Our Phone Addiction

Apr 20, 2024

Health

Our Phone Addiction

My screen time sucks. I spend way too much time on my phone and I know it’s slowly killing me.

Usually, when I understand why something is bad for me, it’s easier to kick the habit. So I went and found out just how bad phones are for our longevity and some not-so-drastic ways to reduce screen time.

It has to do with “dopaminergic reward systems”, which I explained in my guide to building a personal reward system — basically, how you can train your brain.

Let’s take a look at what your phone is doing to you.

Mental Effects

Notifications activate our reward pathways. These pathways can easily be abused (drugs, sex, rock & roll, etc.), and texts, likes, and Duolingo telling you to do your Italian lesson all provide an endless stream of stimuli abusing these pathways.

Apps use variable reward schedules to keep us intentionally hooked. There's no schedule to when we get notifications. That unpredictability makes it feel even better, giving us more dopamine.

Since the “cost” of checking the reward (notification) is nothing (picking up your phone) we habitually check our phones all the time, furthering our cycle of addiction. [1]

Instagram is so good at variable rewards that its algorithm sometimes withholds likes to deliver them in larger bursts to provide even more dopamine to keep us even more hooked. [1]

Phones have become mini-personal dopamine systems that we don’t want to let go of. A study showed that phones become a part of our extended self. It actually hurts to be disconnected — when we hear a notification but can’t check it, our cognition decreases and our blood pressure increases. [2,3]

So we get stressed out and can’t focus because of ringtones — embarrassing.

Excessive phone usage is also correlated with several longevity killers:

Depression
Anxiety
OCD
ADHD
Loneliness [4]

In short, your phone is messing with your brain. A lot.

Physical Effects

Thankfully, phones have yet to be shown to cause cancer. But they are associated with increased neck and back pain and really mess with our sleep. [5,6]

Proper sleep is essential for longevity, and putting a giant bright screen in front of our faces when we’re trying to sleep reduces and delays the onset of melatonin, the sleep hormone. [7]

Altering melatonin production causes circadian rhythm shifts, basically giving you jet lag and messing up your sleep.

We’re spiraling here, but basically: phones = bad sleep, bad sleep = bad health.

The key

How about throwing away your phone? I dream of returning to a “dumb” flip phone, but going cold turkey is unrealistic. Studies also show that going cold turkey makes us more unhappy.

Becoming a moderate social media user (~30mins/day) shows the greatest level of happiness. [8]

Because despite all the doom and gloom we just talked about, phones keep us socially connected and strengthen our relationships. Some social media use enhances that feeling. The key is to stop following celebrities and only follow friends. [8,9]

Here’s how to develop a healthy relationship with your phone:

Mentally break your phone habit by becoming aware every time you pick up your phone and assessing how you feel

Straight from my reward system guide

Limit screen time & moderate the content you see
- Stick to 30 minutes a day of social media
- Unfollow celebrities
Make your phone less stimulating [10]
- Set your phone to greyscale
- Turn notifications off (no red bubbles → no dopamine reward)
- Try the AntiSocial app
- Make your phone dumb
Take some space
- Get an old-school alarm clock and keep your phone out of your room at night

So phones kind of suck. But since we’re in charge here we can work to create a healthy relationship with our devices and take steps to break our habits.

The Haul: What you can’t miss in longevity this week

Research

Physical Activity benefits women more: A 400,000-person study showed that physical activity causes a 24% reduction in mortality for women and 15% for men

Podcasts

ZOE Science & Nutrition talks mushrooms (the fun kind):
- 09:54: It’s estimated that ~8% of our gut microbiome is fungal and it’s crucial for our immune system
- 26:17: New studies of psilocybin (the psychoactive part of mushrooms) have been shown to reduce severe depression in people where anti-depressants aren’t working
  - Psilocybin appears to “reset” brain chemicals and change neural pathways

10 issues in! Is there something you’re waiting to hear about? Reply and let me know.

Thanks for reading.

– Robyn

Interested in advertising? Reach out to robyn@girdley.com.

[1] https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-time/

[2] https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/20/2/119/4067530

[3] https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/20/2/119/4067530

[4] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.669042/full

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350886/

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9368281/

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6618184/

[8] https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2021.40.1.46