Great Escape
The Real Cost of Phone Addiction
You use your phone too much. Here’s how to stop the cycle.
You, like most people, probably use your phone too much. People spend an average of four hours a day staring at their handheld screen, according to the time-tracking app Moment, and that doesn’t include time spent using their phones to do other things, like listen to podcasts or take calls. Engage in any activity for that long and it changes your brain. Those changes may be positive if we are talking about, say, meditation. Less so if it’s time spent staring at your phone.
For the past three years, I have been conducting research and writing a book about our relationships with our phones. I’ve since concluded that phone time is affecting everything from our memories and attention spans to our creativity, productivity, relationships, stress levels, physical health, and sleep. In short, if you feel like your phone is changing you — and not always for the better — you’re not crazy. You’re right.
When we can’t check our phones, our bodies release stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
Phones, advertising-based apps, and social media are designed to be hard to stop using. It’s their business model…
