As you’ve reached this article on the internet, you’re on your phone, right?
Technology has its advantages, but you shouldn’t think your smartphone is your only friend or conversation partner. As with substance abuse, alcoholism, and gambling, phone addiction is also an addiction.
Are you addicted to your smartphone?
In the same way cigarette smoking affects your body, addiction to your phone affects your mental and physical health.
You will be able to break your mobile phone addiction with the help of some practical strategies.
Here Are 10 Powerful Ways to Get Rid of Smartphone Addiction
1. Don’t Let Your Phone Notify You
One of the most distracting features of mobile devices is the notification system. Once you have completed your work and wish to put your phone away, notification pings start to arrive. Scrolling down to doom leads to endless posts, memes and more. By controlling your notifications, you can minimize your smartphone addiction to a certain extent.
To achieve this, turn off or silence notifications for all distracting apps, such as entertainment, social media, and messaging apps. For the best outcome, only keep the essential apps for emergency notifications and messages so that you won’t miss anything significant.
2. Get Yourself a Feature Phone
A feature phone is the most effective way to De-addict yourself from smartphones if you have extra cash. Most feature phones lack social media applications, have few games that aren’t appealing to millennials, and mostly work to make calls. Since you will be unable to carry out most of the tasks you usually perform with your regular smartphone, you will be able to combat your addiction.
It is one of the most effective ways to combat smartphone addiction, if not the most effective, to use the same when you are going out. Alternatively, one option is to go back to using an older phone that you might own, since it will lack some applications as well and, since it has downgrades compared to your smartphone, you will not use it as much since feeling awkward will make you feel uncomfortable.
3. Let Little Things in Life Matter to You
A smartphone can replace today’s books, but can it give you the feeling of holding your favorite book in your hand while sipping coffee? Yes, your smartphone can replace everything, starting from newspaper to tv, from your work laptop to digital camera. But please don’t miss out on real things in life due to this. Just because it can, doesn’t mean that we have to let it replace everything. Cherish these little things in life.
4. Uninstall Applications That You Don’t Require
Installing new apps on a smartphone is the first step to setting it up. While doing so, one may download separate apps, some of which may become addictive. It may not be necessary to keep opening these applications, but you wish to keep doing so. A solution to this problem is available, and one can delete the unwanted application if one wants to.
You will be able to combat screen use and free up space on your smartphone by doing this. It works best with games that you don’t feel like playing but end up playing anyway. In this way, one can de-addict themselves from using their smartphone as often as possible if the app were present on their device.
5. Set Your Screen Time and Stick to it
Setting screen time on your device will be a beneficial trick if you’re aiming to reduce your smartphone addiction. If you feel like you might be addicted to your phone, monitoring your screen time will help you become more cautious and self-controlled in this area. If not, maybe looking at your 8-14 hours of screen time will make you go through a guilt trip?
Some applications keep track of the apps you use the most on your smartphone and track their usage habits. A predetermined time can be set for each app or category of apps, which, when exceeded, will lock the app for the day and prevent you from accessing it. They can help curb smartphone addiction and help you maintain an ideal balance between your smartphone usage and your needs.
6. Meet and Greet!
Instead of interacting online or via social media with your family and friends, schedule a meet and greet in real life for some quality time. Instead of talking to friends and acquaintances on the internet, talk to real people. Engage in genuine conversations and share real emotions. The lockdowns might have made you forget how great it was to interact with your loved ones in life; it’s time you recall that.
7. Let Your Phone Sleep as Well
Maybe you have been through this before. After getting into bed, you wish to drift off to sleep, but within 10 minutes, you are on your phone. This is a common sight, and it can not be very pleasant. Addiction to smartphones may result from this. Turning off your smartphone before you head to bed is easy to combat.
This will be helpful to you in more than one way in the long run. You will experience many health benefits in the long run after turning off your smartphone. Secondly, if you don’t use the smartphone while trying to sleep, your eyesight will also benefit.
8. Your Mind Controls You
It is essential to change your thoughts to change your attitude toward using a cell phone. Whatever you check on the phone, it’s not as significant as it may seem. Ask yourself if this is a post notification from Instagram about someone posting a photo that is urgent or can be put off whenever you’re tempted to text or scroll through your news feed.
You become addicted when you have problems in your life. Addiction is less likely to occur if you live an entire life and if you have constructive ways to overcome obstacles, such as communicating with your nearest and dearest. In other words, the lasting fix to becoming less addicted to your phone is not the phone itself. Changing priorities and spending more time with those around you are more critical.
9. Out of Sight, Out of Mind
You’re less likely to check your smartphone every minute if you don’t have physical access to it right away. You can then mute it and hide it in a drawer to see if it works. Making sure this advice helps you focus on your work and avoid distractions will be your priority.
10. It’s Up to You
Is your smartphone worth losing your precious time in life? Just think how nice it’d be to learn new things and explore or spend time with your loved ones rather than sitting on your couch with your smartphone, no? That smartphone of yours isn’t making you any smarter. Next time you catch yourself aimlessly scrolling through your phone at 3 am, ask yourself, is it worth it? Because you deserve to make the best out of your time
Final Words
We know how it feels to be constantly glued to our smartphones, and we know it’s not healthy. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 10 powerful ways to get rid of smartphone addiction, so you can reclaim your life and put your smartphone in its rightful place! By following these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to living a more healthy and fulfilling life, without succumbing to the grip of technology addiction! Do you have any thoughts on our list? Share them with us in the comments below!
