Smartphones are an important component of lives. But some people believe there should be a limit to how they use phones (and tablets). Some have gone to the extent of saying that excessive usage of phones can cause several social and health disorders, including brain cancer (see References section). The point is, are you addicted to your phone? Check out the following ten signs to find out.
Signs That You Are Addicted To Your Phone
1] People with phone addiction panic when they discover they misplaced their phones. They will search for every possible place and won’t rest until they find it. If they can’t find it, they feel very depressed and will probably stay away from others for a few days.
2] If they leave the phone at home, they feel a void – as if they left something, as important as a human baby, unattended at home. They can’t wait to get home – to pick up their phone and check for notifications.
3] How quickly do you check your phone after waking up? Some studies have suggested that most people check their phones within one hour of waking up. Some cases were also found where people check their phones even as they are struggling to wake up.
4] Do you carry your phone into the toilet instead of newspapers? This one is based on the above but is a little different. The point here is using phones and tablets for news instead of actual newspapers.
5] Does your phone take a shower with you? There are cases where people use waterproof covers so that they can take their phones to the shower or bath tub where they keep on chatting or doing anything similar.
6] Checking the phone frequently for notifications and getting disappointed upon seeing none. One of the many signs that tell if you are addicted to your phone is that users want constant interaction with their phone – irrespective of what they are doing in real life.
Read: What is Phubbing and What it means for personal relations?
7] This one expands on point six. Do you keep on texting and chatting even though you have a real person to talk to at the moment? In other words, if you are talking to a person in real life, would you still be using the phone?
8] How less are you using your computers these days – compared to phones? As people get addicted to phones, they gradually shift from their normal computers to phones and tablets for almost everything: To visit a site, check their mail, for chatting, and other purposes. A heavy and sudden reduction in the usage time of normal computers combined with an increase in the usage time of phones is indicative of phone addiction. For example, you may be reading this on your phone!
9] How often do you try to stay up in the night to chat, converse or catch up with social sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Ever happened that you woke up with the phone still in your hand? Maybe you need a Digital Detox!
10] Finally, what do you prefer towards the end of the day:
- Staying up on the bed doing something on your phone or
- Spending some quality time with your family?
These are some tell-tale signs that show that you may be addicted to your smartphone. Know them so that you can know if you are addicted to your mobile phone. Are you!?
You might want to read this post on Mobile phone health hazards and about the Health problems caused by smartphone overuse.
I see signs of phone addiction everywhere. In the Netherlands we have the fenomenon that young teenage cyclist cannot ride their bike without a phone in their hand and checking their status of course.
Guess what, they are irritated when confronted to the possible dangers for themselves and others.
I am in the lucky position of not having a mobile phone, which seems very oldfashioned these days.
I think the story is the same every where. Its the same in India too. The addiction is growing! :)
Ha ha I’ve read the criteria for smartphone addiction and, yes i can tick every box (except for the shower sometimes I’m too busy on social media to be bothered to bathe and when I do bathe, it’s a very quick one).
Paranoid also about how quickly i use up my 40gb a month allowance. If i use it up it’s worse than having no food….zombified.