It is undeniable that many of us spend a significant portion of our lives staring at devices, particularly smartphones. What is undeniable is that some of those pursuits can lead us down a time-sucking rabbit hole. According to Pew Research Surveys from 2021 and 2022, 31% of US adults and 46% of US teens claim they are “nearly always” connected to the internet.
What is the limit? It’s not always easy to tell. But, there are situations when the solution is far more evident. It was intended for Jerome Yankey. He was a student in college when he realized his usage of social media, notably TikTok, had become troublesome.
“It just kind of started to really wear on me physically first, I think, because that was when I was just scrolling for hours, not going to sleep – it was taking hours out of my day. I wasn’t really doing much else in my free time,” he explained.
When the toll switched from physical to mental, quashing his creativity and altering his sense of worth, he realized he needed to quit. And he did it cold turkey, which was no easy task.
Yankey is far from alone. According to the 2022 Pew Research Study of American youth, 67% use TikTok, with 16% using it “very daily.” This figure is much higher among 95% of adolescent YouTube users, with 19% using it “nearly regularly.”
Is it possible that I’m addicted to smartphones?
For the time being, internet addiction is not a recognized clinical diagnosis. There are still many issues over whether it is a mental health problem in and of itself or whether it is part of another mental health condition.
There are additional concerns concerning how it should be defined, measured, tested, and treated.
Most experts believe, however, that whether it is a true “addiction” or something else, excessive screen time can be harmful, particularly for children.
Here is when Dr. Michael Rich enters the picture. Rich, a self-described “mediatrician,” treats young kids with problematic media use at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center for Interactive Media Disorders (which he co-directs).
“Where the problem comes in is when their day-to-day functions are impaired in some way,” he said. “They’re not getting enough sleep. They are overeating. They are missing school or falling asleep in school. And they are withdrawing from their friends.” He prefers to avoid the addiction model. It is undeniable that many of us spend a significant portion of our lives staring at devices, particularly the addiction model.
“We as a society use the term addiction as a pejorative. We think of addicts as weak people with weak character … and we approach addiction, frankly, still as something to be punished rather than healed,” he said.
Rich also believes that technology does not create his patients’ problems, but rather exacerbates them. And he takes an unusual approach to assisting his young patients, many of them are dealing with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or just plain old stress. Listen to how they learn how to wean themselves off their smartphones and embrace a healthier connection with their electronics.
