Smartphone Addiction: 6 Effective Measures to Conquer Your Addiction

If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter with your phone, scrolling away on TikTok until the sun rises, chances are, you’ve got a smartphone addiction.

You either spend too much time on social media or online shopping, but either way, your screen time is through the roof. Excessively using your smartphone has been proven to be detrimental to your health. It is linked to poor sleeping patterns, higher levels of stress, and even depression.

Anything in big doses can be bad for you, so here are six effective ways you can try to curb your smartphone addiction.

Change your notification settings

Notifications are most likely the root cause of your smartphone addiction. 

Every few seconds, there’s always a new notification ping popping in from different apps—a message from your best friend or an Instagram update from your favourite celebrity. Next thing you know, your phone’s back in your hands.

Start by controlling your notifications by either turning them off or muting distracting ones. You can also make use of the helpful Focus modes found on Apple devices running iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. 

If you’ve got notifications from Twitter or Snapchat pouring in all the time, you’ll never be able to get anything done. Just keep the important ones coming in and the less important ones silenced.

Remove unnecessary applications

Another potential source of your smartphone addiction could be the tens of unnecessary applications on your phone. 

Declutter your phone by sorting through all of them and considering which ones are worth keeping. Think about how often you use those applications and their purpose—are they really beneficial to you? 

If you’ve answered no, delete those applications. Out of sight, out of mind. This works well for both you and your phone because it’ll combat your smartphone addiction while clearing out storage. 

Turn off your phone at night

Great for your beauty sleep and to contain your smartphone addiction, always turn off your phone at night when you’re heading in.

Leaving your smartphone on would only prompt you to pick it up if you’re tossing around before sleeping. It usually takes some time for your mind and body to wind down for the day and get into a sleepy state. But, if you’re tempted to use your phone, you’ll only disrupt that process.

This is important as it will help you get better sleep at night and prevent you from jeopardising your eye health if you were to use your phone in the dark.

Give ‘social media fasting’ a go

If you’ve been on social media a lot, this idea shouldn’t be new to you. Over the past few years, many people have begun to go on social media fasting or a social media cleanse to curb their smartphone addictions.

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. All you’ll need to do is set a time for yourself when you go MIA on social media. Pick a time that suits you best, as many as you can throughout the week because the more, the better!

Start with maybe an hour a day, and pick it up from there according to your own pace. You’d be surprised when you realise that you can live without having to be on social media every second of the day.

Use applications to help

As more people develop smartphone addictions, applications designed to help reduce your phone usage are increasingly rolling out.

Sometimes, all you need is a little push in the right direction. Check out your App Store or Google Play Store and search for applications that can limit your screen time and generate reports on your smartphone addiction habits.

We have a few suggestions in mind: ActionDash, Digital Detox: Focus & Live or Cleverest: Focus Digital Detox but of course, there are plenty of others in the market. Find the one that suits you best and stick to it.

Flip your phone over

Ending with the easiest way to kick your smartphone addiction, just flip your phone over! 

When all else fails, you can never go wrong with the simplest solution. Wherever you are now, put the phone facing down on the nearest table and leave it. You won’t see any notifications, nor will you be tempted to take a peek.

Practice self-control and discipline, leave it as it is, and carry on with your day. You’ll be surprised by how effective this can be.

Say goodbye to smartphone addiction

All you need to do is take the first step towards combating your smartphone addiction, and we promise it’s not that difficult. Prioritise your health over your phone and social media, and you’re guaranteed to be much happier. Live through your eyes and not through the lens of your phone.

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