Before you can get to the end of this sentence, you'll probably look at, touch or at least think about checking your phone. That is if you're not already reading this story on it to begin with. You don’t need stats to know just about everyone is glued to the screens in their pockets these days, but here they are anyway: According to the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of American adults have a cell phone, and 90 percent of those cell phone owners say the gadget is frequently by their side. Almost a third say they never, ever turn their phones off.Yes, technology is groundbreaking and revolutionary and has transformed many of our occupations and industries and lives. But in other ways it’s also made us seriously anxious, less productive, and endlessly distracted, even if we hate to admit it.
Here are four ways your phone makes you freak the f*@# out, and how to take back control before you smash it into little pieces.
LOW BATTERY ANXIETY
Ninety percent of us suffer from this very particular form of phone anxiety, according to a recent survey of 2,000 U.S. smartphone users by the electronics manufacturer LG.
The survey found that people with low battery anxiety said they felt panicked when their phone battery drops below 20 percent because of the impending threat of going off the grid.
“It’s panic mode,” says Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D., author of the forthcoming book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. “You don’t think you’re going to have time to charge it, and you don’t know how you’ll stay connected if you don’t charge it.”
The major symptom of LBA? Asking a stranger to borrow a charger. “When you look at people’s behaviors around this anxiety, they look quite obsessive,” Rosen says.
PHANTOM VIBRATION SYNDROME
You feel the vibration in your pocket and whip out your phone to see who’s calling—only to find out that the vibration was simply a product of your imagination.
“Ten years ago, if you felt a rustle in your pocket, you would have reached down and scratched it,” Rosen says. “Now, even if we know we’re not carrying our phone in our pocket, we don’t think it could be an itch.”
Slowly but surely, he says, the phantom vibration phenomenon has taken over.
Recent research suggests that the more anxious you are about staying connected, the more likely you are to misinterpret that itch as a Snapchat notification or an incoming text. As such, this syndrome is also sometimes referred to as “ringxiety.”
NOMOPHOBIA
You’re a nomophobe if you’re afraid of being without your phone.
A 2015 study developed a nomophobia questionnaire to measure this fear and found that the more you agree with statements like “I would be annoyed if I could not use my smartphone and/or its capabilities when I wanted to do so” and “If I did not have my smartphone with me, I would feel anxious because I could not instantly communicate with my family and/or friends,” the more nomophobic you are.
Another 2015 study put this concept to the test by forcing a small group of iPhone users to complete word search puzzles while ignoring their ringing phones. They reported higher feelings of anxiety and their heart rates and blood pressure increased, while they also felt they performed worse on their puzzles.
FOMO
Fear of missing out might be the original smartphone stressor. It’s triggered most often by social media posts that make us long to be a part of whatever the post flaunts, whether it’s a sold-out concert, an extravagant family dinner, or a grandbaby’s first steps.
One of Rosen’s studies tracked smartphone use among college students for 8 weeks. On average, the students used their phone four times an hour, for just 4 minutes at a time. Why the short bursts? “We’re so afraid of missing out,” he says.
We naturally compare ourselves to the picture-perfect versions of our friends’ and families’ lives in those Instagrams and Snaps, which can lead to feelings of jealousy and even depression. The next best thing to actually living that life is being the first to “Like” it or comment on it. (Here’s how your phone can tell if you’re depressed.)
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Start by setting a schedule for when you’re going to check your phone, Rosen says. It doesn’t have to feel daunting: Set your timer for just 15 minutes.
After you silence your phone, turn it facedown so you can’t see any notifications. When the timer goes off, you get 2 minutes to look at whatever you want on your phone. Then repeat.
“You’ll start to notice when you get good at this—and it might take a whole week to break the habit—that when the alarm goes off, you silence it and keep working,” Rosen says. That’s when it’s time to bump up your timer to 20, 25, or even 30 minutes.
When you’ve worked your way up to 30, “you’re doing damn well, given you just doubled your normal amount of time,” he says. Tell the people you communicate with most that you only check your phone every 30 minutes, so they should only expect to hear from you in those intervals.
Once that starts to feel comfortable, apply the same principle to your free time. Some companies instate a “7 to 7” rule, Rosen explains: Employees can send emails at any time, but they should only expect their messages to be read between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
(Men's Health)
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