Are you always on your phone? Take our test to see how addicted you really are
ARE you so attached to your phone that you sleep with it under your pillow and check your messages while crossing the road?
If so, you might be in danger of becoming addicted to your device.
The average smartphone user now checks their device roughly every 12 minutes of the waking day.
The Phone Addiction Workbook by Hilda Burke is a no-nonsense guide to help you face up to your smartphone use and offers advice on how to break a potential problem.
Today Professor David Greenfield puts Sun on Sunday readers through the Smartphone Compulsion Test to discover if they have phone dependency.
- Do you find yourself spending more time on your smartphone than you realise?
- Do you find yourself mindlessly passing time on a regular basis by staring at your smartphone?
- Do you seem to lose track of time when on your smartphone?
- Do you find yourself spending more time texting, tweeting, or emailing as opposed to talking to people in person?
- Has the amount of time you spend on your smartphone been increasing?
- Do you wish you could be a little less involved with your smartphone?
- Do you sleep with your smartphone (turned on) under your pillow or next to your bed regularly?
- Do you find yourself viewing and answering texts, tweets, and emails 24-7, even if it means interrupting doing other things?
- Do you text, email, tweet, or surf while driving or doing other similar activities that require your focused attention and concentration?
- Do you feel your use of your smartphone decreases your productivity at times?
- Do you feel reluctant to be without your smartphone, even for a short time?
- Do you feel ill at ease or uncomfortable when you accidentally leave your smartphone in the car or at home, have no service, or have a broken phone?
- When you eat meals, is your smartphone always part of the table place setting?
- When your smartphone rings, beeps or buzzes do you feel an intense urge to check for texts, tweets, emails, updates, etc.?
- Do you find yourself mindlessly checking your smartphone many times a day, even when you know there is likely nothing new or important to see?
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How did you do?
NUMBER of “yes” responses . . .
0 to 2: Normal use, no need to dial it back.
3 or 4: No cause for alarm but don’t let your phone grab any more of your life.
5 – 7: Potentially problematic. Think proactively about how to stop yourself becoming any more of a slave to your SIM. It’s your call . . .
8 – 15: You’re hung up on your mobile and need to ring the changes. The phone is a tool, not a lifestyle. Write down exactly how long you spend on it every day, and on what – texting, Insta, playing games, etc. Consider deleting some of your apps and focus on being available to the people whose company you’re actually in.
DEALING WITH PHONE ADDICTION
HOW TO AVOID GETTING ADDICTED
Acknowledging how much time you spend on your phone is key to avoiding becoming addicted. Write down exactly how long your spend on your phone every day including messaging, text, calls, browsing, shopping, dating, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, porn, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube.
Create an inspiring lock screen. It can be an image that represents whatever you’d like to be doing with your time instead of mindlessly scrolling through your device. It might be a picture of you walking your dog, an image of you with your best friends or a snap of you laughing with your children.
Every time you look at your phone, it’ll be a reminder of what you really want to be doing with your time. Visual cues are very powerful, especially when we’re exposed to them over and over again.
Spring clean your phone by getting rid of the apps that you no longer use or no longer serve you. Consider deleting some of your shopping apps, food delivery services and social media apps.
Be careful of mind-numbing games such as Candy Crush, 2048 and card game apps. Gaming can be addictive and time consuming.
HOW TO CURE IT
Trying to build a new behaviour requires deliberate effort, conscious navigation and thought.
However, our brain is a living, plastic organ and our neural pathways are flexible meaning that we are capable of developing healthier habits over time.
Some things to try;
- Verbalise your intent; whether that’s by having a chat with your boss about what your boundaries are going to be around phone use after hours or with your partner about keeping the phone out of the bedroom, it helps to speak those words aloud.
- Focus on being available to the people whose company you’re actually in. The best way of doing is simply switching your phone off when you’re socialising or spending quality time with your partner or children.
- Practice wait training. For example, leave your phone at home when you walk the dog, then increase the time away from your phone in small, manageable increments.
- Buy an alarm clock and keep your phone out of your room overnight.
- Do something good for yourself before you switch on your phone such as having a freshly brewed coffee, or nice long shower.
- Don’t look at work emails before you get to the office, or at the very least until you get on the bus/train.
- Turn off alerts and notifications.
- Cut your data allowance.
- Unsubscribe from all the group chats you don’t want to be on.
- Phone Addiction Workbook by Hilda Burke, £13.99, is out now
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