Is giving up your smartphone necessary for living the best life? Not necessarily, say, scientists from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) contend that a little reduction in screen time would benefit all of us.
According to estimates, the typical adult scrolls through their smartphone for roughly three hours every day. There is constantly something to hold our interest, thanks to social media, news feeds, limitless video games, and apps for pretty much anything else. Recent research has linked smartphones to a wide range of contemporary issues, including neck pain and increased anxiety rates. It raises the question of whether moving back to flip telephones and landlines would benefit everyone in general.
The study’s leader, Dr. Julia Brailoovskaia said that a smartphone could be both a curse and a blessing.
In order to get the explanation, the study’s authors gathered 619 individuals. The volunteers were divided into three groups: 200 people were instructed to stop using their smartphones completely, 226 to cut back by just one hour each day, and 193 to continue using them as usual.
Investigators also interviewed each individual one and four months after the study week finished to learn more about their general lifestyle habits and wellbeing. In more detail, researchers looked at how frequently participants exercised, how often they smoked each day, how content they felt with their life, and whether they experienced depression or anxiety.
Dr. Brailovskaia observed that both entirely giving up the phone and cutting daily usage by an hour had significant benefits on the participants’ wellbeing and lifestyle. These benefits even remained longer and were, therefore, more consistent in the group that cut back on their use than in the group that abstained.
Notably, respondents’ smartphone usage was altered for a week, and the effects seemed to stick. Subjects who were placed in the abstinence arm continued to use their smartphones for 38 minutes fewer each day on average four months later.