This week I noticed how I was repetitively checking my phone, anxiously waiting for emails or replies from clients or colleagues. I noticed how it was difficult to fully focus on other things, despite having plenty of things on my to do list. I would feel disappointed if I had no new notifications, even though I could rationally recognise that hardly any time had passed or it was now the evening. After a short while (which would feel a lot longer), ping! Notification! Excitedly I would check it and feel happy to have a response to deal with, but that excitement and elevated mood was tenuous at best.
I noticed how quickly the excited feeling could morph into stress from juggling requests, deciding how to manage my time. Soon, messages responded to, to do list dealt with, I would be back to anxiously waiting, checking and feeling at a loss for things to do. I wondered if this feeling at a loss was actually more of preference to the immediate gratification of a “ping” notification, rather than a longer task where the results or pay off are less obvious or further ahead in time.
What the research tells me
I knew others had this experience of how having a mobile close at hand makes it more likely to check it regularly than if it’s in the other room. I thought about this phenomenon, how for me it connects to anxiety and trouble focusing on tasks to completion. Doing some research I came across the tactic used by some apps which creates a similar effect as gambling (Sinha et al, 2023). “Ludic loops”, in gambling creates anticipation, maybe you’ll win, maybe not. This draws you back in to keep trying. Social media “likes”, comments or messages, or for me enquiries from new clients, in my view are as addictive as gambling wins.
With statistics like 95% of people between 16 and 24 checking their phone every 12 minutes (Korte, 2020), I wonder how the intense use of technology for such a broad range of activities in today’s society is going to impact our ability to concentrate in the long term. Will the next generation be more aware of the impact, and have stronger self- discipline?
How this relates to Counselling
If I was seeing a client who had said they were addicted to their phone and was troubled by it, what could help? Get a nokia 3310? Cancel all social media subscriptions? If it was that drastic I doubt it would go down very well.. What about approaching it with the full awareness and acceptance of its addictive tendencies? If we were to create a self boundary, create some discipline around its use with the knowledge that anything addictive needs moderation, what could that act of self control lead to? We are likely to restrict other indulgences you know are addictive so how about phone use?
For each of us there may be manageable small steps to start with that lead to meaningful change. Some examples might be;
- having a separate alarm clock so your phone can stay in another room at night
- deleting social media apps from your phone
- keeping social media apps on a tablet to check when at home, reading a book on the bus instead
For me, I’ve taken to “clocking out”, setting a time when I no longer think about work or check my phone. I have changed some of the apps I was using, and I make sure to leave my phone elsewhere when speaking to loved ones to fully engage in that conversation.
If you’ve noticed how phone use or technology causes some anxiety in your life, or if you’re looking for new ways to create some self discipline, counselling with me can help you. I work on developing self-awareness and building new healthy coping strategies.
Self awareness is knowledge, knowledge is power!
References
Korte M. The impact of the digital revolution on human brain and behavior: where do we stand? . Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jun;22(2):101-111. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/mkorte. PMID: 32699510; PMCID: PMC7366944.
Sinha, Snigdha; Sharma, Manoj Kumar1; Tadpatrikar, Ashwini1; Anand, Nitin1; Kumar, Rajesh1. Scrolling Mindlessly: Emerging Mental Health Implications of Social Networking Sites. Journal of Public Health and Primary Care 4(3):p 179-181, Sep–Dec 2023. | DOI: 10.4103/jphpc.jphpc_41_22
