Nomophobia: Is Digital Detox the Only Way Out?

Gone are the times of heavy books and daily newspapers since each and everything is available right in our hands on a single screen. People are in that niche position in their lives wherein for very simple tasks also they are so much dependent on their phones starting from waking up in the morning to listening to songs to put down themselves to sleep. The moment we head out to work or anywhere else we switch on to Google maps and Instagram to post per diem activities and thus keeping us all the least verisimilitude. In order to portray ourselves very relevant over social media, we leave behind the thought of being relevant in our real lives. This has brought to a state where this has turned out to be a phobia named as “Nomophobia” (No-Mobile-Phone-Phobia). It is as serious as it sounds.

From the above pie chart, it is easily understood that even after understanding the detrimental effects of mobile phone addiction they just can’t give up. But we can’t blame the individual itself as the society these days is so compelling that not even the younger generation but their parentages are also a victim of it.

Nomophobia is not an independent or sovereign but leads to other problems like social anxiety or even PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in some cases.

Symptoms of Nomophobia 

Do you start panicking or taking stress when the battery of your phone goes down? Do you feel the separation anxiety, increased heart rate or pumping blood pressure when your phone is not nearby or taken away from you? If yes, then sorry my friend you might be one of the cases of Nomophobia. Although, it is a debatable discussion among the doctors that whether it should be considered as a phobia or stress disorder or addiction. But whatever it may be declared as it is not at all worthy and contradictory to a healthy lifestyle.

With each day passing, new applications, games, social media platforms are creeping up. The major reason for the escalation of this issue is the easy availability of low-priced internet services. Let see some more of the causes –

Probable Causes 

• Low Self-Esteem: The fear of isolation or loneliness mostly leads to low self-esteem and people want to be in continuous contact with others.
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)- This phenomenon is prominent among women and the teenage generation. It is basically the fear of missing out from the social events leading to anxiety.
• Low-Priced Internet Services- Easy availability of low-priced internet services have also increased the number of hours which people spend on their mobile phones. This all has heightened the competition among the people who are famous on these social media platforms.

Direct Impacts on the Human Physique 

1. Cervical Vertebrae Reverse Arch in the Neck Down Generation – Our human body requires a specific physical curvature. But these constant long hours spend on mobile phones have made an obligation for our generations to keep our necks down constantly. This has increased the stress in the lower cervical vertebrae which has so many adverse effects. These are the major causes of spondylitis. Long time internet surfing leads to cervical pain and reverse bow of the curve.

2. Physiological Cycle Disturbed – Our ancestors used to follow a set biological clock which was healthy for our body and kept our body going on the whole day without any fatigue. Lying down on the bed we just forget to keep track of the number of hours we have spent just surfing shopping websites or chatting unnecessarily. It has been researched that an hour spent on phones during night time decreases the melatonin level up to 22%. Melatonin plays an important role in regulating our sleeping cycles. During the night time, our body should ideally produce more melatonin but unfortunately due to our stretched mobile usage, it is not happening.

3. Increased Risks of Brain Tumors – We could not have imagined that using mobile phones can lead to brain tumors at any time. But this has not happened suddenly, like other things it has also happened gradually. It all started with changes in brain activities and sleeping patterns as earlier mentioned. The radiofrequency radiation emitted by cell phones and the bodies receiving them can absorb the energy. With time the time spent over phone calls has also increased despite the proliferation of other chatting mediums. The frequency with which these are emitted has the potential to cause cancer.

Why is it that people can’t keep themselves away from these social media platforms? What’s so addictive about these?

Are these the real questions or one should contemplate that are they deriving any real pleasure out of it. The modern way of living the life has instilled this myth in the millennials’ minds that posting our lives over social media is so important. Prima facie who cares that what you ate for the dinner tonight?

But still we should appreciate for the recent steps taken by these social media platforms. To know about these steps kindly also read this article https://go4hosting.com/blog/internet/social-media-ptsd-how-are-social-media-giants-dealing-with-the-neck-down-generation

Nomophobia Statistics 2019

Nomophobia treatment comes out from ourselves only. Digital detox is the only solution to reach Nirvana amidst this chaos.

Let’s catch up with some of the ways through which digital detox can be accomplished –

1. Start finding answers from the surroundings- It would sound dumb to most of the readers, but when you open your smartphone to find the answer to a single question you naturally end up spending hours on it. It’s better to find solutions by discussing facts with people around you. With this, you might get to know more people and helps in building a community wherein one can share free information.
2. Try to Create Ways of Deriving Amusement in Real-Time- Rather than scrolling down the social media window, try finding out real pleasures that may help in building new abilities in you. Nothing can good out of liking and commenting on hundreds of pictures on Instagram or getting envied over holiday pictures of your office colleague on Facebook.
3. Adopt Rule of Thirds – This is a magic rule that involves 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours free. Working 40 hours per week would not improve your productivity but in fact, diminishes it. Because 30% of our work time we spend on our smartphones which is anyway of wasting a lot of your time and taking you directly on the path of Nomophobia.
4. Start Delegating Work to Alternate Sources- Some of the digital work can be delegated to alternate sources. I am pretty sure you might spend hours checking your work emails and sending replies. This time would increase exponentially if you are a business owner. For your email related work, you can find an efficient email hosting service in the market. They will take care of all your work-related emails and hence that time you can use for yourself and can digitally detox yourself.
5. Go Old-School Style- Remember your school days when you did not have any smartphones. Those were the happiest times of our lives. Try to take out time to relive those days. Catch up with your old friends rather than surfing nuisance shopping websites and window shopping. Go on excursions wherein the internet has not reached.

Hope these help you in reducing your time spend on your smartphones and more in building your personality in general. This is essential for healthy brain development and balancing your lifestyle. Start living in the moment and make memories in the present rather than overthinking about how to showcase your day or night the other day.