How to Fight Phone Addiction: Rec. Reading v16
We recognize that habit-building and good mental health can’t be isolated to just one corner of the internet. Myrth is our favorite tool, but it’s not our only tool. In our regular Recommended Reading series, we’ll share links to articles, books, and other tools that we think you’ll find helpful in your journey.
If you’ve been hanging out here for a while, you probably know we have a love-hate relationship with our phones here at Myrth. We love being able to take selfies during solo travel, but we hate the constant distractions they create. We’ve limited our phone use by installing apps and using other, less enticing devices.
If you’re struggling with spending too much time on your phone, too, then this installment of Recommended Reading is for you. We’ll cover the psychology behind phone addiction, ways to break the cycle of mindless scrolling, and more.
1. Your Phone is Designed to be Addictive
Over a decade ago, a class at Stanford cracked the formula for how to make apps and games super addictive. It involved a combination of motivation, trigger, and ability to act, and it was wildly successful. This article from Wired explains in a little more detail how the formula works:
In Silicon Valley, the model answers one of product designers’ most enduring questions: How do you keep users coming back? Say you're a Facebook user, with the Facebook app on your phone. You're motivated to make sure photos of you posted online aren't ugly, you get triggered by a push notification from Facebook that you’ve been tagged, and your phone gives you the ability to check right away. You open the Facebook app.
If you’re struggling to put down your phone despite knowing it’s mostly just sucking up your time, know this: you’re not alone phone addiction is real.
2. Interrupt the Mindless Scroll by Using a Speedbump
There are a lot of articles out there talking about how to break your phone addiction, and some of the tips we’ve already discussed in earlier posts that we’ve linked at the beginning of this one. This tip, though, was new to us, and we found it in this article from Time:
A lot of times we find our phones in our hands without knowing how they got there — and then look up 30 minutes later wondering where the time has gone. To prevent these “zombie checks,” create a speed bump for yourself — a small obstacle that forces you to slow down and decide whether you really want to be on your phone. Put a rubber band around it as a tactile prompt, something you have to physically move out of the way in order to get access, or set a lock screen image that reminds you to check in with yourself, asking questions like, “What for? Why now? What else?”
This is a great idea because it’s inexpensive, easy, replaceable, simple, and effective. Having both the visual and tactile trigger of the rubber band across the phone is the rare double-interrupter that really does its job well.
3. Set Your Phone to Grayscale
It’s common knowledge that people are easily distracted by blinking lights and bright colors (hellooooo, Las Vegas), but people often don’t connect that information with what’s happening on their phone screens. We loved this tip from Sharon Profis at CNET, along with several other great ideas in this article:
Without all those colors, apps like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and even news apps, are much less interesting. This is a fantastic little mind trick that worked wonders for me. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters. Turn this setting on. Then, go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and select Color Filters. Now, for those rare times you need to see your screen in color, you can triple click your phone's side button. To go back to grayscale, triple-click again.
If you’ve been trying to break your phone addiction for a while now, and you just can’t seem to cut back or quit, you might need some extra help. There are now therapists and coaches who are specially trained in helping with technology and internet addiction, including the folks over at the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. Getting help for a phone addiction is a lot like getting help for depression, anxiety, or any other mental health issue, and it’s perfectly fine to seek professional help to accomplish that.
5. Fill Your Life With Phone-Free Activities
Oftentimes, we reach for the phone when we’re bored. To avoid that impulse, fill your life with things you love that you can do without your phone. This great list of ideas for phone-free activities from HuffPo is super helpful.
Have you managed to reduce your screen time or even quit using a smartphone altogether? How did you do cope with phone addiction? Drop us a comment - we’d love to hear from you.
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