Yes, the increasingly cruel reality of the role smartphones play in our emotional experiences, how they accentuate our personality traits, and the ways they affect our work lives.

Excessive smart phone use leads to emotional problems

This finding stem from research at SUNY Binghamton where they found “depression, social isolation, social anxiety, shyness, impulsivity and low self-esteem. Females were mostly likely to exhibit susceptibility to addiction.” The researchers surveyed 182 undergraduate students by asking them questions about their smartphone use on a typical day. They then categorised the respondents based on their answers into the following categories. Thoughtful, Regular, Highly Engaged, Fanatic and Addict.

Smart phones are sneakily changing our morals

How you respond to an ethical dilemma requiring a quick decision (on something in either your work or home life where the stakes are high but the time frame for response is short) seems to depend on whether you are communicating your response on a smartphone or on a computer with a traditional keyboard. [This is not so good]. This study is out of London and was published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.

Older adults are adopting technology

  • Finally, A record share (42%) of senior citizens (65+) now own smartphones. While this may mean Grandma may not look at you but instead, text her friends furiously and update her Facebook status constantly, it also means, older Americans are likely to develop the same ambivalence with which many of us view our smartphones.

There’s a good chance you’re addicted to your phone. Worse, you’re letting it run your life. Think about it: How many times have you been late to dinner because your phone just had to charge? Then, how many dinners have you kind of ruined by checking your notifications throughout the meal?

  • Before you claim you’re just “really busy” and you need it on you at all times, see how many of these symptoms you recognize in yourself. (And then see all my awesome ideas to help you start relying less on it.)

You Sleep with It

You need an alarm clock, obviously. But is that really the reason your phone’s in your bedroom? Or, do you want to “just peek” at Twitter when you’re trying to fall asleep?

The fix

If you don’t want to buy an actual alarm clock or put your phone on the other side of the room-that’s Ok! -try OFFTIME. It lets you schedule times to turn off your apps. This way you can still get that landed-at-the-airport call from your significant other without ending up on Facebook for the next two hours.

You check it First Each Day

Do you reach for your phone before you even open to your eyes in the morning? Do you see news that instantly stresses you out? How about an email from your boss? If that sounds familiar, you may want to re-think how you’re starting your days.

The fix

Stayawayapp is an app that measures how much you use your phone and gently reminds you to keep your screen time under control. And, with Stayawayapp, you can set times (like when you normally wake-up) to disable the internet so you can start your day on the calmest note possible.

Read our other article on Are forgetting small things? The reason could be your smartphone

Check out our other blog posts here.