Let’s face it. We can’t survive without our smartphones even for some hours. The smartphones have become an integral part of our lives and even worse for some people who would rather look into their phones than have a conversation with a real person. Smartphone Addiction or Nomophobia is a real thing that many people especially teens suffer nowadays. A research suggests that more than 50% of the teen today agree to be addicted to their smartphones. There have been other surveys that have found that 87% of young adults carry their smartphones wherever they go and more than 80% of them check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up.

These figures are very alarming and prove that the smartphone addiction is rising among the young adults. Are you one of the people who is addicted to the smartphone? Here are some of the signs that you’re addicted to your smartphone.

Signs that you have smartphone addiction

• You check your smartphone the moment you wake up.
• When your phone is not around, you feel anxious and get stressed out.
• You check your phone frequently even if it’s not needed.
• You’re always online on your social media accounts through your phone.
• While reading this article you’ve checked your phone at least one.

Ways to get rid of smartphone addiction

Once you admit that you’re addicted to your smartphone, no need to panic. Here are some steps that could help you get rid of your smartphone addiction.

Don’t set unachievable goals initially, when you start

This is a common mistake that most people trying to get rid of smartphone addiction do. Let’s be practical, not touching your smartphone at all is not going to be possible in any way. Over the course of the day, you’ll receive calls and texts that you cannot leave unattended. This is why you need to make sure that you set yourself a proper goal. Try starting slowly and then once you gradually improve focus on the bigger but feasible goal. Remember, a smartphone is still an important and useful device that performs many of your day-to-day works.

Turn off your smartphone before you go to sleep

Most people have this habit of going to sleep with their smartphones, which most of the times result in them checking the smartphone at odd times of the night. This means that your brain doesn’t receive proper rest and you feel tired all day. You might think that putting your phone to silent mode will help you, but that’s not the case every time. The vibrating phone and the blinking lights are still harmful, as is knowing that you’re just a small distance away from your phone. Remember, nomophobia never sleeps and neither lets you sleep.

This is why switching your smartphone completely might take your attention away from the phone. Making this a habit might have a wonderful effect on your smartphone addiction and help you psychologically to take some time away from them.

Customize the notifications on your smartphone

The thing that prompts you to check your smartphone all the time is the notifications. They are the primary reason why most people check their phones. People get distracted from the continuous notifications that they receive from social media applications. However, the more often you check your phone, the more it becomes a habit that leads to smartphone addiction.

The best way to stay away from this is by limiting the number of notifications that you get on your phone. It’s best to stop the notifications from social media applications and other applications that are not important. This will make sure that all your attention is not on your smartphone all the time. The ]only apps that you might consider keeping notifications for might be your texting app, email app, and your calendar app.

Set certain time intervals to check your phone

Once you’re through the initial challenges of getting rid of your smartphone addiction, you can set time intervals in which you can check your phone. For instance, you can check your smartphone for 5-minutes before sitting down to work, but then you need to hide your phone away for an hour unless you get an important call. After the hour you can again check the phone for 5 minutes and then keep it away. This cycle of working and taking short-gaps at regular intervals will help you get rid of your smartphone addiction. If you want you can even increase the time limit where you don’t see or touch your phone.

Additionally, once the day is over you can give yourself a set length of time in which you can check your phone, and maybe after dinner, you can check your phone for about 10 minutes. This will help you a great deal in getting rid of your smartphone addiction.

Go phone-free sometimes

It’s observed that people care about their smartphones more than their personal life. There have been instances where friends meet-up and instead of having conversations they tend to stay on their phones most of the time. This is not recommended at all. You should go phone-free sometimes, like when you’re with your friends or with your family. This will help you bond better with your friends and family and also will have a peaceful effect on your mind. Remeber, no phones is bed as well.

Take a break from social media for some time

This might be very tough for anyone to follow, but if you want to reduce your smartphone addiction it’ll be of great help. Most of the people addicted to their smartphones are researched to spend most of their times browsing through their social media accounts. This is why it might not be a bad idea to take some time off the social media account. Once you’re out of the addiction to checking your social media accounts every 15 minutes or hour, you can again join back and make sure that you take a notice of the time you spend on them.

These are some of the best and effective tips that could help you get away from Nomophobia.

Also Read: Speedup Internet : Tips to Boost Computer’s Internet Speed

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