Slow down. Breathe and look around you. See what is happening right now. Experience it. Enjoy it. All too often, we are so busy doing a million different things that we don’t focus on what’s right in front of us. Keeping up with work and school while trying to maintain a social life can get pretty hectic, and it’s often easy to get caught up in everything going on. With technology, especially cell phones, it’s easy to think that we’re staying organized and in the loop. However, recent studies say otherwise.
In a study done at the University of California, it was found that people change activities every three minutes during a workday, making it harder to get back to their original activity. In 2008, Gloria Mark, a professor at the university, stated that this leads to “higher levels of stress, frustration, mental effort, feeling of time pressure, and mental workload.”
According to Earl Miller, a neuroscience professional at MIT, we experience a switch cost every time we try multitasking, sometimes taking us 15 to 25 minutes to get back on track. And multitasking does not get easier with practice. The PLOS One journal published a study done at University College London by Kep Kee Loh in 2014 showing that people who switch back and forth between websites have “ less gray matter in a part of their brain involved with thought and emotion control.” These changes can be linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety.
While there are mental hazards that coincide with being on your phone, there are also physical health problems that can occur as well. Tech neck is an issue that pops up. When we look at our phones, our heads are tilted forward at about 60 degrees, putting pressure on the neck that can cause vision fatigue, headaches and a low quality of sleep.
I’ll admit it. I’m one of the first people to reach for my phone. I love taking photos for Instagram and SnapChat, but every once in awhile, it’s nice to just put the phone down, forget about the photos, and enjoy the world in its full glory. In an article in Time magazine written by Ellen Seidman, it is said that “Americans spend 1.7 hours a day social networking and check their phones some 46 times a day.” With all that time spent on our phones, we forget to give our attention to those right in front of us. It’s time to take a break. Here are some ways to distance yourself from your smartphone:
Airplane mode: Putting your phone on airplane mode can decrease the amount of times that you check it throughout the day. If it doesn’t ring, vibrate or light up, it’s easier to forget that we even have it with us in the first place.
Leave it at home: Better than forgetting you have it, is not actually having it in the first place. Go somewhere without your phone. Don’t take pictures. Don’t think about calling anyone. Just live in the moment and pay attention to what you are doing.
Find an alternative: Instead of telling yourself that you won’t check your phone for the next hour, do something productive that will ensure that. Go for a run, try a new recipe, watch an episode of your favorite television show. You could even have a face-to-face conversation with someone.
We’ve become so used to our phones that many people call them an extra appendage. Many of us probably wouldn’t know what to do without one. I think it’s about time that we all find out. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ve missed.
