Smartphone Addiction

Smart phone addiction is a serious problem, much more serious than most people realize. A lot of people treat addiction to smart phones as a joke but it is something that has to be taken seriously. Using your phone too much can interfere with many aspects of your life and it can cost you a great deal of money.  

Check out these other reasons you should take a break from your smartphone addiction:

It Could Help You Sleep Better Tonight
We all know that cell phone use during the wee hours can be disruptive to our sleep patterns, but it's also true that texting during the day could harm our ability to get a good night's sleep, according to a recent study in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

In the study, researchers followed the stress levels, texting habits and sleep of first year college students. They found that regardless of stress levels, the more people texted during the day the poorer their sleep was.

Your Posture is Suffering!

Texting can actually harm your whole body. “People get so focused on these devices that they end up holding their neck and upper back in abnormal positions for a long period of time; enough that other people coined the phrase ‘text neck,’ which is essentially referring to postural pain,” Chris Cornett, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon and spine specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation, said in a statement.

Want to counteract the effect of all this stooping and texting? Cornett recommends trying to bring your phone to eye level while you use it or actually training for your endurance texting with back, neck and core strengthening exercises. Oh, and give your phone a rest!


It Disrupts Your Driving!
Hopefully you know by now that you can't text and drive (since it's the law and all), but an astounding 80 percent of college-aged drivers admit to engaging in this behavior, despite knowing how dangerous it can be.

You are 23 times more likely to crash if you're texting behind the wheel, according to a federal report. And cell phone use was associated with 18 percent of "distraction"-related deaths.

It makes you a less responsible pedestrianEven if you aren't driving, your texting could be a liability to the people around you. A study in the British Medical Journal found that one in three people are distracted by mobile devices while walking and that texting was the most distracting of all the mobile activities -- including listening to music and talking on the phone.

The researchers observed more than 1,000 pedestrians during rush hour in Seattle and recorded their phone habits and safety precautions as they crossed traffic junctions. They reported that texting pedestrians were almost four times more likely to ignore traffic lights, fail to look both ways at a cross and to cross outside of the demarcated crosswalk.

Your school or work performance will suffer
Your texting could be holding back your productivity at work or school. According to one study of college students, female first year students spend an average 12 hours texting and engaging in social media -- and extensive media use is associated with lower academic performance.

"We found women who spend more time using some forms of media report fewer academic behaviors, such as completing homework and attending class, lower academic confidence and more problems affecting their school work, like lack of sleep and substance use," study researcher Jennifer L. Walsh, Ph.D., of The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, told ScienceDaily.

But it isn't just college students who face texting distractions. A study conducted at the University of Michigan found that short interruptions at work -- even just the duration of reading or sending a text -- can increase the number of errors a worker makes during a single task, reported HealthDay. 

So, how to break the vicious cycle and dependency on our smartphones?

Well, you don't have to just stop using your phone all together, it was meant for convenience, scheduling, management, and organization. And there is no reason to stop using your phone for the fun things it provides, like snapchat, social media, blogging, and Candy Crush. 

As with everything, balance is key. 

Should you find yourself checking your phone every five minutes, in the middle of the night, or letting it distract you from schoolwork and class, then you should turn off your notifications, turn on airplane mode, or put it out of reach (such as zipping it into your book bag out of immediate reach). Or, better yet, design a cell phone-free zone, such as when you're at your desk, or when you enter the quiet floor at the library.

It's good to stop and smell the roses. By distancing yourself from your phone you can take a break and thoroughly de-stress. No one can reach you, and you can just relax. Trust me, you won't miss much of anything of what's going on in the world.