Even though you will not find such an official type of disorder on the medical list as a smartphone addiction, it is still real and, in all likelihood, you know people who are addicted to smartphones. It might also be possible that you yourself are struggling with such an addiction.
You might have already come across a variety of recommendations for battling such an addiction, however, not all of them are working. This article will provide you with some tips which will really help you minimise your usage of a smartphone and make your relationship with it more productive.
Popular mistakes made by people who are trying to get rid of a smartphone addiction
One of the most radical recommendations which can be found for batting a smartphone addiction is switching to a regular mobile phone from a smartphone. Certainly, it sounds like an efficient way to minimise the use of a smartphone as you will just not have such a device anymore in the first place. Yet, a smartphone addiction is not exactly the same as a substance addiction or even gambling addiction. Smartphones are really very useful and they can make your life easier. Yet, it is crucial to be conscious of the things you are using it for and the time you are spending on particular smartphone-related activities.
Of course you can resign from using such a device altogether, but the usage of a smartphone in an effective way might be a better solution.
Getting rid of all the social networks can be also a too radical way of addressing the problem especially if you really need them for your work or communication with any other group of people. This is also the place where you can find various communities which might be useful for you whether it is a group for selling pre-owned things in your city or a book club. Certainly, if you have social networks exclusively for showing off or tracking other people, this can be a rather time-consuming and, at the same time, anxiety-raising activity. In such a case, you can delete your social networks without regretting.
Finally, there is one more mistake some people tend to make when they want to minimise the time used on smartphones which is deleting various apps randomly on their devices. There is no sense in doing it at all since there might be a variety of useful apps which you use occasionally. Definitely, you are not addicted to these apps by any means.
Understand what apps you are really addicted to
As you can see, in order to make your battle with a smartphone addiction efficient, you should find the programmes you are really addicted to.
This might be confusing to many people, since it might seem you are addicted to your smartphone itself. The possibility is high it is not like that though. In order to be able to find real culprits for your addiction, you can use special programmes tracking time spent on particular tasks while you are using your smartphone. Still, you might be using your smartphone mostly on some crucial tasks, whereas you are still addicted to other apps.
In order to be more precise about the sources of your addiction, you should consider the following things.
First of all, listen to yourself and note when you are feeling an urge which might be even close to a compulsion to use a particular app. At the same time, even though your desire to use your app feels impossible to resist, once you open an app and spend some time using it, you regret doing it. Of course, it is even more true if you spend a lot of time using such an app.
You should also honestly think about the way the app you are addicted from is making your life better if it making it better of course.
You can also use a criterion of usefulness of an app for understanding your addiction. Still, you should be aware of the fact it is not so obvious in many situations. For example, even if you are using social networks for work, you can still get hooked by checking them keeping a track of the promotion carries out by the means of such services.
It’s a civilization addiction. Just walk into a public transport or similar place and everyone is staring at their cellphone