Mental health and the iPhone

The effect of smartphone usage on our mental health; through the eyes of a frequent user.

Reading time: 4.73 minutes

Technology, social media and the iPhone; three of the most commonly used words of our century. The iPhone has undeniably contributed to a series of significant enhancements, including the ease and length of our lives. The question that arises is: has it also improved our life’s quality, our happiness and most importantly our mental health?

Part of our vision at selfsquared is to increase mindfulness in our daily activites to be more focused and present in the moment while minimising stressors and anxieties.

In this short article, I’ll share some of my thoughts on the effect that iPhone usage has on our daily anxiety levels.

I’m fairly certain that we’ve all experienced the scenario of sitting at a dinner table feeling quite annoyed at the one person who is constantly focusing on their phone (aggressively checking for new notifications every 35 seconds). The best case scenario is that you are sitting on the large aforementioned table and simply ignoring them. The worst-case scenario… - this happens on a date! Well… truly no one wants to have dinner with that person.

Recent studies exploring adults’ behaviours have shown that on average we check our phone screens about 450 times per day; which means that we spend more than a full hour per day just staring at our lock screen.

The reason for this high frequency of checking is that everything we possibly need is nowadays found in our phones. Namely, we use our screens to find the best route to get to work, book flight or train tickets, look at photo memories and maintain social connections. Most importantly our phone is the primary medium to hear about good or bad news. Therefore, the habit of checking our screens is linked to our primitive survival instinct. If we lose our phone while being away from home we may not be able to make a payment, get to work, do our work, meet with others or find our way back home. It’s truly stressful to just think about how much of our lives depend on this one little device.

By constantly being on our phones we lose the sense of the here and now. We either end up focusing on the future by anticipating a response, a text message, a call, a like or a tweet, or we focus on the past: scrolling through our photo albums, reading old texts or goofing through others’ social media profiles. But, what about the present? How can we focus on this moment? As you’re reading through this article (probably through your phone) have you been noticing what’s happening around you? Have you noticed whether it’s cold or hot or bright or dark? So much of the present goes unnoticed.

I recently attended a weekend-long gathering where there was a no-phone rule (no phones were allowed). I truly cannot explain how different people’s behaviours, moods and social skills were. Without noticing it, everyone participated in a social experiment of being forced to be present at the moment, without caring about filming a pointless 5-minute-long video, of their favourite song (which they would never re-watch) or without thinking about which ootd photo they would post on social media (which no one would have probably cared about, anyway). The focus of the weekend, was rather on having interesting conversations, living in the moment and making real memories that were vividly encoded in our brains.

On a more personal note, for a few months now, I’ve purposely been forcing myself to take “device breaks” (meaning that I’d try to spend a few hours a day without a laptop or phone or TV, or any kind of screen). I’m not saying that I manage to do this religiously every single day, but on the days that I do, I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my ability to focus, productivity (knowing that I can focus on myself without any distractions) and well-being.

Some points for reflection…

Who has not experienced anxiety, when their partner, friend or family member has not responded to their text message within five minutes? Who has not been stressed when someone’s location becomes unavailable on Find My Friends? Who has not been annoyed when they’ve been trying to reconfirm a meeting’s time and place for the 10th time within the same hour? What’s the point of this overcommunication? Didn’t it all use to be more stress-free in the past? Unfortunately, our generation (and the generations after ours) will never know how that was. I did, however, ask my dad last week and he confirmed that everything worked out just fine for him in the 70s, without an iPhone. In fact, his stress levels, sense of direction and quick maths skills are 10x better than mine, most likely because he used to practice those skills.

Another aspect of the iPhone’s constant usage is the habit of multitasking. People nowadays have been looking at their maps apps, changing their Spotify playlists and sending voice notes on WhatsApp while driving - all the time. Research actually suggests that multitasking decreases productivity by 40% compared to single-tasking and significantly reduces our ability to focus on important tasks. This leads to counter productivity both for personal and professional tasks. The human brain is by nature designed to single task, so when we attempt to use our phones while performing physical everyday tasks, our attention keeps switching from task to task almost every split second. This constant brain multitasking activity is exhausting and has been proven to be ineffective and psychologically draining.

On the other hand, smartphones have made the impossible, possible. So, let’s not be too critical. Travelling to the other side of the world with zero planning ahead, connecting with our loved ones internationally and getting real-time access to news globally, would have never been possible without our smartphones. Outside of that, hundreds of professionals now work through their phones and are able to make a living because of them.

The bottom line is: unless you absolutely and undeniably need to be checking your phone for work-related purposes, my advice would be to give the above article some thought and think about what amount of your daily phone checking is actually and truly needed. It may also be helpful to assess the effect that extended screen usage might have on you personally. As a next step, try to take a few hour-long device breaks over the next couple of days and take note of any changes or improvements you may experience in your anxiety and stress levels over time.

At selfsquared we aim to identify any negative behaviours that are causing anxiety or that are increasing our stress levels, while being fully commited to work with you towards transforming those habits to more positive ones. 

- Christie