Has your time on the phone or with other electronic devices taken over your life? Are you addicted to your smartphone? Going to bed, the bathroom and lunches-dinners with your phone?
You can go to some online apps that will show you just how much time you spend on these devices. Smartphone addiction is known as “nomophobia, simply the fear of being without your phone. Overuse of the internet is a real addiction disorder. Checking and rechecking your electronic devices, like your breathing fresh air may show you have a technological addiction, and no matter what your age, sex or race may be, technology can and has acquired your attention greatly.
What can you do to deal with this problem? First recognize you indeed have a problem. Then you can follow a few of these suggestions:
a, Turn off your alerts. You can ignore your phone if it is not alerting you every other minute. If you cannot miss any alerts no matter how long you wait pass the phone onto a trusted partner who can take a message for you. Setting your phone into a mode that only alerts you of super-important messages is key.
b Put a rubber band onto the device, there to remind you of your problem, and the need to plan personal time from technology.
c. Instead of using the phone as an alarm clock, which could lead you into multi-tasking in the middle of the night, buy a single-use alarm clock.
d. Go cold turkey by staying off for set periods of time.
e. Plan for tech-free time. 2-3 days at a time perhaps. Set rules stating no tech allowed when eating, sleeping and playing about. Plan some offline fun time. Encourage others to do the same.
f. Create no phone or tech zones within your home, workplace and community and do not disturb anyone who is participating in tech-free time.
g. GET RID of APPS. They keep an eye on you and alert you with promotion upon promotion(Big Brothers watching you). A silenced electronic device is a money-saving device.
h. Manage all your expectations. Message expectations can and do lead people to spend their money, and waste their precious time.
Even those who must have their phones on at all times can let the Boss know that there is business time and personal time. Don’t let one impose itself upon the other.
The common adage claiming that technology is a tool that will make your life easier and better is a fool’s expectation and a tech salesperson’s promotional dream. Technology, like all other things, can take your life over, transform and manipulate it and not benefit you.
High Technology is the pusher man I am speaking of here. And you know what they said in the earlier part of this century right? “God damn the pusher man, he cares not for you, just wants to take your revenue”. Good luck.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
