I'm just about one month into a flip phone. I still spend way too much time on my laptop when I'm home (and I'm home a lot) but I'm not missing my iPhone at all. When I am out, though, it's nice not having the option to look at the internet. Instead I pet my dog, talk to people, or just look around and think like I used to all those years ago.
I'm actually a bit worried that I am not getting some texts in general so need to investigate that. But that's a good question... so far I have gotten no spam texts but ya. Good question! I'll report back if I figure it out.
About as useful as telling a heroine addict to get off heroine, except that screen addiction is much more subtle in the harmful effects, but is incredibly corrosive over time. Almost all tech products in the world are pushing for more and more screentime, there is really not much regulation in sight, in the US at least(go Australia!). The best hope is that one day an Ozempic for screen time comes out!
Sure, I would agree my comment was hyperbolic. If the consensus on "phone use bad" is still shaky, wouldn't telling someone to get off their phone actually be less useful, because there would be more skepticism over the harm being done?
Screen "addiction" isn't a real thing. Addiction is a specific medical phenomenon, not just any bad habit. Go find me a study in a medical journal that quantifies the physiological effects of smartphone withdrawal.
I do think people spend too much time on social media, but it's not helpful to frame this by analogy to something it simply is not. Bad habits are bad in their own right. We don't need to appropriate medical language to discuss them, and doing so is misleading. You can actually just stop using Instagram Reels. It's nothing like heroin. It's a bad habit, and you can just turn it off.
"In contrast[to drug withdrawal], smartphone dependence is driven by digital stimuli and psychological-behavioral mechanisms, with almost no physical dependence; withdrawal mainly causes psychological discomfort (such as restlessness) without severe physical reactions. Its health risks are mostly indirect (like vision loss, sleep disorders), and withdrawal can generally be improved through behavioral adjustments."
I can find you 10 more but I doubt it would change your outlook.
This is a study finding that physiological smartphone withdrawal doesn't exist. Smartphone dependence is merely "psychological-behavioural," and you can develop a psychologically dependent relationship with anything. Being dependant on your girlfriend doesn't make you "addicted" to her. Please, find 10 more studies—this is making my point for me.
Again, I'm not saying our relationship with smartphones is healthy. I'm saying addiction is a specific thing, and this isn't it. Getting strung out on heroin is not anything like using your phone too much.
Thanks for proving my point! Insomnia and sleep deprivation are highly dependent on both psychological and physiological factors. You want studies for that too? Every addiction stems from some combination of psychology and biology because the the brain factors into everything we do, consciously or sub-consciously. What about addiction to porn, not a real thing I guess?
