Phone Addiction

Today I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by my neighbor about an issue, after the the issue was solved I found myself scrolling through my phone till morning light. I keep postponing the time to put phone down with every scroll, it took me 3 hours later to stop. This is almost my story everyday, just a different time of day. The average time is spend per day is

The pattern is usually Instagram posts, shorts, status and reels, then YouTube shorts scrolls and full videos, then Tiktok, then WhatsApp statuses; review of both my statuses and other people’s. There is a time I had all people’s numbers deleted just to not view their statuses. Overtime I have accumulated saved contacts again and I am back. The mute button just doesn’t do it for me. This is just the tip of the iceberg…

Gabor Mate defines addiction as any behavior that gives one temporary relief, temporary pleasure, but in the long term causes harm, has some negative consequences and you can’t give it up, despite those negative consequences.

Based on this I am definitely addicted to my phone, it is a struggle I am trying to overcome. I have ideas about where to start but I don’t have enough desire or willpower to remove myself, the habit by now is deeply engrained in me.

This is where I am now. The phone is an easy sale to my psyche because it has both crucial utility but also the detriments all at the same time. So it is hard to put it aside. An instance is that Instagram and Tiktok has educative content on fitness which is essential for my career as a fitness trainer but is also has junk media. 1 out of every 6–10 pieces of content is relevant to my career. The cost benefit analysis doesn’t add up at the end of the day. The solution to this is to follow, comment, share and like more content in my field to get the algorithms to be on my favor. I will implement these