of us are now addicted to smartphones. Most of us can live without food for a few hours but cannot imagine spending a few hours without a smartphone. What do you do if you suddenly wake up at midnight from sleep? If you first check notifications before going to sleep again, you are smartphone-addicted and you must think about it seriously. The smartphone is for making our life easier but does not make it a problem of our life. If you think that you are too addicted to your smartphone and want to reduce this addiction, you should read this carefully because it can lead to becoming Nomophobia. Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. More than 66% of smartphone users have signs of this Nomophobia. So, care for yourself.
Signs of smartphone addiction or smartphone addiction symptoms
- You use smartphones during meal time.
- You spend time on a smartphone at the time interacting with other people.
- You feel uncomfortable when the phone is not with you.
- You frequently check your phone while you are doing other important tasks like driving, writing, and eating
- You just unlock your phone to see if there is a new notification even if you didn’t listen to any notification sound.
- You keep your phone always in hand while you can put that in your pocket.
If you think that the signs mentioned above apply to you or you already know and were searching for how to stop phone addiction, you must read this article.
Ways to overcome smartphone addiction
1. Turn off or minimize notifications
The smartphone offers too many notifications. If you have installed many apps, almost all apps send some kind of notification. Most of the time, these notifications are useless but still, they grab our attention. For example, email from some service you don’t care about shopping offer from a shopping app. So, minimize or turn off notifications when you do not want any interruption. Do this, especially at night, and try to sit with your family members and friends. Watch TV or walk. Do not think about the phone at this time. Uninstall apps that send too many notifications but you less use those apps.
2. Put your phone away for some time
During the day, try to put your phone away for some time. Yes, you may miss some important calls or notifications. But this is necessary. Avoid the use of phones in toilets and washrooms. Just half an hour is enough to start. The best thing you can do is to put the phone on charging in another room.
3. Make your own smartphone usage rules
This is a tough task, but you have to do this and follow the rules strictly. You can set rules like these:
- No phone usage at mealtimes
- No phone usage while you are with friends and family members
- No phone usage at social events
- No phone usage during talking to someone face-to-face
- No phone usage in the bedroom after you go to bed
You can make rules as per your lifestyle but make them for sure. AppDetox (Android) is a nice app that lets you set phone usage rules.
4. Turn off the Internet sometimes
If you think that you cannot avoid notifications, you must think of tuning your data connection off for some time. Without a data connection, there will be no notifications on your phone.
5. Mute Whatsapp groups
Whatsapp is the main thing that attracts your attention. So, mute group conversation first. These conversations are never-ending and disturbed throughout the day. If you really want to be less addicted to your phone, you must try to avoid these conversations.
6. Buy an alarm clock and put it near your bed
Most of us have a habit to sleep with phones and the biggest reason is to use them as an alarm clock. But this is harmful and distracts sleeping. If we suddenly awake at midnight, we see time on the phone and then start checking notifications before again falling asleep. This is a very bad thing we do daily. So, put an alarm clock near the bed for alarm and checking time. In this way, you can avoid sleeping with your phone.
“Smartphones and other gadgets used before bed can cause restless nights because the light causes melatonin suppression
Source: dailymail
7. Make a habit of wearing a watch
Most of us check the time on the phone but end up spending time on other apps as well. For example, if I check the time on the phone, I also check Facebook notifications and WhatsApp conversations. In this way, just checking time can waste a few minutes or hours. So, wear a watch and see the time on the watch when you need it. In this way, you can avoid picking phone from your pocket.
8. If possible, remove social media apps
Social media apps are the biggest reason for addiction. Remove social media apps from your phone if possible. Check your social media accounts only from your laptop. Use the mobile phone only for important tasks like phone calls, emails, navigation, and other important things.
9. Enjoy the company of people who are near you
When you are without a phone, try to enjoy people with you. If you are at home, talk to your family members and if you are with friends enjoy yourself with them. It helps you to know those people better and avoid your phone.
10. Close your eyes and take a deep breath when you desperately want to check your phone without any important reason
When you start following these ways, you will not feel comfortable and your attention will always be on your phone. If you are not with your phone but want to check it at any cost, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Try to do some other engaging tasks which can help you in reducing stress and forget about the phone.
In this post, I tried to cover most of the possible ways to keep one away from a smartphone. But there is no rocket science. You need to show some strong will to be away from smartphones. There is no smartphone addiction test to check if you are addicted. You need to see if you find smartphone addiction symptoms in you then you need to apply the above-mentioned solutions. If you have a strong will, you will be able to beat the addiction and live a happy life.
