Sometimes it feels like our entire lives are tied to our phones – with everything from texts, emails, social media, calendars, music, and shopping lists stored on the devices.
A recent report by Data.ai finds that humans spend a combined 4.1trillion hours – or 470million years – staring at their phone screens in 2022.
While many see benefits in smartphones allowing a person to be connected to the rest of the world at any given time, research shows the devices could harm our mental and physical health.
It is estimated that Americans spend an average of five hours on their smartphone each day – and while some agree that is too much, the amount people should spend on the device each day is still up for debate.
Frequent use of smartphones has been linked to many potential harms. A 2017 study by Turkish researchers found that university students who were addicted to their phones are more likely to suffer from loneliness or aggression.
With loneliness comes mental health issues, and a 2021 study by Israeli researchers linked excessive smartphone use to anxiety, depression and related problems such as shyness and low self-esteem.
These participants were also more likely to report poor eating habits, further increasing their risk of suffering dietary conditions.
People addicted to their smartphones will also spend less time exercising and taking part in other physical activities – leading to reduced physical fitness levels, the same study finds.
Sometimes it feels like our entire lives belong to our phones – with everything from texts, emails, social media, calendars, music, and shopping lists stored on them
While some of these issues are directly related to use of social media apps like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, smartphone addiction is known to keep children inside and lead to the development of poor habits.
Blue light emitted by the devices is also known to cause issues sleeping – with experts warning smartphones are a key piece to a growing crisis of sleep deprivation among teens.
The prevalence of smart devices has also led to the phenomena of ‘iPad babies’ – children who spend nearly all waking hours attached to a screen.
These children will sometimes show addictive behavior at extremely young ages, with their being reports of violent, hours-long, tantrums from children who have devices removed from them
Some experts also fear this generation of children will have a harder time making friends when they grow up as they have under-developed in-person communication skills.
They also could suffer eye-sight issues at a young age from their constant staring at these screens.
Smartphones are relatively new devices to everyday life, meaning there is not much research into the most effective ways to stave off addiction.
Some experts say that hiding addictive apps, setting rules to discipline yourself and even taking a cold shower could help beat smartphone cravings.
