What bond do you have with your phone? How much time do you spend watching gadgets every day? You are not the only one who is concerned about how high the number is.
Smartphone accessibility, continuous notifications and dependency on social media are constant sources of overload and distraction.
We still don’t fully understand how all of this new technology will impact us.
Chat apps, social networking and other new technologies all have their drawbacks. They can be useful tools, but they can also drain your energy and leave you feeling emotionally drained, anxious and preoccupied.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of modern technology is notifications.
We like to learn about likes, retweets, breaking news and crime in our area. We also want to know when someone messages us. The distinctive small beeps that each app uses to alert us when something happens, however, are a constant source of distraction.
These little notifications are quite challenging on smartphones. It is simple to check your phone during a meeting to see who has texted you on Chat or WhatsApp or to find out what the buzz is about.
Additionally, constant notifications make you multitask more frequently than ever. You force your brain to multitask every time you pick up the phone while you are in a meeting, on the phone or working on something else. But multitasking is not always good.
Another helpful rule to apply is to be intentional about when you keep your phone out (and on) versus when you put it away so you can focus. If your phone is in your purse, bag or at your desk during an important meeting, it can’t buzz and pull you out of an important moment.
When you are working on something that demands your full attention, consider placing your phone out of the way; put it in a bag, on your desk or simply in airplane mode for some time.
Awareness is an important part of managing your relationship with technology. If you don’t know how it is affecting you, you can’t do much about it.
But there is another way you can fight against these strong persuasive design strategies and that is by controlling what shows up in your feed in the first place.
Technology is an inseparable part of most of our lives, so rather than avoiding it, embrace the opportunity carefully.
