If you are anything like me, you are either reading this on your phone or your precious device is still right next to your hand, ready to be snatched up as soon as it hums with vibrations. This could indicate that you have an addiction.
Since you opened this article, you probably want to know how to get over your cell phone addiction. You should learn why it is seen as an addiction to be so enthralled by your phone. Next, use simple techniques such as limiting screen time, changing settings on your device, and replacing the bad habit with healthy ones to start breaking the addiction.
In 2019, the average user spent around 3 hours and 30 minutes per day browsing the internet on their phones. An app designed to calculate mobile usage called RescueTime averages cell phone use to be around 3 hours and 15 minutes each day. This is likely to have increased by the time you are reading this. (After all, there was a 9 minute increase from 2018 to 2019.)
This is the average rate in America, and many users are above average clocking in over 5 hours each day spent looking down at their phone. By no means am I judging; I am likely above average too.
This may seem as though it is not so bad until you add it up and realize that it is taking away almost 48 days out of your year. When so often we think we don’t have so much time, it’s more a case that we aren’t using our time wisely.
Using our cell phones often doesn’t only take away the minutes spent on the device but when we distract ourselves from our current activity to glance at our phones, we are breaking our flow and productivity.
Addiction & Cell Phones
The addiction to cell phones has been classed among other lifestyle addictions such as gambling, shopping, and video game addiction. It can be simply understood as the compulsive nature in which a person uses their device throughout the day.
This behavior often negatively impacts aspects of the user’s life such as relationships, school, work, and mental health. This is largely due to the user spending more of their time digitally than in real life and not focusing on school or work.
The addiction is not exactly to the device itself but rather to the content found on the device, including games, social media apps, and internet addictions that also fuel this situation by hooking the user.
Due to the rise in cell phone use and the rising levels of addiction, new terminology has been coined to help describe this phenomenon:
Nomophobia: The fear of being without your phone.
Textaphrenia: The fear of being unable to receive or send text messages.
Phantom vibrations: The feeling of your phone receiving a notification when it actually hasn’t.
The addiction to phones can cause behaviors that are similar to addicted gamblers such as persistence, loss of control, relapse, and withdrawal. This tends to highlight this issue as being an actual addiction and not just compulsive behavior.
Health professionals believe the main cause of this addiction is the trigger of dopamine that is evident in the brain when a person is using their device. This could be due to the rewards found through digital likes, messages, and compliments.
Dopamine may seem to have a positive effect since it leads to happiness; however, obsessive cell phone use can lead to negative consequences.
Use this table to determine if you could be addicted. If you answer “often” to most of the questions, you should most definitely continue reading this article.
| Activity | Rarely | Sometimes | Often |
| How often do you check your phone first thing when you wake up? | |||
| How often do you check the time on your phone and get distracted by other apps? | |||
| How often is your phone next to you while you are working or studying? | |||
| How often do you use your phone recreationally when you are out with friends/family? | |||
| Do you panic if your phone battery dies while you are out somewhere? | |||
| Do you check your phone immediately when you hear a notification come through? |
Watch this inspirational video to see the positive effects when taking a break from your phone for 30 days:
Psychological Effects of Phone Addiction
Too much cell phone use can lead to a reduction in your quality of life and not only due to the loss of time while scrolling through your phone, but the content found on the device also contributes to psychological problems.
Insomnia can be caused by the overuse of your phone. This is due to the light from the phone before bedtime, the influx of information right before going to sleep, and the struggle to put your device down due to the constant stimulation that could lead to later bedtimes.
Anxiety can also be caused or worsened by phone use. The constant need to check your phone could make you anxious during times you cannot access your phone. It could also be the worry of what messages you may or may not receive causing phone anxiety.
Other effects include:
- Depression
- Relationship issues
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Reduced concentration
- Increased loneliness
The Mental Health Risks
These psychological effects come along with mental health risks due to the nature and scale of the addiction. The constant screen time and all the apps on the device can have severe effects on mental health.
Too much time on a cell phone can lead to changes in your brain chemistry, especially in teenagers. During a study conducted at Seoul’s Korea University, the changes lead to drowsiness, and anxiety and the person’s ability to process their experiences healthily.
Depression and anxiety have been linked to the overuse of cell phones as well as the incessant use of social media. Withdrawing from social situations due to too much time on your device can lead to depressive episodes as well as the dark side of social media.
The quality of your real-life relationships may suffer when you are found to spend too much time on your phone. Conducting your conversation digitally changes the way you interact with people in real life and can be seen through Sherry Turkle’s idea of being “alone together”:
Signs of Cell Phone Addiction
Whether you are suffering from the compulsive use of your cell device or you are concerned about a friend or your children who tend to hold onto their devices too much, there will be signs to watch out for:
Isolating from friends and family is a common sign of this addiction. If you pull away from social life and find yourself alone more often and forget the time while you are scrolling away, this could be a common sign of addiction.
Using the device as a shield could point to a problem with you or your loved one. This refers to the impulsive behavior of picking up the phone to aimlessly scroll through it when feeling emotions such as anxiety or depression. These feelings need to be addressed rather than masked by a phone.
Withdrawal is a common symptom in any addiction and, relating to cell phones, it shows the same signs and symptoms. These include shows of unwarranted anger, depression, restlessness, irritability, and low levels of concentration.
FOMO is another reason for compulsive cell phone use as well as a symptom. This refers to The Fear Of Missing Out, where you feel the need to continuously check social media or the news to ensure you are not missing out on anything.
This can get to the point where every few minutes you are worried that something big may have happened and you find yourself absentmindedly picking up your device to check, even if you are in the middle of a conversation or a meeting.
We all know the social media loop. You’ve just checked Facebook, then Instagram, and finally Twitter. Now you must go back to see if anything new has happened on Facebook. Then Instagram again. And now Twitter as well.
Social Media
We’ve all been there and struggled through the social media loop, when lifting our heads suddenly realizing we’ve been looking down at our phones for 30 minutes and work is staring at us from our computers.
Unfortunately, social media is designed to keep you hooked. This is why every time you log onto a social media app you are shown content that you haven’t seen before, even if you were on 30 seconds before.
This allows the users to constantly receive new stimulation and content to get lost in. This information is also unlimited; all you need to do is keep scrolling. There is no moving off the page or going deep into a topic because of the design of the apps.
The “like” functions on these sites hook you as well because of the reward impulse we all have. Whenever we receive this digital affirmation, we receive a nice shot of dopamine in our brains, making us happy and craving more.
Since social media apps are commonly found on people’s phones, especially as the generations get younger, you can see why it is easy to get lost on your device:
5 Steps to Break the Addiction
Finally, the good news: you can break your addiction to your phone or help a loved one who is suffering from this addiction. As with any other addiction, it will take time, patience, and persistence.
Following these easy steps will get you started on your journey, but first, you can help this process by setting your intentions. Write down why you want to move away from your device and keep this note handy whenever you are struggling to overcome your phone addiction.
1. Allocate Times
Limit the amount of time you are allowed to spend on your phone each day. This can exclude important phone calls. The rest of the time for internet browsing, games, and social media should fall into the allocated times.
You can go a step further and choose one day where you don’t go on your phone at all. Schedule this on a day off work so you aren’t worried about missing anything work-related.
2. Change Settings
There are a few options of what settings you can change to limit your phone time. Firstly, switch off all your notifications. The constant pings and vibrations are likely to get your attention and pull you towards your phone. Only keep calls on for emergencies.
Another option is to switch to grayscale. The lack of colors will keep you uninspired to be on your phone for too long. The psychological effects of the bright colors pulling you in will no longer work, and many apps won’t be so appealing without color.
3. Delete or Hide apps
If you find yourself spending too much time on specific apps, delete them. You can still access many of them through your computer, and since it is harder to get to them, you won’t visit them as much.
Even work emails should not be on your phone and should be limited for when you are working at your desk. Social media apps and games can be taken off too. If this step is too extreme at first, simply hide the apps in folders away from your home screen on your phone.
4. Keep Your Bed Phone-Free
There is no need to be on your phone just before you are going to sleep or as soon as you wake up. You can invest in a simple alarm clock to wake you up when needed.
If you can, charge your phone in another room or far across the room. This makes it difficult to pick the device up if you struggle to sleep and will prevent you from grabbing it as soon as you wake up.
5. Replace the Habit
Constantly checking your phone and scrolling through apps has likely become a habit for you, and the only way to break this is to replace it with better habits. Whenever you are feeling the urge to grab your phone, think of something else to do instead.
Habits are based on rewards. You receive the dopamine hit when you are on your phone and this leads you to want that reward again. Finding better things to do that offer different rewards will help you create healthier habits.
Alternatives to Cell Phone Time
If you are ready to take the next step and try out some replacements for the time spent on your phone, then you have already taken the most important step. Intention is the key to making a change.
Firstly, go through your phone—don’t get distracted!—and identify the apps that can be replaced with other devices or things such as an alarm clock, daily planner, or to-do list.
Write down all the needed information and delete the apps. Start using a pen and notebook for the to-do list, buy a diary for the planner, and purchase an alarm clock to wake you up.
Be ruthless with these; if there is a simple alternative, use it instead, especially if it requires you to physically write things out.
Next, once you have deleted or hidden your social media and games away, you will need to find better things to do when these urges arise. Make sure they are activities you enjoy doing and can immerse yourself in.
Here are a few options to get your ideas rolling:
- Read a book
- Exercise
- Spend time with the family
- Spring clean
- Improve an area in your house
- Be a tourist in your own city
- Play with your pets
- Try out a new recipe
- Try some mindful activities
- Play board games
How to Get Over Cell Phone Addiction FAQs
1. Can cell phones affect your sleep?
Yes, spending too much time on your phone, especially right before bed can cause insomnia due to the lights and the information on the phone. Notifications going off during the night can also wake you up and interrupt your sleep patterns.
2. Should I turn my cell phone off at night?
If you need to be alerted for any emergency calls, you should leave your phone on but silence all notifications except for phone calls. You can also leave your phone across the room. If you struggle to leave your phone at night, rather switch it off.
Now Go Break That Addiction
Just like any bad habit or addiction, this one can be broken too. You need to have patience with yourself and take small easy steps. Your phone may feel like a part of you and it could be hard to imagine getting things done without it.
However, before phones existed, things were still running. Maybe not as smoothly or efficiently but there were alternatives for most of the things we rely on cell phones to do for us these days.
Remember the negative toll your phone can have on you both psychologically and on your relationships. Avoiding these outcomes is not as hard as it seems. Just use the steps provided here and take it day by day.
Now, if you have checked your phone plenty of times while reading this, or if your hand is itching to grab it and check on those notifications, don’t do it.
Rather, take this challenge with me: Set a timer—not the one on your phone—and try to stay away from your phone for 30 minutes. If you don’t manage that long, note down your time in a notebook and try to go a few minutes longer next time and slowly build on it.