Why smartphone addiction is dangerous and how to get rid of it forever

Has your smartphone taken over too much of your life? It's time to get rid of the worst habit of the 21st century - not letting go of the phone - and start living in the real world. And here's a comprehensive guide from Brett McKay, founder of The Art of Manliness, an independent men's online magazine.

A smartphone is pure magic. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the device allows you to instantly connect with anyone anywhere in the world, take breathtaking photos and access the knowledge of all mankind. Incredible!

But, as with any magical artifact, a smartphone can be so obsessed that all you want to do is stare into its glowing little screen. Remember Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings" who couldn't get away from his "charm"?

It is not surprising that people are at a loss: they do not let their phones out of their hands, but at the same time they feel unhappy, realizing how much time and attention they spend on them. Many smartphone users are unable to do their jobs thoughtfully and productively, build relationships with others, and live life to the fullest.

Therefore, we offer you comprehensive instructions on how to get rid of smartphone addiction. By installing blocker apps on your phone, of course, you help yourself fight temptation, but this is only one step towards a healthy relationship with your gadget.

But why should you limit your time with your smartphone at all?

Negative effects of continuous smartphone use

Many people have developed a habit (more like an addiction) to constantly hold the phone in their hands. Of course, you can take this as a harmless way to get rid of boredom. A smartphone is a great source of entertainment and a great tool for working and communicating in the modern world. But research shows that heavy smartphone use has detrimental effects on some aspects of our lives.

1. Loss of the ability to empathize and connect with others

MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that communication through the phone makes us less empathetic. Typing a message is convenient, but we do not see facial expressions, do not hear intonation, which are so important for understanding other people. Moreover, researchers have shown that if we have a telephone in our field of vision, we will pay less attention to those around us, and conversations will be more superficial. When we know that there is an opportunity for distraction, we see no point in communicating with someone on a deeper level.

To get rid of this itch, just turn off notifications. Go to each application and check if they are turned off for you. Most apps have notifications turned on by default (the developers are trying their best to engage you) and must be manually turned off.

This seemingly simple action will dramatically reduce the time you spend with your phone. Without signals or a flashing screen, you have no reason to check your smartphone. You will only pick up the gadget when you decide to do so.

2. Disable Wi-Fi and incoming calls

Let's assume that you've turned off notifications, but still pick up your phone every now and then. Then try turning off Wi-Fi or putting your smartphone into flight mode at certain times of the day.

You can call and write SMS if necessary, but you will not be able to access, for example, Instagram and other addictive applications.

The disadvantage of this method is that both Wi-Fi and communication are easy to reconnect. So if you check your mail or Instagram frequently, quit apps and don't save passwords. If you still succumb to the temptation, you will need to go into the application and enter all the data manually.

People are lazy creatures. Knowing that you have to tinker with the settings, you will most likely prefer to tackle this later.

This is a good tactic if you are studying or working and need to fully immerse yourself in business for a while without being distracted by your phone. You can look into the applications when you are done with the tasks and are at home.

Will people start to get offended if you don't answer them?

If you're a die-hard smartphone addict, your biggest concern will be that you won't be able to respond to messages right away if you turn off notifications.

But for the most part, this is nonsense. Communication using digital devices takes place in real time. This feature makes us feel that all incoming messages are urgent, when in fact they are not.

Even when it comes to business, most incoming emails can wait an hour or two (indeed, most emails won't need to be answered for a full day or more). If the information is really important or something urgent has happened, you can always just call.

The same goes for private messages. There is always the possibility that some SMS needs to be answered urgently, but most messages are neither urgent nor important. Basically, it's just chatter: exchanging good news, photos or links, making plans for the weekend … As soon as you start answering, it's hard to stop.

Turn off message notifications and check them in your spare time, not because the alarm sounds. Understand that you - and not someone else - must control your attention.

Some people find it easy to turn off notifications, some find it harder to get used to, but if you want less distraction, you have to put in some effort.

Sometimes entrepreneurs and executives who only check their mail at certain times set up an automatic reply that lets the sender know about it. But it seems to me that there is no need to explain that you do not use your phone all the time. On the contrary, expecting an immediate response is completely unreasonable, so there is no need to make excuses.

While your friends and colleagues may be a little annoyed at first responding to messages and emails for a long time, they will eventually get used to your rhythm and adjust their expectations.

Tactic # 2. Remove useless apps

Another way to make your smartphone dumber while retaining all of its benefits is to uninstall apps that don't significantly improve your life or make you distracted.

If you sit down and honestly rate each app, you will most likely realize that only 20% of them make your life much easier and not distracting, while the other 80% are entertaining, to put it mildly. Seriously. How can checking Instagram every 10 minutes or leveling up with Candy Crush improve your life? Most likely not. So if you want to focus more on the present, get rid of them.

Look at each application on your screen. Now ask yourself:

Does this app help me in my life or work?
Does this application prevent me from focusing on something?

Step 4. Fight technology with technology

So you've narrowed down your list of apps to the essentials. But despite the work done, you are still tempted to check working or just important applications over and over again.

Take email as an example. Of course, at work, you need to check your inbox and answer them from your phone, but do you really need to do this all the time? Probably not. Most of the letters that come to you are not only non-urgent, but also unimportant and may well wait until you get to your workplace and write a response from there. But it's so hard not to check your email. There is always a small hope that the next letter will definitely contain news that will literally change your life.

Or maybe you use Instagram to always know what's going on in the lives of your loved ones? I understand it. That's why I left this app on my phone. But you don't have to scroll the tape every 30 minutes. If your Instagram feed is like mine, then every 30 minutes you will see about the same thing: dudes pulling iron, dudes shooting guns, dudes showing off their clothes, some good nature photos and, of course, high-flown motivational quotes. Basically, I don’t lose anything if I don’t check the tape. But Instagram, thanks to endless scrolling, is impossible not to flip through. As with e-mail, there is always the hope that if you scroll a little more, you will come across an amazing, incredible picture. And this thought haunts.

If you can't or simply don't want to remove these distracting and familiar apps, you can manage the urge to keep checking them. And technology will help in this. We'll be using blocking and time-limiting apps.

App for managing other apps on iPhone and Android

Freedom. This service works on any device. You just install the apps on the devices you want to control, set the list of apps and websites you want to block, and you're done - nothing else will distract you. It doesn't matter if you are using an iOS or Android smartphone, MacBook or Windows laptop. As soon as you launch Freedom, the sites you are distracted with will be blocked.

Freedom allows you to schedule blocking ahead of time, so you can tailor the service to fit your schedule. For example, if you are using the Pomodoro Technique, the lock might turn on every 25 minutes and then turn off for a 5-minute break.

The service is fairly new, so there are bugs, but overall it can be assessed as reliable.

And a note for iPhone owners: this is the only service I know of that allows iOS users to block apps on their phone.

Application not found

Freedom | Block distracting apps and sites Eighty Percent Solutions Corporation

Apps to control other apps on Android

… A simple application in which you can choose what exactly you want to block and for how long.

Application not found

… Application similar to Focus Lock. The only drawback: you cannot schedule the blocking. And you have to go into the application every time and note how long you want to turn on the blocking mode.

Application not found

… Unlike blocking apps, Stay Focused lets you track how much time per day you spend on a particular app. When you have used all the scheduled time, the selected application becomes unavailable for the rest of the day. The app's only drawback is that it's very easy to disable it.

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My settings

I use the RescueTime utility that I installed on both my computer and my phone, and every week I watch how much time I spend on apps and websites.

I made my smartphone dumber by removing unimportant and addictive apps. I don't have games, Twitter, Facebook. I also don't use news reader apps. I used to spend too much time on them and felt that they were not very useful.

Since my business relies heavily on messaging, I have Gmail and Google Hangouts so I can handle complex and important things even when I am away from my computer. I also left Instagram to post photos.

These apps are essential for work, but they are distracting. Therefore, I have chosen two utilities that help me manage my attention.

I use Freedom to schedule what time of day I won't have access to my most distracting apps. I can use them from 5:30 am to 9:00 am and from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm on weekdays, so I devote the rest of my time to other activities, such as studying the Scriptures, keeping a journal, training, my children. I block Instagram, Gmail, and Chrome on Sunday, but I can freely use everything on Saturday.

But even when I do not restrict access to applications, I do not want to spend too much time on them. So I use Stay Focused to keep track of how much time I spend on a particular program. For each application, I set myself a daily limit of 30 minutes. This is enough time to post a new photo on Instagram, scroll through the news feed, view your email. If the time is up, I log out of the application and no longer log into it during the day.

I set up similar settings on my MacBook, so when I work on it, I can be sure that I'm only focusing on the most important task. And every time I am amazed at how much I can do if I don't constantly check my devices.

I hope this guide will help you to get rid of the habit of keeping your smartphone in your hands. Use the suggested apps and techniques if you want to stay productive and successful. Be the master of technology, not its slave!