Smartphone Addiction ! 95% of the people must have been the victim of this problem. Everyone knows how to control addiction Everyone knows the methods but when it comes to implementing those methods than it becomes a difficult part. In this blog post I will try to fix this problem and share you about how to stop smartphone addiction also how to effectively implement those methods. With this I will also give you a Challenge more on that Later.

Why we need to stop smartphone addiction?

Many of you may have a question that after all, what is the need to stop Smartphone addiction? it is indeed needed ! So everyone definitely knows what can happen if you use the phone for a long time? The eyes get damaged, the mind gets spoiled and some people’s heart gets broken too. You know all this, but let’s see the science behind all this.

First of all, we need a solution to stop Smartphone addiction. and how would we know this? if you take a look at how many times the ‘Phone Addiction’ keyword has been searched since 2004 And you’ll see that since 2015 these searches have grown longer. These searches are bound to increase because today if we go outside the house without a phone, then we feel very uncomfortable. Looks like we will miss out on something.

There are many situations when we feel too attached or connected to the phone. There are some things at the brain level that we do not even know. People do not feel the interaction with each other because they feel too connected in virtual world. All the problems link together at one place and that place is our Brain.

Effect on brain of smartphone addiction!

Now what is the effect of all this on Brain? Although this goes same with ‘Social Media Addiction’. As soon as you open a social media app, a chemical called ‘Dopamine’ is released in your brain. because you get excited at a certain level. As soon as you go to the short video section Instagram reels, TikTok, your brain will release dopamine and you will start having fun. Then there will be more fun, more fun will go on and you will keep scrolling the ‘reel’ or ‘TikTok’ for short videos. this is a basic idea There’s a lot more happening in brain’s background.

If we talk a little deeper about it, then what did you get from a ‘reel scroll session’? The first thing is that your attention span is blown away. As these reels and TikTok became popular, it got us excited. And as you keep getting excited then the trend of watching these long YouTube videos is decreasing. people don’t wait when they are getting entertainment in 15 second video and they are enjoying it then why would they want to watch 15 minute YouTube video unless they are not interested in any particular subject And it’s not just on YouTube,

Young children do not feel like studying, they do not get concentration build-up. And the concentration is not created because your concentration power is decreasing because of 15 second reels video and then there’s a thing called “Online Games”.

The situation got worse in Pandemic. Because in Pandemic people were unoccupied and this is what the unoccupied person would do. It has some other side effects too, like ‘Fomo’. that ‘he is making so much money’, ‘he is so famous’ and ‘I am not like that at all’ etc. Many more such side effects of which I can give you a long list, but this is enough to understand why we need a cure for it. Now it is confirmed that ‘Cure’ is needed But what is the cure and how to take it?

What is dopamine?

Let’s begin by looking at why checking your phone can truly be a form of addiction and what it means for you in your journey to stop Smartphone addiction. If this isn’t the first time you’ve attempted to break the cycle of phone addiction, you probably understand why our brains become so attached to our phones. Yes, dopamine.

For those unfamiliar with dopamine, let me explain. Dopamine is essentially a neurotransmitter released by our brains. While it serves various roles, concerning addiction, it triggers pleasure-related receptors in our brains. This compels us to associate specific behaviors with rewards. Once you’ve associated a behavior like picking up your phone with pleasure, your brain begins to crave more. Don’t get me wrong; dopamine isn’t our enemy. Our ability to anticipate fulfillment is crucial for survival.

Dopamine motivates us to do many things. Just as when you crave food when hungry because your brain has linked food with pleasure, these cravings naturally fade when you’re full.However, when it comes to our phones, particularly social media, they’re intentionally designed to avoid alarming you. The intention is for you to indulge. The world’s brightest minds have studied our brain’s behavioral patterns and created services intended to foster addiction.

How to stop smartphone addiction?

First of all, understand that no habit can be changed in a day. Most of us just try that ‘From today I will not use mobile’ or ‘I will not use social media’. but then what happens after 2 days? You get disappoint with yourself because your things don’t get fulfilled, you can’t live without them Then the same pattern repeats.

The next time you feel like giving up this habit, you won’t be able to leave it because you know what happened last time You will say that this habit was not left even at the last time, it is not being given up even now, then why try in vain So that means this basic method will not work so which method will work? So here are some methods which may help you to stop smartphone addiction.

Change the rules for notifications:

You must have heard from many people that if you want peace in life, then turn off all the notifications of your phone to stop Smartphone addiction. now listen to me carefully “You don’t have to turn off any notifications! ” but why so? Because if today you suddenly completely turned off the notifications of your mobile. then your phone will be completely silent. When it is completely silent it will become a big problem for you.

You’ll get a feel for a while why my phone still doesn’t ring, You will feel that maybe some notification has come which I must open it and see it, You will see if anything has come on WhatsApp or has anything come on Instagram.

This will cause another big problem You will know that notifications on my mobile are turned off, yet you will be desperate to see that maybe something has come. This disease is called “Phantom Vibration Syndrome”. So when you suddenly turn off the notifications then you will get a very uncomfortable feeling which we should not bring. we have to let go of the habit while having fun so what to do now?

Batch your notifications:

You batch all your notifications So that your phone will show you notifications only after a certain amount of time. For e.g. after every 4 or 5 hours, notifications arrive only certain times in a day other than that the notification bell never rings. you can filtered out the important notifications, when their notifications come, they will come to you, except that you can batched all the other notifications.

What happened by this? This will make the brain feel that the notifications are not turned off at all, it will definitely be able to see the notifications after some time. So it will work that way. At least the notification won’t go completely in front of my eyes, I’ll see it after a few hours no problem in this. With this your brain will be with you, not against you. It means that you have turned off the notifications and the brain is not even angry about it.

Now if you want to do batching, then there is an application for this, the name of the application is – “BuzzKill” I told you the name and work of the app, now you check if it’s working and how it works. By the way, this app is of 100 rupees, you can purchase if you want. But if we don’t do it, then we are bound to steal.

This is the solution to the problem in which you feel like picking up the phone again and again, it will eliminate it from the root. Now let’s come to the ‘Second Habit’ in which if I have a phone in my hand then how to control the urge to use the phone. So that I can keep it somewhere, but how will this habit end?

Turning off the social media:

I can understand that it is fun to watch reels. It is also fun to go to the explore page and see the quotes related to your ex :'(. but we should be a little conscious while doing this It’s not that like idiots we’ve been on this all day, but How do we become conscious? The best method to be conscious is ‘Resistance’ But before that let’s understand what the problem is.

Right now if you want to unlock your phone, you either do finger tap or unlock with a fingerprint. Or if you are unlocking the phone with Face Unlock feature, then no effort is taken. So how much was the effort in actuality? Its – ZERO After that, you saw Instagram and we happily put Instagram on our home page. Then as soon as you click on Instagram, you reach the world of Influencers how much effort did it take? Its ZERO again, You kept yourself very comfortable from picking up the phone to going to Instagram.

what shall we do now? We’ll apply some brakes between this most comfortable process. What will happen then? “Resistance” will come from it. Now we have to insert breaks inside this little process And same method goes with ‘Social Media Addiction’. One thing you can do is that you cut the root itself, like remove the fingerprint from the phone itself. And you will set a strong complex password of 10 or 15 letters for the phone, which, when every time you type it, I will be able to enter the phone.

See, Resistance has come ! Or you just delete the particular app that you use a lot. This will bring resistance I will not recommend both these methods because both these methods have their own consequences. The first thing is that if you remove your fingerprint, then you can get into a lot of trouble in an emergency situation. and you yourself know what kind of emergency situations I’m talking about, The second thing is the same reason we discussed about notifications.

Too much resistance will come and you will be uncomfortable again which we don’t want to do play a little smartly In this case also we will adopt very simple method and that is to “log out from all social media handles”. That’s it ! That’s the best comfortable resistance you can have.

The reason for this is that you will also be able to use the phone and you will be locked even while running social media. Because you will think that “I’ve to login” and our brain by its very nature is too lazy Obviously, to implement this, you have to have a password of 10 or 15 letters. to put brakes on Remember not to use a password like “abcd1234” and don’t save the password at all. your accounts want you to use them more than you want to use them That’s why – “Resistance” So now we have cut the root of the main problem But there are some categories anyway which start studying too much from YouTube.

Establish Phone-Free Zones:

Utilize built-in tools or third-party apps to set daily usage limits for various apps. This helps you monitor and control the time spent on your phone.

Set Usage Limit:

Utilize built-in tools or third-party apps to set daily usage limits for various apps. This helps you monitor and control the time spent on your phone to stop Smartphone addiction.

Practice Mindfulness:

Try to implement mindfulness techniques into your routine. Take moments to pause, breathe, and observe your surroundings without reaching for your phone. Which can help you to stop Smartphone addiction.

Engage in Hobbies:

Best way to stop Smartphone addiction is rediscover or develop new hobbies that don’t involve screens. Investing time in activities like painting, playing a musical instrument, or gardening can divert your attention from your phone.

Physical Activity First:

Make it a habit to engage in physical activity before checking your phone in the morning. This can set a positive tone for the day and reduce the urge to immediately dive into digital distractions.

Prioritize face to face Activities:

Another best way to stop Smartphone addiction is avoid online meeting or video call and make an effort to engage in more face-to-face conversations and activities. Spending quality time with friends and family in person can help shift your focus away from virtual interactions.

Control YouTube addiction:

I mean people who watch more informative videos on YouTube I will not say that don’t watch YouTube or any informative videos, obviously watch it more often than normal videos But I would like to explain to you that whatever video you watch, whether it is entertainment or informative, all those videos are not going to be of much use in your practical life. If you’re a YouTuber yourself, it’s understandable that you have to create content. Or if your work revolves around this genre, then it is understandable.

But if you are sitting idle and watching so many informative videos then I would like to suggest that this much knowledge is of no use. You must be having a little sense of control because even in today’s era, if you want to watch informative videos then applying these things will not be a very difficult task for you. keep a little sense of control What has been told for Instagram, you can apply the same thing on YouTube.

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