I decided to take a chance on going to a different library to study. As I almost ran into a car, staring at the oldest library in town, I circled, found parking and headed up towards the steps. As I entered, I whiffed the old stories and pages around me, and scarcely looked around. I was excited, the small quiet chatter, a silent action in front of me, and the old and new remastered building called for creativity. I brought my modern book, my laptop out, and then the dreaded battery with a red X appeared in the corner. I noticed that there were no outlets around here. I hadn't even taken a chance to look around. Maybe it was a blessing that my computer was on low battery, I could focus strictly on school stuff without the temptation of social media pawing at me. I was planning on being here for 2 hours anyway.
Then it hit me. How to unplug from technology. There were so many countless ways to go online to get things done. Quickly search and scan for things, and along the way say hi to a friend online. Would I become a victim of an electronic appendage -my phone.
Have you heard of nomophobia? “Nomophobia is considered a modern age phobia introduced to our lives as a byproduct of the interaction between people and mobile information and communication technologies, especially smartphones,” Caglar Yildirim.
“It refers to fear of not being able to use a smartphone ... [and] it refers to the fear of not being able to communicate, losing the connectedness that smartphones allow, not being able to access information through smartphones, and giving up the convenience that smartphones provide.”
Find out here if you're addicted to your phone with this self assessment adapted from the Huffingtonpost:
Are you a smartphone junkie? Rate each item on a scale of 1 (“completely disagree”) to 7 (“strongly agree”) and tally up your total score to find out.
1. I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone.
2. I would be annoyed if I could not look information up on my smartphone when I wanted to do so.
3. Being unable to get the news (e.g., happenings, weather, etc.) on my smartphone would make me nervous.
4. I would be annoyed if I could not use my smartphone and/or its capabilities when I wanted to do so.
5. Running out of battery in my smartphone would scare me.
6. If I were to run out of credits or hit my monthly data limit, I would panic.
7. If I did not have a data signal or could not connect to Wi-Fi, then I would constantly check to see if I had a signal or could find a Wi-Fi network.
8. If I could not use my smartphone, I would be afraid of getting stranded somewhere.
9. If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would feel a desire to check it.
If I did not have my smartphone with me ...10. I would feel anxious because I could not instantly communicate with my family and/or friends.
11. I would be worried because my family and/or friends could not reach me.
12. I would feel nervous because I would not be able to receive text messages and calls.
13. I would be anxious because I could not keep in touch with my family and/or friends.
14. I would be nervous because I could not know if someone had tried to get a hold of me.
15. I would feel anxious because my constant connection to my family and friends would be broken.
16. I would be nervous because I would be disconnected from my online identity.
17. I would be uncomfortable because I could not stay up-to-date with social media and online networks.
18. I would feel awkward because I could not check my notifications for updates from my connections and online networks.
19. I would feel anxious because I could not check my email messages.
20. I would feel weird because I would not know what to do.
How You Score:
20: Not at all nomophobic. You have a very healthy relationship with your device and have no problem being separated from it.
21-60: Mild nomophobia. You get a little antsy when you forget your phone at home for a day or get stuck somewhere without WiFi, but the anxiety isn’t too overwhelming.
61-100: Moderate nomophobia. You’re pretty attached to your device. You often check for updates while you’re walking down the street or talking to a friend, and you often feel anxious when you’re disconnected.
101-120: Severe nomophobia. You can barely go for 60 seconds without checking your phone. It’s the first thing you check in the morning and the last at night, and dominates most of your activities in-between.
Help! I may have nomophobia! Don't fret. Self Care Blog has found some very simple ways to help learn to unplug and get in touch with reality.
1 ) The easiest way (as you probably want to jump to) is to set all notifications on your phone OFF - not silent, not vibrate, not turning that little switch. It's that ring, or light that flashes up that is classical conditioning behavior. We turn instantly to our phone when we hear it; even when someone else's phone rings off, you almost want to reach to your phone to check your messages. Once you set the notification to off, you start lessening the need to look at it.
2) Have a lot of apps? Start organizing and placing them in folders. It turned out once I put my Iphone apps in folders like Utility, Games, School, Social Media it become more difficult for me to actually find what I needed! This was a good thing! The phone started to just have only once sense -just to make phone calls or send messages. Even if I had a question, I almost felt hassled to look through the apps to find what I needed, and someone else usually could access information around me through their phone.
3) If you can't part with your phone when you go to bed, which a lot of us have a hard time to do., you may want to try placing the phone at the other side of the room. That means place that charger opposite side of the room. When you get up, you are more likely to head straight to the bathroom to brush teeth, instead of mindlessly on your phone first thing of the morning. Remember in past posts about convenience, this is the perfect time to be inconvenient with the phone. Before eating lunch or dinner place it in your drawer, or a box and in another room so the family can eat and chat together versus the zombie phone faces during communal eating.
4) A friend of my suggested "don't charge the phone over night and leave it with whatever charge it has." It almost makes you want to conserve battery instantly and consciously aware to pace out the day. However, notice if you have anxiety about it and recognize what that means about your addiction to your phone. Do you feel anxious because you might miss out something? Or emergencies arise and you can't access your phone? Pay attention to those thoughts. What that means for you and how do you work on being okay if something bad happens? If you have mild anxiety, then the battery may become an easy way to loose the nomophobia mainly for the fact that your worrying about your phone has lessened.
5) Turn on grayscale or black/white on your. I did this and found my phone dull and boring of course and made the battery last forever. However, it did keep me from looking at it less frequently. Try it for a day and see if this works for you.
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