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Rethink your relationship with your phone Here’s how you can win the battle against over-connectedness
constant pull, calling out to us, demanding our attention. The never-ending notifications keep us coming back for more, and social feeds that are constantly being updated give us a fear of missing out on something important. Sometimes, it can all get a bit overwhelming. Our phones are not just a time-suck, but can affect us in ways that might not necessarily be clear to us at the time. Our reliance on our devices, and the feeling of round-the-clock connectedness, can impair our ability to concentrate, think creatively, interact in a social setting, and can even take a toll on our mental health. But how can we limit this gravitational pull on our attention and pursue a more minimalist relationship with our devices? We can start by looking at the different ways that constant connectedness can impact us. APP NOTIFICATIONS ARE THE MOST COMMON WAY THAT WE GET DRAGGED BACK INTO OUR DEVICES AND SUCKED DOWN A RABBIT HOLE- THE MOST EFFECTIVE OF EXTERNAL TRIGGERS.
by ROB MCGOVERN
L
ook around you for a moment: chances are, if you are in a public setting at least, that most people near you will be staring into a smartphone screen. Heads bowed. Protecting their device for dear life. Hypnotized by whatever happens to be on the screen at the time. It’s a defining characteristic of modern life- a visitor
50 / E N T R E P R E N E U R . C O M / March 2019
from the past would be forgiven for thinking that the earth had become inhabited by a population of zombies controlled by a 6x3-inch slab of glass. Most of us will admit to being guilty of spending too much time with our heads buried in our smartphones. With access to a seemingly infinite amount of content, and social validation on tap, our smartphones are a
GETTING HOOKED Our smartphones have a hold over us, even when we are not directly giving them our attention. A recent study by a team at the University of Chicago found that merely having your smartphone on the table in front of you can lead to a small but statistically significant impairment of cognitive capacity, similar to the effects of lacking sleep. The closer the device is, the more noticeable the decrease in brain power. The more heavily the user relies on
their phone in their everyday lives, the greater the impact on cognitive capacity they suffer with it nearby. Even when our device is out of sight, knowing that a potential call or notification could arrive at any time can cause our minds to wander, and can negatively impact our performance on tasks that require sustained attention. When a device does beep or buzz during a challenging task, it causes our focus to waver, and our work gets sloppier. If we are not in a position to respond to the device immediately, our blood pressure spikes, our pulse quickens, and our problemsolving skills decline. Even just suppressing the desire to check our phone can hinder our thinking, and we do this routinely and subconsciously throughout the day. Our brains are constantly subconsciously listening out for a notification, and sometimes they even fabricate them. If you’ve ever felt a “phantom buzz,” you have experienced this first hand. Whether we’re by ourselves and just plain bored, in the middle of a challenging task at work, or with our friends or family, our smartphones have a hold on us that is increasingly unhealthy. All this is not just by chance, but a product of tech companies’ careful efforts to maximize the amount of time users spend on their platforms. In today’s attention economy, most digital platforms prosper based on how much time we spend using them, which means that they are strongly incentivized to keep us hooked. They do this by taking advantage of our natural impulses and psychological dependencies to feel connected and make sense of our environment.
