Do I have a phone addiction?

I can’t answer in a blog post if you have an addiction or not, but if you feel like you have to look at your phone every time it pings or rings, please consider some of the below:

Be Smart About Setting Cell Phone Boundaries for yourself
While the smartphone has made life easier for an awful lot of people, it has also created a world where we are expected to be connected and available at all times. There are many folks out there who consider it an insult if you do not respond to their calls or texts within a set amount of time. It’s an unfair standard to be held to, yet many of us feel pressured into taking those calls when all we really want is some downtime with no interruptions. To make matters worse, if the call comes in at a time when you are having a face to face conversation, then answering could be an insult to the person taking the time out to be with you, essentially placing you in a no-win situation.

It may sound like a rather old-fashioned way of thinking, but I believe that your attention should always be on the people who are in your presence at any given time (obviously there are safety precautions if your kids are calling, etc). If you have a spouse or loved one who is constantly on the phone when you are trying to connect, how does that make you feel. It almost certainly makes you feel as though the person on the phone is more important than you are. This is why so many businesses now state that they will not serve you if you are trying to order or perform a transaction while on your phone. Some of them even have signs “we don’t have wifi…. Talk to EACH OTHER”.

There needs to be boundaries set when talking about how much access a person should have to you via your smartphone. Put it this way, if you were to call a business outside of their regular operating hours, would you expect anyone to pick up? Furthermore, would you event think about calling a business that you knew had already closed for the day? The answer to both of those questions is no, yet we still feel obligated to pick up calls and texts from friends and loves ones who probably already know that we just want to chill out and relax.

The simple solution here is to place boundaries on when we accept calls from friends and family over the phone. Initially, this is going to be easier said than done, as there will be some who feeling you are setting these boundaries as some sort of punishment to them. We are all so attached to our phones and connected all the time that the thought of someone not wanting to be a part of that, even for a short time, feels a little alien.

Explain to people that you need your downtime, as well as actual physical time with the people you live with and love. If your contacts fail to pay attention to your requests, get in the habit of either shutting the phone off or setting up a message that says you are unavailable to take calls. People will quickly start to learn when you are and are not available to talk, much in the same way as we discussed with business hours, and they will accept those boundaries.