Your entire world revolves around it, whether it’s your work email, online schedules, shopping or social media.
There can be a downslide to this reliance. Research shows your phone and social media use can lead to addiction, depression and anxiety.
Wallace Jackmon, PhD, LCSW-PIP, Avera Medical Group psychologist, has been studying the link between smartphone apps and a higher risk of anxiety and depression for more than 10 years.
What was once a fear is now a known issue, Jackmon said. “Now we know there’s a correlation between anxiety and depression and accessing certain social media sites,” he says. “It’s causing problems for people’s mental health and leading to increased suicide, kids dropping out of school and interpersonal relationships, not to mention the political ramifications and how that can cause division among families.”
Many countries and organizations are taking action.
- The U.S. Surgeon General in 2023 issued a health advisory warning about the risk of harm social media poses to youth mental health.
- School districts are limiting or banning phones at school.
- Other countries, most recently Australia, have implemented social media bans for teens.
Social Media Consumes Hours of Every Day
Smartphone apps can be addictive because of “intermittent reinforcement,” similar to gambling in a casino. In other words, you get continual feedback and intermittent rewards, and you want more, Jackmon said.
“There’s an end to a book or a movie, but social media never ends. That hardwires the brain that ‘I want to keep using it…and get to the end of it,’” Jackmon said.
This is enhanced by the fact that many people need their phones for work. When you check a work email, how often does that lead to some other type of scrolling?
An estimated 97% of American’s own a smartphone. Here’s what research says about the average person’s phone use.
- Checks their phone more than 180 times a day and swipes it 2,617 times.
- Spends five hours a day on their phone.
- 87% sleep with their phones in their bedroom.
- Checks it in the bathroom, on dates, even at stoplights or while driving,
How Phone Use Affects Our Day
Our increased connection to our phones has widespread impact, from physical effects to mental health and productivity.
The Physical Effects
Smartphones can interrupt sleep patterns, in particular if you use your phone before bed. This can increase the risk of insomnia and decrease the amount of sleep you get.
It can also put you in harm’s way if you’re using your phone while driving. About 26% of accidents are caused by cell phone use, according to the National Safety Council.
Productivity
Think of how many times you check your phone for work and then end up checking Instagram or Facebook. One quick task can lead to lost minutes throughout the day, Jackmon said.
Even after you get back to the task at hand, it can take several minutes for focus to return to the level it was before you checked your phone. A study from the University of California, Irvine found it can take as much as 23 minutes to refocus for more difficult tasks.
Our Relationships
We’ve all been at a restaurant and looked around only to see entire tables looking down at their phones vs. having a real conversation. We’re choosing our phones over more productive relationships, which can leave us feeling isolated. But moreover, online relationships aren’t always real, and in many cases, you don’t even know if it’s a real person.
Depression and Anxiety
“If a person is already suffering from depression, it will increase depression. Period. It’s not even a question,” Jackmon said. That’s because symptoms of depression like indecisiveness and poor concentration, are things correlated to phone use.
Not to mention, negative content breeds a negative outlook.
“It’s kind of like a computer program,” Jackmon said. “If you program bad information into your software it’s not going to produce, good, positive feedback. Ingesting all that negativity is going to increase negative outcomes.”
Symptoms include loss of sleep, inability to concentrate, loss of interest and thoughts of suicide. Serious symptoms of anxiety and depression shouldn’t be ignored. Find an Avera Behavioral Health provider near you.
That occurs in a few different ways.
Unrealistic Expectations and Always on Content
- Scrolling influencer content, looking at beautiful meals, seemingly perfect families and high-priced homes can make you feel like a failure even though in most instances the content is highly curated and unrealistic. That can decrease self-esteem, which is also a symptom of depression, Jackmon explained.
- The 24/7 availability of news can make you feel personally involved in a national or world crisis and keep you focused on bad news, creating fear and uncertainty of the unknown.
- Fear of missing out is another effect of 24/7 content creation that increases anxiety. You don’t want to miss the latest Tik-Tok trend or a Snap from a friend.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is still a real thing that can cause, anxiety and depression and lead to suicide. And it can occur in seemingly mundane interactions on social media. The readiness to attack a person in comments creates anxiety of what you want to share online.
“Bullying before was one-on-one,” Jackmon said. “Now it can spread across the entire nation.”
For kids, cyberbullying or social media experiences can affect their developmental milestones and determine their identity.
How to Have a Healthy Relationship With Your Phone
This constant connectivity is a reason flip phone sales are increasing. People are looking to disconnect themselves, literally. Other ways to decrease dependence include:
- Delete apps from your phone so they’re not easily accessible.
- Limit your phone use and your family’s screen time. Programs exist to automatically turn off access.
- Set limits to checking work email and related apps.
- Set boundaries for kids’ apps and accessibility to online conversations.
- Put phones away during important times, like mealtimes or family conversations.
- Don’t allow phones in the bedroom. Invest in an analog alarm clock.
How do you know when it’s a problem? Ask yourself these questions:
- Does it interfere with your thinking, sleep or behavioral patterns?
- Does it interfere with your interpersonal relationships?
- Does it keep you from being productive at work or in the classroom?
“It’s about being more aware and mindful of how your phone might be interfering in your life,” Jackmon said. Most of us aren’t able to entirely disconnect from our phones, but ask yourself, “Can you cut back?”
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Sources: reviews.org, American Academy of Sleep Medicine
