export_ofoct.com

[00:00.67] How would you survive without your smartphone?

[00:03.33] For many of us, it’s the gadget we’re most hooked on – looking at it hundreds of times a day.

[00:10.23] We depend on it to perform a multitude of tasks and to connect with our friends and family.

[00:17.67] But have we become addicted to our phones?

[00:21.92] Certainly, the inventor of the first mobile phone, American engineer Martin Cooper, thinks we might be.

[00:28.83] In a BBC interview, he suggested people should stop scrolling and “get a life”.

[00:35.47] But of course, once we start doom scrolling or watching videos, we just can’t kick the habit.

[00:43.17] Psychologist and author Jean Twenge says we’re all guilty of “compulsively checking [our] phone if [we’re] waiting for a text or getting really into social media then kind of, looking up and realising that an hour has passed.”

[00:59.37] There’s even a word – a phubber – to describe a person who ignores the real people around them because they are concentrating on their phones.

[01:08.40] But does it matter if we make the most of this technology?

[01:12.39] Possibly, because like a drug, the problem arises when it is withdrawn.

[01:19.29] A study from King’s College London found young people they studied couldn’t control the amount of time they spend on their phone.

[01:28.06] Such addictive behaviour means that people become ‘panicky’ or ‘upset’ if they are denied constant access, which can cause anxiety and mental health issues.

[01:39.22] Interestingly, another study by the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests we don’t just look at our phones because we are prompted to by a text or email.

[01:50.37] The people they studied felt automatically urged to interact with their phone, just as a smoker would light a cigarette.

[01:58.87] Prof Saadi Lahlou, co-author of the study, told the BBC: “We must learn tricks to avoid the temptation when we want to concentrate or have good social relations.”

[02:11.62] One solution could be an app that rewards students for time spent away from their phones.

[02:18.53] Another option is converting your smartphone to a dumbphone that has none of the intoxicating distractions on it.

[02:25.96] But mainly, perhaps, we just need to look up more and reconnect with the real world!