The phone addiction

So, just for the fun of it, I checked my personal digital wellbeing before writing this post. I am one of those degenerates that spends an obnoxious amount of time on my phone, and I know it. I seldom don’t have my phone running in some capacity (and then I complain when my phone dies halfway through the day). But even I was shocked to see that last week I spent anywhere between 5 and 11 hours on my phone per day. Yeah, 5 hours on my phone was a small number. On that 5-hour day, I received 258 notifications, and I unlocked my phone 77 times. That's obnoxious. How do I function like that? I looked into using Additoncenter.com. In terms of the negative effects, they said “Chronic phone use is a recently developed form of addiction. The American Psychiatric Association does not officially recognize the condition. Still, it is acknowledged as a behavioral addiction by many medical professionals and researchers worldwide. According to several studies, over time, the devoted use of smartphones can alter and negatively impact an individual much like gambling. I am someone with a very addictive personality. Look no further than the several coffees I drink every day. So acknowledging that the thing I seem the most addicted to is, coincidentally, the thing that causes a panic when it goes missing. I can’t be the only person who feels like they literally always have their phone in their hand. I have managed to centralize my whole life into my phone. I have a wallet case, meaning that my debit card, driver's license, and student ID are all attached to the back of my phone. I can tell you that I have two phone numbers memorized: mine and my mom's. God forbid I need to call my brother for something and don’t have my phone handy. The addiction center mentioned how any of the following could be caused by phone addictions:

Phone addiction may lead to any of the following and more: “Sleep deficit, Lower concentration, Aggravated ADD, Anxiety, Reduced cognition, Stress, Impaired relationships” etc. Guess who that sounds like? I’m never going to be that person who reads one article and decides I have something. But given the alarmingly large numbers on my screentime page… I’m gonna go for a walk and sit outside for a bit.

image:https://medvisit.io/cell-phone-addiction/