He mobile phone It has become an essential element of our daily lives, but sometimes, our dependence on it can be too much and have negative effects.
Cell phone addiction may not be as familiar as some addictions, but experts warn it could be equally destructive and much more widespread.
From deteriorating mental health to withdrawal symptoms, these are the five signs that you could already be hookedas stated in a report this Sunday Daily Mail.
The time you spend on your phone
One of the key criteria for addiction is what researchers call ‘tolerance’. Just like a cocaine or cannabis addict needs a higher and higher dose to get the same high, the same goes for smartphone addiction.
The teacher Mark Griffithsa leading internet addiction expert at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, says: “What you would expect is a gradual increase in the time spent engaging in the activity.”
Additionally, increasing the amount of time you spend on your device increases the risk that the behavior will transition from problematic use to a total addiction.
A 2023 study found a “significant association” between smartphone addiction and spending more than four hours a day on devices.
How it affects your life
The biggest sign that you’re truly addicted to your phone is how the time you spend online affects the rest of your life. Professor Griffiths says: “It’s not about the number of hours, but rather the number of hours that negatively impact on other things you should be doing.
Psychologists break this down into two different factors: salience and conflict. Prominence means that your phone, or what you do on your phone, It becomes the most important thing in your life.
Meanwhile, conflict means that what you do on your phone begins to disrupt other areas of your life. “The time you spend on your smartphone is so busy that compromise your personal relationshipsyour education or your occupation,” says Professor Griffiths.
Why do you use your phone
Additionally, another key sign of addiction is why people use their phones in the first place. Part of what separates addicts from problem users is that addicts use their habits as a way to alter their mood.
This can be obvious in the case of drugs or alcoholwhich alter mood, but Professor Griffiths argues that this is also true of mobile phone use.
“You use your phone as a way to modify your mood. Whether it’s to get cool, loud, excited and excited or to do the exact opposite: calm down, fall asleep, de-stress, relax“Griffiths says.
How it affects your mind
Research has shown that cell phone addiction also has a significant impact on people’s mental health.
A study carried out by scientists from King’s College London published this year analyzed the relationship between problematic smartphone use and mental health in adolescents.
The researchers found that 16- to 18-year-olds who reported problematic cell phone use had twice as likely to experience anxiety and almost three times more likely to experience depression.
How it affects your body
A genuine case of smartphone addiction has many similarities with drug or alcohol addictions and this even extends to the effects it has on the body.
While using a smartphone is obviously not as harmful as taking a dangerous drug like heroin, addiction can still cause physical withdrawal symptoms.
Professor Griffiths says: “Even on a physiological level, you will have things like nausea, sweating in the hands, stomach cramps, things you’d find in more traditional addictions.”
And while this may seem strange, there is now growing evidence that calls “behavioral addictions”like gambling, can trigger these physical effects.
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