Creating Inner Wellness: 5 Reasons to Put Down the Phone
Just one sec…
If you’re reading this article (probably on your phone), then chances are that you’ve grown up sometime in the era in which smartphones went from technological obscurity to complete ubiquity. I personally got my first cell phone around 1998, among the most memorable being my clunky but sturdy-as-a tank Nokia 3310. Then the era of social media appeared in the early 2000’s and before we knew it, by the 2010’s we all had a large screen smartphone with us at all times.
Along with the development of the hardware, the social media companies themselves began to compete with each other with increasing resources and complex strategies; with one single endgame- how to get your eyes on their app for more and more time per day, largely in order to increase their income through ad revenue.
Most of us witnessed the unfolding of this dynamic, but awareness doesn’t always lead to action. In this day and age, 2024, especially after the prolonged indoor period we all had to go through due to Covid, many of us are still unaware of the extent of which we are addicted to our phones as well as the negative repercussions this has. Here are 5 reasons to put down the smartphone and some practical strategies for how to do so.
Neck forward, shoulders hunched. Look familiar?
1. Poor Posture
Let’s start with the simplest and most obvious- we are bodyworkers after all. When we’re on our phones, our neck is craned downwards, and we tend to accentuate the slumping forward of our shoulders / shortening of our pectoral muscles — the type of posture that can easily lead to Turtle Neck or Upper Cross Syndrome longterm. Moreover, we oftentimes lie in bed for long periods of time, holding the phone in odd positions while we bend our neck in unnatural angles. As a clinic of Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, and Massage therapists, we know firsthand how much this can wreak havoc on the muscles of your upperback and neck and ultimately affect your longterm posture as well.
one order of short attention span, please!
2. It’s rewiring your brain
Think about what is happening when you’re on your phone. It is almost never a single-minded, focused activity. A flash of one app, a notification from another, suddenly you remember to check a message that you forgot about— An important email comes, and you start writing a response but get distracted by an instagram advertisement that shows you a product you’ve been interested in for months. This chaotic medley is by design; it represents all of the app companies vying for your time and attention, and they will do anything they can to get it.
What kind of effect will this have on your mind longterm? The younger you are, the greater your brain plasticity, and and the more susceptible to re-shaping your brain to operate in a certain, habitual way. Specifically, the “executive function” within your brain gets diminished- think of this like the CEO of your mind. The lower level employees do whatever they want all day, every day— maybe this is not bad occasionally, but in the long term, this leads to lack of planning and executing the tasks you need to do.
what’s your nighttime routine?
3. It’s not allowing you to relax
We check our phones first thing in the morning, and sometimes it’s the last thing we do right before drifting off into sleep. During the daytime, if there’s idle time during transit, we’re on our phones. If we’re eating alone, we’re on our phones. Taking a break from work? More than likely it’s phone-time again. See the pattern here? We fill all of the little moments that were previously meant to be restful with looking at our phones— and oftentimes, with highly stimulating media. Our ancient nervous systems are not updated to the happenings of modern day technology, and exciting videos and notifications on your smartphone are likely to put your nervous system into a near constant state of “fight/flight” or Sympathetic Arousal. This can be particularly relevant for those with insomnia who stare at their phones directly before bed.
The view outside of the screen is always better
4. It’s preventing you from being present with your loved ones
We’ve all had a similar experience of trying to talk to someone who is checking their phone. They are half-listening to you and are pretending to be engaged, mumbling responses, not realizing when they don’t hear something, and not making any eye contact. It’s not a great feeling and sends a message that you are a lower priority than whatever is going on in their phones. If you’re a smartphone user, chances are you’ve been on the other end as well, without realizing it. When you are with your friends and family, being on your smartphone in their presence sends a strong message, one that is likely at odds with your true feelings towards them. In a meeting of adults it can be simply rude- but if you’re a parent raising children, think of the effect it might have: giving them the message multiple times per day that they are a lower priority than your smartphone. Not to mention the fact that they will likely follow in your footsteps and emulate your smartphone habits later on!
If you haven’t been fighting it, then it’s likely taken over already
5. It’s probably more severe than you think
Not to be all doom and gloom, but if this is the first time that you’re really thinking about the effects of excess smartphone usage in your life, and if you’ve never actively fought against it, then chances are that actually, it’s probably much more severe than you think. All of the apps and social media companies have turned this all into a science, almost an art form; farming our attention and our eyes, finding new and sly ways to get into our consciousness and stay there. It might be that you’re way deeper in the rabbit hole than you realize, unless you’re one of the minority that has superhuman mindfulness levels and have been aware of your smartphone habits this whole time.
Strategies for Recovery
We all need smartphones to some degree, and the point of this article isn’t that smartphones are evil or to get rid of them entirely; it is simply to raise awareness about the extent of how much we are addicted and the effects it can have on our lives. What are some specific strategies to help increase this awareness and encourage moderate, healthy smartphone use?
Built-in functions like Screen Time on iOS or Digital Wellbeing on Android devices help to monitor screentime, giving daily / weekly reports and setting limits of apps per day (let’s say you use Instagram for 2 hours a day and live 40 more years— that’s 3.3 YEARS of your life spent on Instagram. These daily app limits help you to zoom out and control how much of your life you actually want to spend on various apps)
Dedicated apps like Freedom- syncing with your computer, highly customizable, and can set regularly scheduled periods of app-free time to help you focus during the day as well as wind down at night. Not free, but well worth the price (40 bucks a year) for all the time you claim back.
Set rules for yourself for morning hours, sleep routines, and eating. These are the periods when our bodies need to be most relaxed and least stimulated, and staying away from the phone in these periods will help your sleep and digestion.
Get accountability from your friends and family. Tell them about your goals and how you want to be more mindful about your smartphone usage. Ask them to keep you in check if they see you glued to your phone at the dinner table. Sometimes you can’t do it all on your own and need an objective eye to keep you in line.
The first step to recovery can be admitting that there is a problem to begin with and this can often be the hardest part! Let’s all do our best to enter into a healthy, mindful relationship with our phones where we are in control, not the other way around, for our sakes as well as for our loved ones.
Sunjae Lee, ND MSOM
Sunjae Lee, is a US Naturopath and Manager at Create Wellness Center, a Sports Rehabilitation Center and US Chiropractic clinic for Expats in Seoul, Korea. He specializes in holistic approaches to functional digestive disorders, insomnia, stress management strategies, and more.