Your phone just vibrated. Is it a text? A Facebook message? Instagram notification? Maybe just an email? Whatever it was, chances are you’re quickly going to grab your smartphone and check to see what’s going on.
Technology is a great thing! Seriously, I’m pro-tech! It allows me to share useful resources with you, encourage you on social media, and stay connected to family and friends. But, at what point does technology become too much? When does it start to negatively impact you? Well, in short, when you start experiencing negative consequences from your amount of tech use.
Nomophobia
The phrase “nomophobia” has been coined to describe a person with a “no-mobile-phobia” – or fear of being without or away from your phone. Not yet recognized as a psychiatric condition, there has been movement toward including it as such. Nomophobia is characterized by anxiety, stress, or an irrational fear when your phone isn’t close by or when your battery level gets too low.
With similar symptoms to separation anxiety, nomophobic individuals can experience elevated heart rates, a shortness of breath, anxiety, discomfort, depression, or fear when their phone is not easily accessible. When our smartphones are consistently within reach, we can find ourselves anticipating a technological interaction (i.e. a text, phone call, social app notification, email, etc). Our brains register this as anxiety – anxious about missing what’s going on in the digital realm– and our bodies then respond accordingly.
Other Harmful Effects of Technology
Impact on Work
Multi-tasking is often listed in job interviews as a strength by applicants, and it’s often the default mode for many people. While we used to believe that the ability to multi-task yielded more work, research has recently shown multi-tasking to lessen productivity and to have an impact on memory and cognitive function.
How often are you multi-tasking with tech use? Perhaps you’re texting while dialed into a conference call or scrolling social media while sitting in a staff meeting? Or maybe it’s responding to emails while watching television? Unfortunately, your performance level decreases each time you drop one activity to pick up another, so hopping back and forth as you multi-task creates an inefficient work style.
Emotional Instability
This is something more prevalent in teens and adolescents (but remember that these teens will soon be the adults of tomorrow). Excessive technology use results in seeking validation from social media “likes” and “follows.” Additionally, tech dependency is often associated with sleep deprivation as users opt for more screen time rather than unplugged rest. Without proper rest, we are unable to process information and emotions in a healthy manner.
Tech dependency also fosters a “fear of missing out” mentality where we are discontented with alone time. We feel we may be missing out on what’s happening online and therefore we feel lonely without a constant form of contact with someone.
Impaired Vision
Since wide spread tech use has only come into play in the past couple decades, the long term effects are still being researched. However, optometrists report seeing an increase in patients with complaints of their vision and associating much of it with a prolonged eye strain from looking at a computer or screen. Double vision, dry eyes, and light sensitivity have also been associated with excess screen time.
Correlation to Other Health Problems
Excessive technology use and dependency can be associated with a number of health concerns – primarily due to the lack of physical activity while using devices. The more sedentary a life we lead, the greater our risk for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and a slew of other unpleasant medical conditions.
And those who spend hours each day on their computers for work can testify to the neck, shoulder, and back pain they experience in their jobs. The jury is still out on whether or not excessive texting causes thumb and wrist pain in our dominant texting hand.
Tips to Break Free from Technology Dependency
The key to breaking free from tech dependency is taking intentional steps to break bad habits. If you can take chunks of time when you’d normally be on your smartphone, tablet, or computer and replace it with something else on a regular basis, those little bits will add up. Here are a few simple suggestions:
- Make the car a device-free zone. If you’re driving, texting while driving is incredibly dangerous (and illegal in many states). If you’re a passenger, choose to stay off the phone. Instead, sing along to the radio or talk with the other people in the car.
- Stop taking your phone to the bathroom. You may have chuckled at that, but it’s a valid point. Consider your restroom time as an opportunity to take a tech-break. When nature calls, don’t let your phone call too. Besides, you don’t want it falling in the sink or toilet anyway.
- Charge your phone away from your bed. If it’s not on the nightstand beside you, you’ll be much less tempted to use it at bedtime. Choose instead to spend that time with your mate or reading a good ole-fashioned book. Besides, studies show you’ll sleep much better if you reduce your technology use at bedtime. And who wouldn’t benefit from better sleep?!?
- Have a device-free get-together with friends. Greet guests at the door with a basket for cell phones. Leave the basket in the foyer or hallway and spend social time face to face with friends. Imagine having a conversation with someone and one of you not looking down at your phone because it buzzed.
- Make dinner time device-free. Some of my friends instituted this rule in their home in an effort to protect time with their kids at dinner. So, whether it be at home or in a restaurant, put the phones away during meal time. Instead, talk about something like the best part of your day or what’s going on at school or work.
- Turn app notifications off. Since notifications are designed to get your attention by either showing up on the screen or sounding an alert, they distract you from the task at hand and pull your attention back to your device. Turn them off completely or at least for designated chunks of time during the day.
If you’ve noticed an unhealthy dependency on technology of any kind in yourself or your child, consider some of the tips above. You may benefit from exploring the root cause of this dependency, and this is where I can be a great resource and help. Contact me and begin the journey toward freedom.
-Joel